How to roast a turkey breast (boneless)

This roasted turkey breast with garlic herb butter is a great alternative to making the traditional turkey! Because you can use boneless turkey breast instead of roasting the entire turkey. This post will provide easy instructions on how to roast a turkey breast.

Boneless Turkey Breast in Garlic Herb Butter

We traveled this Thanksgiving. Since it’s just three of us, we didn’t want to make the entire turkey. But we still wanted something like a boneless turkey breast recipe that was easy to deal with. This roasted rolled turkey breast was definitely a winner! I still can’t believe that we pulled it off in a hotel room while traveling!

But I must admit it’s not any special cooking skills. It’s the turkey breast recipe – so easy and so tasty, you can make it on the go!

Boneless Turkey Breast vs. Whole Turkey 🦃

Most of us can’t buy a fresh turkey breast and especially half of a breast. Most supermarkets sell turkey breasts solid frozen. Besides, producers inject turkeys with a brine solution and flavor enhancers. This presents a couple of issues:

1. Storage of the massive throne turkey can be problematic. Do you really have all this available space in the freezer? I know I don’t.
2. Thawing the entire turkey takes a lot of time. And you need to do it right to avoid bacteria built up. Did you know that accumulation of histamine on the meat can be dangerous? And how about the lack of freshness?

Instead, you can opt to buy either whole boneless turkey breast or butterflied turkey breast. I hope you can find the one with skin-on like I did. You will learn the exact method of how to roast a turkey breast in this recipe post.

How Many Servings Will I Get?

The number of servings will never be quite the same as to how much to buy. Because this is a boneless turkey breast, you will get a lot more meat for 3 pounds than from regular turkey breast. The assumption here is that a serving is ½ pound. And that is a nice good sized slice of turkey. This assumption leads to 6 servings of a turkey breast that is 3 pounds. By the way, this is the size most commonly found in the supermarkets. I also used 3 pound boneless turkey breast here.

But on the other hand, we all overeat turkey and want leftovers. If that’s the case and if you are like me, you will only it a bit of turkey meat. For example, I eat just enough turkey to leave room for other delicious thanksgiving foods. Then you can easily stretch a 3 pound boneless turkey breast to about 8 to 10 servings. Perfect!

How To Thaw a Turkey Breast

If your boneless turkey breast came frozen, place unopened breast in cold tap water for 1 to 3 hours. Change water every 30 minutes to keep the turkey breast in the safe temperature of less than 40 degrees.

I never thaw the turkey breast at room temperature. It is not safe at all because it will lead to accumulation of histamine and bacteria. We don’t want that.

How To Roll a Turkey Breast

• I used just one of the turkey halves in this recipe. And I didn’t butterfly it. I laid it with the underside of the turkey up. Then I rubbed the garlic herb butter all over the underside and under the skin.
• Next I used kitchen twine to tie around the turkey to keep it in. It also helps it cook more evenly.

Can I Butterfly It Instead?

Butterflying will work too. You will cut into the thickest portion of the turkey breast, keeping the knife ½ inch above the cutting board and stopping ½ inch from the edge of the breast.

Then open it up like a book. Maybe even pound the turkey breast gently to get an even thickness. Next you will roll up the turkey breast before tying it up with kitchen twine.

What’s In The Herb Mixture?

• I used parsley, thyme, sage and rosemary.
• Garlic and butter
• Salt
• But be creative and use your own combination.

What Temperature To Cook a Boneless Turkey Breast?

I usually roast it at 375 degrees. However 350 degrees can work, but it will take a bit longer. It can also potentially dry boneless turkey breast.

What Items You Will Need 🍽

• First things first, you will need a skillet to cook garlic
• You will also need a roasting pan for roasting rolled boneless turkey of course!
• Then prepare some foil , even though it’ optional. I used it to prevents herbs from charring.
• You will use kitchen twine to tie the breast.
• And lemon zester!
• Finally, I used toothpicks to hold rolled boneless turkey in place. Even though they are optional, they held the turkey breast down really tight.

Can I Use Oil Instead of Butter?

I prefer to use butter and most recipes do as well. However crisp skin hates moisture and unfortunately butter is 20% water. But oil has no water content. Yeah! So if you want an assuredly crispy skin, it’s a good idea to use oil and not butter.

Tips On Slicing Turkey Breast

Once the turkey breast is roasted, we come to the fun part. Let’s slice it! Roasted turkey breast should be sliced pretty thinly for the best roasted rolled turkey experience. Carve slowly and steadily while increasing the pressure. This will ensure that every slice has a bit of skin since it’s just loaded with flavor. You don’t want anyone to miss out on it, do you?

