Roast Turkey Breast
Roast Turkey Breast comes out incredibly juicy with crispy skin when oven roasted at high temperature for a short time.
- 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
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
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
- Rinse and pat dry turkey breast. Place in a large baking tray that fits a rack. We will season and bake in same dish.
- Using paring knife or shears, trim fat from turkey breast, if necessary.
- In a small bow, add softened butter, garlic, rosemary, smoked paprika, salt and pepper. Mash and mix with a fork.
- 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.
- 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.
- Bake uncovered for 20 minutes on a bottom rack.
- 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.
- Remove from the oven and let rest for 20 minutes.
- Slice against the grain using a sharp knife.
- 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.
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