Trader Joe’s Uncured Peppered Turkey Bacon Review

Trader Joe’s Uncured Peppered Turkey Bacon Review – This is the product that you didn’t know you didn’t want. I have been hesitant to try this Turkey Bacon for a really long time. Turkey is nothing like pork and is usually very lean so I don’t know how there would ever be enough fat in this to make it palatable. I reviewed the Beef Bacon years ago and found it pretty awful. At least beef has some fat to make it kind of interesting but turkey has fat? I decided to take the plunge and buy it…

I think I was in the meat section picking out some chicken and looked up and thought, “It’s time to try this. Just do it!” my inner food critic was cringing as I put it in my basket. But for the good of the blog, I decided to take one for the team. Last weekend I decided to cook it up and give it the old college try and choke it down.

My expectations for this were spot on. It’s a product in search of people that don’t want to eat pig but are ok eating turkey. First, unless pork bacon which is cut from the belly part of the animal and sliced, this product is taken from the thigh part of the turkey (the part with the most fat) and chopped up and formed into a bacon like shape. Reminded me of Bologna. I prepared it the traditional way in a non-stick pan with a quick spray of canola oil just in case it needed a little to cook.

It’s hard to tell when this is done since there isn’t much fat to render and the color doesn’t change too much from the original out of the package. I fried it in a pan for a couple of minutes on each side until it was browned a fair amount. Unlike real bacon, it did not really shrink and get the characteristic ripples in pork bacon. I’ll be honest, it looked like fried bologna, which it essentially is.

Well, my expectations were met! I don’t think I would ever buy this again. For me, there is no reason to eat Turkey bacon. Unless you have a real aversion to eating pork and you might opt for something like this.

I could see eating it if it was vegan or something but it’s made from a bird so that isn’t going to cut it. There is less fat, that’s for sure. It is way leaner than regular pork bacon. It’s so lean in fact, that it makes it kind of tough. The turkey bacon has no snap to it when you cook it. It’s more like a turkey jerky that’s been heated up. It does have a decent smoke and pepper flavor, but that is to cover up the fact that it doesn’t taste anything like real pork bacon and like I mentioned, turkey jerky.  At $3.49 for eight slices it’s hardly worth it.

As I mentioned in the beginning this is a product with a very narrow niche. I am not even sure why Trader Joe’s carries it but clearly, there is a demand for it since it’s been on the shelves for many years. I’d love to hear why people like this over traditional pork… I think this would be Keto and Paleo but not Whole 30. There is sugar in it if just a little.

Final Verdict

I was not in love with his product nor did I completely hate it. I am not sure why it even exists, to be honest. It’s not like it’s vegan. All bacon is gluten free as far as I can tell so there isn’t a win there. Trader Joe’s sometimes does these weird things but for some reason people love them. This Turkey Bacon has been around for years so I am assuming it sells enough to make it worth their time but for me, it was just ho-hum. I am going to give it 6 Bells!