Roast Turkey Breast

Roast Turkey Breast comes out incredibly juicy with crispy skin when roasted at high temperature for a short time.

If you don’t want to fuss with a whole turkey and are serving 2-6 people, put this oven roasted turkey breast recipe on your Thanksgiving or Holiday menu.

Roasted Turkey Breast Recipe

For small Thanksgiving or Christmas gathering, this roast turkey breast is just perfect!

We have a small family of 4. During Holidays, one time I bake the breast or pressure cook it in Instant Pot. And another time, I roast a whole turkey.

Between Canadian Thanksgiving mid October and Christmas in December, be sure we ate about 7 turkey dinners because this is food blogger’s reality. Which is not that bad. My 3 boys love it though. Come on, it’s meat and potatoes. 🙂

Another appealing feature of roasting the breast versus the whole bird is that oven roasted turkey breast comes out juicy. When you roast entire turkey, the breast often comes out dry.

When you roast only the breast, you can cook it at an ultimate temperature to ensure juicy white meat. I promise, you will be impressed how moist this breast will come out!

Ingredients You Will Need

You only need a few simple ingredients to make this turkey breast recipe. Exact measurements are listed in the recipe card below.

• Boneless or bone in turkey breast with skin on (if you have one in a mesh pouch, see this recipe)
• Softened butter
• Freshly grated garlic
• Dried rosemary
• Smoked or regular paprika

How to Roast a Turkey Breast

Detailed instructions are listed in the recipe card below.

1. Soften butter to paste like consistency so you can brush it on. More than I did. 🙂 I rushed.
2. Mix butter with all spices.
3. Brush onto turkey breast all round and into all crevices.
4. Bake on a rack with 3 cups of water for 20 minutes.
5. Cover loosely with foil or parchment paper and bake for another 70-80 minutes.
6. Let rest for 20 minutes before slicing.
7. Make turkey gravy with the drippings.

How Long to Roast a Turkey Breast per Pound

For bone-in turkey breast, cook for 18 minutes per lb at 450 degrees F. I cooked close to 5 lbs 2 turkey breasts attached to the bone.

For boneless turkey breast, I estimate 12 minutes per pound at 450 degrees F.

In any case, always check with a meat thermometer after stated cook time for doneness. You want to remove breast from the oven when internal temperature in the deepest part of meat reaches 150-155 degrees F.

What Makes This Breast Juicy?

I assure you that I learnt with baked chicken breast, there are 3 key components to a juicy poultry breast.

#1 is high temperature. Cooking meat quickly at high temperatures prevents it from over drying. However, I have cooked turkey breast at 350 degrees. What helps to make it juicy is the Dutch oven. But at 350 degrees F it takes almost 3 times longer. Good recipe for a small breast.

#2 is do not cook past internal temperature of 155 degrees F. 150 is even better and that is when I take mine out. Meat keeps “cooking” for a bit after you remove it from the oven. Roasting till 160 degrees F will result in a dry breast.

And #3 is to let it rest for 20 minutes. If you slice into meat right away, juices will flow out versus staying in the meat.

Tips and Variations

• Roast breast with skin on to keep it moist. It acts as a barrier and insulator for dry poultry. You can always remove it after (but who would want to get rid of crispy skin?! 🙂 )
• Water at the bottom of the pan is to keep oven moist while baking meat. You can also use broth or stock.
• Make sure to use high heat proof oven baking dish. 450 F is high T. Better to use metal pan.
• If you use clay or glass baking dish and run out of liquid at the bottom of it and it starts burning, add ONLY hot water. Do not add cold water. I did that and my dish cracked. You don’t want to know what happened after. 🙂
• If using parchment paper, make sure it is not burning. Mine wasn’t and I prefer it to baking with aluminum foil that leaches harmful chemicals into food when heated. Just saying.
• Use other dried herbs like thyme, basil, oregano.
• I recommend to use only fresh garlic as roasted garlic flavor is the best. But if all you have is garlic powder, use about 2 tsp.

Serving, Side Dishes and Leftovers

More likely you will be making turkey breast for Thanksgiving, Christmas or Easter. Then here are classic side dishes to go with it.

• Mashed potatoes or mashed cauliflower.
• Turkey gravy and healthy cranberry sauce
• Healthy green bean casserole
• Healthy sweet potato casserole or mashed sweet potatoes.
• Brussels sprouts salad

If you have leftovers, there is so much you can do.

• Make my healthy one pot version of turkey tetrazzini.
• Make turkey salad using my healthy chicken salad recipe.
• For low carb meal, try this leftover turkey spaghetti squash skillet.

Enjoy!

More Turkey Breast Recipes

• Boneless turkey breast roast
• Instant Pot turkey breast

Roast Turkey Breast

Print Recipe

★★★★★

5 from 1 reviews

Roast Turkey Breast comes out incredibly juicy with crispy skin when oven roasted at high temperature for a short time.

• Author: Olena of ifoodreal.com
• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 90 minutes
• Total Time: 1 hour 40 minutes
• Yield: 8 servings 1x
• Category: Dinner
• Method: Oven
• Cuisine: North American

Scale 1x2x3x

Ingredients

• Roughly 5 lbs turkey breast, bone in and skin on
• 2 tbsp salted butter, softened
• 2 large garlic cloves, grated
• 1 tbsp rosemary, dried
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 3/4 tsp salt
• Ground black pepper, to taste
• 3 cups water

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
2. Rinse and pat dry turkey breast. Place in a large baking tray that fits a rack. We will season and bake in same dish.
3. Using paring knife or shears, trim fat from turkey breast, if necessary.
4. In a small bow, add softened butter, garlic, rosemary, smoked paprika, salt and pepper. Mash and mix with a fork.
5. Using hands or brush (depends how soft is your butter), rub turkey breast with seasoned butter all around, starting from the bottom with bone side. Make sure to rub the meat part, in the crevices and under the skin well whenever possible.
6. Make sure turkey breast is side up. Place it on a rack and then put rack inside the baking dish. Pour water on a side.
7. Bake uncovered for 20 minutes on a bottom rack.
8. Loosely cover with foil and bake for 70-80 minutes more or until internal temperature in the deepest part of meat reaches 150 – 155 degrees F when checked with thermometer.
9. Remove from the oven and let rest for 20 minutes.
10. Slice against the grain using a sharp knife.
11. Serve warm with mashed potatoes and gravy.

Store: Refrigerate leftovers for up to 5 days. Or freeze in portions for up to 3 months and use in sandwiches, salads, frittatas, casseroles and soups.

Notes

• Roast breast with skin on to keep it moist. It acts as a barrier and insulator for dry poultry. You can always remove it after (but who would want to get rid of crispy skin?! :))
• Water at the bottom of the pan is to keep oven moist while baking meat. You can also use broth or stock.
• Make sure to use high heat proof oven baking dish. 450 F is high T. Better to use metal pan.
• If you use clay or glass baking dish and run out of liquid at the bottom of it and it starts burning, add ONLY hot water. Do not add cold water. I did that and my dish cracked. You don’t want to know what happened after. 🙂
• If using parchment paper, make sure it is not burning. Mine wasn’t and I prefer it to baking with aluminum foil that leaches harmful chemicals into food when heated. Just saying.
• Use other dried herbs like thyme, basil, oregano.
• I recommend to use only fresh garlic as roasted garlic flavor is the best. But if all you have is garlic powder, use about 2 tsp.

★ Did you make this recipe? Please give it a star rating in the comments.

3270.2 g755.9 mg6.8 g2.6 g0.2 g0.8 g0.1 g62.2 g157.3 mg

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