A simple, tasty way to roast a turkey breast, then serve with a green peppercorn sauce mixed with whole berry cranberry sauce that’s just bursting with flavor. You do have to plan ahead at least 2 1/2 days, though.
I don’t know about you, but I just never think to roast a turkey breast. In fact, I don’t even look at them at the grocery store. I know the breast meat is considered a healthy meat, but I’ve always thought that roasting a breast would/could only end up being dry and tasteless. I’m wrong. Absolutely wrong. You’ll be amazed. I think my difficulty is in remembering the rolled turkey breasts they used to sell (oh, maybe they still do). The kind that almost looks like hot lunch meat? Those are (were) downright awful. Didn’t we make them in the crockpot? Well, this recipe is NOT about that kind of turkey breast!
The biggest problem – if you can call it that – will be FINDING a bone-in turkey breast. Boneless ones, yes. Bone in, not so easy! They just don’t seem to be readily available. Some Sprouts stores have them sometimes (I found mine there), particularly this time of year. Here in California we have a chicken and turkey producer called Zacky Farms, and they do sell them, but you’ve got to seek them out as they don’t seem to be at every store that carries the product.
The dry brine (pictured at left – it sat in the refrigerator in a plastic bag for 2 days): it means it’s a salt mixture that serves the same purpose as a wet salt water brine, but it doesn’t take up so much room in your refrigerator and is ever-so much easier to handle. At the cooking class Phillis Carey taught about this, she said she has stopped making the wet salt brine because she simply has no place in her refrigerator to keep a brined turkey, and she’s quite happy with this dry brine method.
The turkey breast needs to sit in the refrigerator for 48 hours – that’s why you have to plan ahead on this one. The dry brine is a mixture of salt, orange zest, pepper and dried thyme. See? Easy. Just pop it into a Ziploc bag and set it in the refrigerator. Every 12 hours, though, you need to open it up, massage the salt mixture all over the meat again and turn it over. Then, the day you’re serving this, 8 hours ahead you will do one more step. The salt should be invisible by this point (it’s soaked into the meat). The turkey skin will be moist, but not wet. At this point you place the turkey breast on a plate and set it (uncovered) in the refrigerator. Let it sit there for at least 6 hours. Now you roast it after browning the skin side in a bit of oil. The breast goes onto a parchment-lined baking sheet (skin side up) for about 40-45 minutes.
Do use an instant read thermometer for this – haven’t we all eaten turkey at Thanksgiving when the breast meat is so dry you can hardly choke it down? When you roast a whole bird you have to cook it until the thigh meat is done and usually the breast meat is far past it’s peak temperature. I noticed in one of the cooking magazines they were touting cutting the turkey into pieces and roasting the sections separately (so you could remove the breast meat when it’s done). Makes such good sense, but then you never see the pretty bird on the plate. In the article they had placed the parts (in their proper position) on a big platter, but they were all flat, on a bed of greens.
Here, you’ll be able to get the turkey breast exactly the way you want it. Remove the turkey when the internal temp has reached 160° F. Ideally you want the breast meat to be 165° F (that’s the safe eating temperature), and it should be fine if it goes up to 170°. Hopefully no higher than that. You’ll set the turkey on a carving board and tent it with foil and in that time the temperature will rise to at least 165° or 170° in just a few minutes.
Now let’s talk about the sauce. You might need to make a trip to the grocery store, and perhaps a higher end one to get the green peppercorns. They’re definitely not at any old market. And my advice is to buy the more expensive by weight. At the cooking class Phillis recommended a brand carried at the cookware store where the class was held. Within seconds 3 women had popped up out of their seats and grabbed the entire stock of them. So I had to buy a different brand at an upscale market. Having not tasted these side by side, I don’t know exactly how they differ. The store owner is going to order more, so eventually I’ll get that brand (I don’t even know the name, other than it said poivre vert in large green letters on the side of the 3-inch high can. I’ve looked online and didn’t see an image of the can.
You’ll want some whole berry cranberry sauce (something I never buy unless I have to!), or you can make your own if you have the time and inclination. I think this would be lovely made with homemade cranberry sauce with port wine. See this recipe if you’re interested. The turkey is cut off the bone for easier carving. It was still super-hot and had reached exactly 165° on the instant read. I had heated plates to serve it on.