Can I Make It Ahead?

The beauty of this boneless turkey recipe is that you can make it two days ahead. And with no loss of flavor or moisture! Besides it will have a lot more flavor than the usual recipe for the entire bird.

The ingredients that give this roasted rolled turkey breast such a great flavor include lemon zest, and crushed garlic and butter. Because they get rolled both into the turkey as well as rubbed on the outside. And of course herbs!

How To Reheat It

Let’s say you want to enjoy the day of eating the turkey and make it ahead the day before. Is it possible to do that and still have a nice fresh turkey?

The only way to reheat the turkey breast without drying it out is to slice it and reheat it with some liquid. Then you will add the slices onto a large baking dish, pour in about ½ cup of chicken stock and add some herb butter on top.

Wrap the dish tightly with foil, and reheat in the oven at 350 until the turkey is hot and the butter is melted, 20 to 30 minutes. Finally, transfer the turkey to a platter, and drizzle with some of the pan liquid.

Try it for yourself and see how easy it is to enjoy making this flavorful roasted turkey breast instead of the whole turkey!

Ways To Serve Boneless Turkey Breast

• You can make this rolled turkey breast instead of a traditional full size bone in skin on turkey.
• I use it as lunch meat because it’s perfectly juicy and not dry at all, unlike the usual dry leftover turkey.
• Make boneless turkey breast for a weeknight dinner and prepare a gravy to dip the slices in. So yummy!
• Finally, you can serve this amazing rolled turkey breast for Christmas!

Side Dishes 🥗

Grand Marnier Cranberry Sauce
Ultimate Green Bean Casserole in a Skillet
Brussels sprout and Bacon Gratin

Print Recipe

4.46 from 35 votes

How to roast a boneless turkey breast

This roasted rolled turkey breast with garlic herb butter recipe is a great alternative to making the entire turkey. When you don’t feel like cooking the entire turkey, don’t have time for it or just want to make something different, this is the turkey recipe to try.

Prep Time25 minutes mins

Cook Time1 hour hr

Total Time1 hour hr 25 minutes mins

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: American

Keyword: how to cook turkey breast, how to roast turkey breast

Servings: 6

Author: Olya

Ingredients

Garlic Herb Butter

• 5 tablespoon butter, softened (divided)
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoon fresh herbs (thyme, rosemary, sage and parsley), minced
• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon zest
• ½ teaspoon salt

Turkey

• 3 lb turkey breast, boneless, skin-on
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon pepper
• parsley, for garnish

Instructions

• Garlic Herb Butter: Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a medium skillet, add 6 cloves of minced garlic and cook until fragrant. Move the garlic to the medium bowl and add remaining 4 tablespoons of softened butter, fresh herbs, fresh lemon zest and salt. Mix well.
  
• Preparing Rolled Turkey: Lay turkey breast, skin side down, and season with 1 teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon pepper. Set aside. Rub garlic herb butter from step 1 all over the underside of turkey and under the skin. Roll the turkey to form a tube and use toothpicks (or fingers:) to hold it tight in place. Using kitchen twine, tie it around the turkey to keep it from opening up during roasting. Rub the remaining herb butter on top of the roll.
  
• Roasting Rolled Turkey: Preheat oven to 375 F. Place in a roasting pan or a baking dish and bake until an instant-read thermometer registers 160 degrees to 165 degrees, about 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes total. Remove from oven, and let rest for 10 minutes. Transfer to a cutting board, remove twine, and cut crosswise into ½- to 1-inch-thick slices. Place slices on a platter, and garnish with parsley.
  

Nutrition Facts

How to roast a boneless turkey breast

Amount Per Serving

Calories 318 Calories from Fat 117

% Daily Value*

Fat 13g20%

Saturated Fat 6g38%

Cholesterol 147mg49%

Sodium 1133mg49%

Potassium 560mg16%

Carbohydrates 1g0%

Protein 49g98%

Vitamin A 340IU7%

Vitamin C 0.9mg1%

Calcium 40mg4%

Iron 1.3mg7%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy only. This information comes from online calculators. Although whatsinthepan.com attempts to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures are only estimates.

Notes

Notes: Calories is per serving.

Recipe Source: Olga’s Flavor Factory

You may also like this Brown Sugar Dijon Pork Loin.
If you like to eat salads with your meat like we do, take a look at these fabulous salads:
Brussels Sprout Salad with Cranberries, Pecans and Apples or Brussels Sprout Salad with Cranberries and Pecans in Honey Dijon Vinaigrette

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