Entertaining for the holidays can be a stressful time on its own, let alone when you are hosting a gathering at your house! Trying to perfectly time all of your food can just compound that stress even further. Hungry guests looming over your shoulder asking when the food will be ready, or maybe the sooner the food gets served means less time for your sister's four-year-old to terrorize your home. 

This recipe is a great alternative to making a whole turkey with all of the fixings, especially if you're only hosting a small crowd, just having a small intimate dinner with your favourite person, or you're flying solo.

We recommend serving these breasts (he he...) with a side of mashed potatoes and these Harvest Roasted Vegetables. A simple meal for an otherwise un-simple time of year. With all of your holiday fixings inside the roll up, you've got all of the foods everyone thinks of when they think turkey dinner just served in a non-traditional way.

Did we mention there's bacon in it? Sorry for burying the lead there.

A delicious stuffing bouncing with flavour from bacon, pecans, sage, cranberries and orange zest is wrapped in a butterflied turkey breast and secured with twine. (Remember when we said non-traditional?).

Sage and turkey just taste soooo good together - so naturally, it can be found in most turkey recipes. If you MUST have cranberry sauce or gravy with your turkey dinner go right ahead, but this recipe is an exploding flavour-bomb on its own so do so lightly. You can always add more later.You can also serve those sauces on the side in ramekins to dip into.

Cranberry Stuffed Turkey Breast Roll Up Recipe

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 6 strips of bacon, chopped
• 1 small yellow onion
• 1 stalk of celery
• 1 clove of garlic, smashed and minced
• 1 cup roughly chopped sourdough bread
• 1/3 cup dried, sweetened cranberries
• 1/4 cup chopped pecans
• 2 tbsp finely chopped fresh sage
• Zest of half an orange
• 1 boneless, skinless turkey breast
• 1 tsp grapeseed oil
• Salt and pepper

Instructions

1. Assemble your ingredients, and preheat grill to medium heat
2. Cook bacon until it's cooked through, and then get rid of excess grease
3. Chop onion, celery, and garlic and add it to the pan with the bacon. Cook until onions are translucent. About 5 minutes.
4. In a large bowl, mix the chopped bread, cranberries, pecans, sage and orange zest. Add bacon mixture, pepper and chicken broth. Mix and set aside.
5. Slice the turkey breast corss-wise and open it up. (Like a book... a poultry-themed book)..
6. Place the turkey-pedia between two sheets of parchment or wax paper and beat angrily with a mallet. Go on get out all your holiday stress. Now is the time to let off some steam. Really, just have at it.
7. Top the turkey novel with stuffing and spread it all out.
8. Roll it up. It's okay if it's messy. Seriously, don't lose it. Just keep calm and roll the damn turkey breast. Secure it with butcher's twine (see? It will hold itself together, so now you need to keep it together too.)
9. Brush the turkey roll with oil, season generously with salt and pepper, then wrap it in foil.
10. Grill on preheated grill for about 90 minutes, or until a thermometer inserted in the center reads 165. Remove the twine, slice it up and serve.