Skillet Mixed Grill of Pork, Turkey, and Bacon
Bacon rendered first, then boneless pork chops and thick ground turkey patties cooked side by side in the same fat until the chops are crusted and the patties are dark and springy, all of it plated together.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
A mixed grill is an old idea and a good one: several kinds of meat cooked together and piled on one platter, so a plate has variety without anybody cooking three separate dinners. I build mine around a single skillet and a single fat. The bacon renders first and comes out crisp, and everything that follows goes into the fat it left, which is the thread that ties the platter together. Pork chops and turkey patties want almost the same amount of time, so they go in side by side, and the pan is full and loud for about ten minutes and then dinner is done.
The pleasure here is the contrast between three textures on one plate. The chops come out firm and close grained with a real crust and a blush of pink at the center. The turkey patties are softer and springier and take on more color than you expect, because ground meat has all those loose surfaces to brown. And then the bacon, which is brittle and salty and shatters between your teeth. You get a bit of each in every few bites and none of it tastes like the others, which is the whole reason to cook three meats rather than one large piece of a single one.
I make this on nights when people want different things, or when the refrigerator has a little of several meats and not enough of any one. It scales down to two and up to six without changing anything but the number of rounds you cook, and the fat only gets better as the evening goes on. It is also a good way to teach somebody how to cook meat, since three cuts in one pan show you clearly how differently they behave, how differently they brown, and how much the fat underneath matters.
Ingredients
- 4 slices bacon (about 4 oz)
- 1 lb boneless pork chops (4 chops, about 3/4 inch thick)
- 3/4 lb ground turkey, formed into 4 thick patties
- 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
Instructions
- Render the bacon: Lay the bacon in a cold twelve-inch cast iron skillet and set it over medium heat, since fat renders out slowly from a cold start and the slices crisp evenly instead of seizing and curling. Give it eight minutes, turning once, until the fat has run out and the slices are stiff and mahogany at the edges. Lift them to a plate, because anything left in the skillet for the next fifteen minutes will have given up its crisp long before the platter goes out. You should be left with a good two tablespoons of clear, hot fat, and that is your cooking medium for everything else.
- Shape and dry the meats: While the bacon renders, form the ground turkey into four patties about three quarters of an inch thick and press a shallow dimple into the center of each so they cook flat rather than doming. Blot the pork chops dry on both faces with paper towel. Salt the chops and the patties, using all of the quarter teaspoon between them, since the bacon has already salted the pan.
- Bring the fat up to heat: Raise the heat to medium-high and let the bacon fat shimmer and move in a thin sheet across the pan, about a minute. It should not be smoking. Turkey and pork both want a pan that is hot enough to brown on contact but steady enough to cook them through in the same window, and that is a step below the temperature you would use for a steak.
- Cook the chops and patties together: Lay the chops down one side of the skillet and the patties down the other, keeping everything in a single layer with a little space around each piece, so that the pan stays hot enough to brown rather than filling with steam. Leave them undisturbed for four to five minutes. You want a loud, even sizzle the whole time. Turn each one once, and cook another four to five minutes on the second side.
- Check, rest, and pile it up: Pull the pork chops when an instant-read thermometer reads 145°F (63°C) at the thickest point and the turkey patties when they reach 165. The patties will feel firm and springy, and the chops should still have some give. Rest everything on a warm platter for three to five minutes, since the juices need that time to settle back into the meat, then lay the bacon over the top and spoon the pan fat over all of it.
Variations
- Swap the patties: Use ground beef, ground lamb, or ground chicken in place of the turkey, shaped the same way. Beef and lamb brown darker and hold more fat, so they need a minute less on the second side.
- Add an egg: Fry four eggs in the pan fat after the meat comes out and slide one onto each plate. This adds egg and makes it read more like a breakfast platter.
- Chops and steak: Trade the turkey patties for a sirloin steak cut into four portions, seared in the same fat over higher heat and pulled at 130°F (54°C) for medium-rare.
- Butter finish: Add a knob of butter to the skillet in the last minute and spoon the foaming fat over the chops. This adds dairy.
Storage & Leftovers
Everything keeps three to four days in the refrigerator, and I store the three meats in one container with the bacon on top so it stays out of the juices. Slice the chops before storing if you plan to eat them cold, and leave the patties whole so they hold their moisture.
Reheat in a skillet over medium heat with a spoonful of the saved pan fat, giving the chops about a minute a side and the patties two. The fat protects the surfaces while they warm. Reheated in a microwave, the pork tightens noticeably and the turkey goes spongy, so the pan is worth the extra few minutes.
This is also worth cooking deliberately for the leftovers. Sliced cold pork and cold turkey patty eat well straight from the container, and the bacon can be re-crisped in a dry pan in under a minute if it has gone soft overnight.
Notes & Tips
- Start bacon in a cold pan: Bacon dropped into an already hot skillet seizes and scorches before its fat has run. A cold start gives you crisp slices and a clean pool of fat to cook everything else in.
- Dimple the patties: A thumbprint pressed into the center of each turkey patty keeps it from swelling into a dome. Flat patties sit fully on the metal and brown across the whole face.
- Two zones, one pan: Keep the chops on one side and the patties on the other rather than mixing them. It makes turning quicker, and it lets you pull one group when it is done and leave the other.
- Rest before you pile: Give everything three to five minutes on the platter before the bacon goes over the top. Meat stacked straight off the heat steams itself, and the bacon underneath softens in seconds.
Nutrition & Mindful Eating
- Three meats and one fat is the shape of this platter. The bacon renders the medium everything else cooks in, the pork chops bring the firm, close-grained bite, and the turkey patties bring something softer and springier, so no two mouthfuls run the same.
- Pork chops cook fast and stay juicy when they come off at 145°F (63°C), and pork carries thiamin more generously than nearly any other food alongside its dense protein.
- Ground turkey has loose, torn surfaces all over it, which is why a patty browns so readily, and the meat brings protein with selenium and B vitamins folded in behind it.
- Bacon is the smallest item on the platter and the loudest. It supplies the rendered fat that seasons the pork and the turkey from underneath, and it comes back at the end as the brittle, salty thing you taste against two softer meats.
- A plate with three meats on it holds you well past the evening. Protein is doing most of that, and the rendered fat is what makes the whole platter taste of one thing rather than three separate pans.
- As you eat, move between the crusted chop, the springy patty, and the brittle bacon rather than finishing one before starting the next, and notice how much of the platter you actually want.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I cook all three meats at once?
The bacon has to go first, because its fat is what the other two cook in and because it needs a lower, slower start. The chops and the patties can absolutely share the pan, and they should, since they want almost the same time and temperature. Just do not crowd them together.
My turkey patties fell apart in the skillet. What went wrong?
Usually they were turned too soon. Ground turkey holds together once a crust has formed, so give it a full four minutes before you go near it with a spatula. Pressing the meat firmly into a compact patty and chilling the shaped patties for a few minutes also helps them hold.
Which pork chops should I buy?
Boneless chops about three quarters of an inch thick are the easiest to time alongside the turkey. Thinner chops finish long before the patties do, and a bone-in chop takes several minutes more, so if that is what you have, start the chops first and add the patties partway through.
Do I need a thermometer?
For pork especially, yes. There is a narrow window between a chop that is juicy at 145°F (63°C) and one that has gone dry and firm at 160, and it is very hard to judge by eye. Ground turkey should reach 165, which is easy to overshoot but not much of a loss.