What’s GOOD: the low calories and maximum flavor; how easy it was to make, although you do have to let it marinate for 48 hours; planning ahead IS necessary; overall delicious flavor. The turkey meat was SO tender and juicy. I was amazed. Loved the sauce too. The turkey breast (half) I had served 4 people for dinner, and there’s enough left over for one more meal for 2. Unless you’re feeding young men or boys!
What’s NOT: only the 48-hour+ plan-ahead part. Otherwise, it’s a great recipe.
MasterCook 5+ file and MasterCook 14 file
* Exported from MasterCook *
Dry-Brined Turkey Breast with Cranberry Green Peppercorn Sauce
Recipe By: Phillis Carey cooking class, Nov. 2013
Serving Size: 8 (I think more)
TURKEY BREAST:
4 pounds turkey breasts, meat/skin, R-T-C — (not boneless)
1 tablespoon coarse salt
1 tablespoon orange zest — grated
1 teaspoon 5-peppercorn blend — coarsely ground
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 tablespoon grapeseed oil — or vegetable oil (for browning the breast)
SAUCE:
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup Madeira
1 tablespoon green peppercorns — in brine, drained and crushed
1 cup cranberry sauce — (yes, the canned stuff is fine, whole berry style)
Salt to taste (may not need any)
1. 48 hours before cooking time wash and pat dry the turkey breasts. Combine the salt, orange zest, pepper and thyme in a spice grinder and grind until fine. Sprinkle all over the turkey and place in a resealable bag. Refrigerate for 48 hours, turning and rubbing the salt mixture into the turkey every 12 hours or so.
2. Remove turkey from bag. There should be no salt visible on the surface and the skin should be moist but not wet. Place turkey breasts, skin side up, on a plate and refrigerate uncovered for at least 6 hours.
3. Preheat oven to 400° F. Heat oil in a large saute pan over medium high heat. Add turkey breasts, skin side down and brown 4-6 minutes. Transfer turkey, skin side up, to a parchment lined baking sheet; reserve the pan (and its drippings and brown bits).
4. Roast turkey for 40-45 minutes, or until a meat thermometer registers an internal temp of 160° F (or 165° if you prefer it) in the center of the breast. Remove from oven and cover loosely with foil. Let stand for 20 minutes. In that waiting time, the internal temp will rise to 165° or 170°.
5. SAUCE: Meanwhile, melt butter in the reserved skillet and whisk in the flour. Add chicken broth and Madeira and stir until flour is absorbed. Add green peppercorns (place them in a small plastic bag and pound them with a mallet or flat sided meat pounder until all peppercorns are broken) and cranberry sauce and simmer until thickened. Season to taste with salt and set aside while the turkey breasts are roasting.
6. To serve, cut the turkey breast off the bone (makes it so much easier to slice) and slice across the grain into 1/2 inch slices. Arrange on a heated serving platter and spoon some of the sauce over the turkey. Serve the remaining sauce on the side.
Per Serving: 383 Calories; 13g Fat (32.0% calories from fat); 45g Protein; 19g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 89mg Cholesterol; 1471mg Sodium.
hddonna
said on November 25th, 2013:
This sounds great–love the addition of orange peel. And I’ve been wanting to try the dry-brine techinique. I won’t be doing Thanksgiving at home this year, and this would be a good dish to do another day. One question–what does R-T-C mean? OK, well, two questions. Are you able to find a bone-in turkey breast that is fresh or at least not injected with a solution? I’ve only seen the pre-basted types in my stores. Maybe I should buy a fresh turkey, cut it up, and freeze the parts for different uses.
Happy Thanksgiving!
RTC means ready-to-cook. It’s a phrase that exists in my MasterCook recipe program. I probably should fix that because you’re not the only person who would question what it means. I found the plain fresh turkey breast at Sprouts. Do you have those stores where you live? Otherwise, go to a grocery that has a butcher that’s willing to work with you and they’ll usually cut one up for you. But yes, buy a whole one and cut them up into pieces. That would work too. Happy Thanksgiving to you too! . . . carolyn t