Roasted Turkey Breast with Herbs

You don't have to wait for a holiday to enjoy Turkey. With turkey parts readily available, this is an ideal way to prepare juicy, tender and flavorful meal. Needless to say this recipe will have lots of leftovers to snack on.

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 Turkey breast about 4 pounds bone-in, skin-on

4 Tbsp butter, softened

2 Tbsp fresh rosemary

1 Tbsp fresh thyme

1  tsp Ground black pepper

1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Rosemary sprigs for garnish.

PREPARATION:

Wash the rosemary and thyme shaking off the excess water and finely chop. Add to the softened butter, stirring to make a smooth paste.

Wash the turkey breast and trim off any waste and excess fat. Pat dry with paper towels. Sprinkle underside of breasts with salt and pepper. Using your fingers, gently pull the skin apart from the breast meat to open up a cavity. Use a spoon to open up the cavity and spread the paste evenly over the meat under the skin. Replace the skin to cover the meat and rub the skin with olive oil and sprinkle liberally with pepper

Use a roasting pan fitted with a rack to allow circulation of heat. Place the breast on the rack skin side up and cover.

Move the oven rack to middle position to accommodate the roasting pan and cover then pre-heat to 450 degrees.

ROASTING:

Roast until thickest part of breast registers 165-170 degrees on instant-read thermometer, 60 to 75 minutes. Remove the cover after 30 min to brown the skin. Transfer the breast to cutting board, cover with a foil tent and let it rest 10 minutes before carving.

Go withes: Wrap a couple of sweat potatoes (yams) in aluminum foil, after washing and piercing the ends  potatoes with fork so the steam will escape. Pierce the sweet potatoes with fork so the steam will escape. Put them in the oven and bake about 35 minutes or until tender. Slit open and add a dollop of butter.

The pan drippings make excellent gravy if you are so inclined, but the turkey is tender and juicy so it really isn't necessary.
 

Note: the same recipe will work with a Chicken Brest, just use a whole breast and cook for about 30 to 40 min.

Thanksgiving Fiasco - Jennie-O turkey

We had what I would classify as a “scam” perpetrated on us this Thanksgiving. Well we bought a Frozen 20 lb. Jennie-O turkey to prepare for the feast. Thought it would be enough – but inside the cavity was a bag “Gravy Base” that was nothing more then water, salt and some fat. And at that it weighed about 1-1/2 pounds.

Not bad enough, my wife kept saying that the turkey was small –Yup it was. The flaps at both ends had an accumulation of “Fat” much more then any time in the past.

So what do you do, it’s Thanksgiving morning, the Turkey is ready to be stuffed and cook and everything is closed. Dh - you cook it!

But low and behold the roasting pan fills with about 3 to 3-1/2 pounds of juice.

To sum it up, our 20 lb Turkey ended up at about 15 lbs. Barely enough for the day!

Next year it will be a “Norbest” Turkey for us. – Just my thoughts.

Delicious Turkey legs – and easy to make

Roasted Turkey legs, sweet 'taters 'n beans

Take two legs wash them, dry and put them in a roasting pan. Sprinkle with pepper and herbs. Add a cup of chicken broth and cover. Take two washed sweet potatoes, poke a hole in one end and wrap in foil. Put both in a 350 deg oven for about 2 hours. Uncover the legs after an hour to brown.
About 15 minutes before they are done, steam some frozen green (French cut) beans.

Voile! There you have a hearty meal with minimum fuss.