This bone-in turkey breast (or turkey crown) has golden, crispy skin and moist, juicy white meat on the inside. It’s a quicker, smaller alternative to roasting a whole turkey. This recipe covers every step from brining (optional) to making the gravy!
Whether you’e celebrating Thanksgiving, Christmas or Easter, this delicious turkey breast is perfect for any holiday! Serve it with any of your favorite sides like mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and cornbread dressing.
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❤️ Why you’ll love this recipe
- This recipe was inspired by Ree Drummond (the Pioneer Woman’s) roasted Thanksgiving turkey recipe. It has the juiciest meat and the crispiest skin! I love her technique of rubbing it with orange butter and slow-roasting before turning up the temperature at the end.
- This recipe call for a bone-in breast which is larger than a boneless breast, so it feeds more people! Bone-in contains both sides of the breast, where boneless is usually only one side.
- The breast bone helps retain moisture which keeps the meat super juicy!
📋 Key Ingredients
- Thawed bone-in turkey breast with skin – frozen or fresh turkey breast both work. An 8 pound breast takes about 2 days to completely thaw in the refrigerator.
- Roasting vegetables – carrots, onions and celery.
- Fresh herbs – combination of thyme, rosemary, garlic and sage.
- Dry seasonings – garlic and onion powder, black pepper.
- Citrus butter ingredients – unsalted butter and orange zest/peel.
See recipe card for full list of ingredients with exact measurements.
Recipe substitutions
- You can make this recipe using a whole turkey or just a boneless breast if you prefer. Refer to the ‘roasting times’ section further down in the post to calculate roasting time.
- Use lemon peels instead of orange peels if you’d like, or omit the citrus entirely.
- Replace the turkey broth with chicken broth if you need to. There will be minimal if any difference in taste.
🦃 How to brine a turkey
Brining is highly recommended for fresh turkeys, but optional for frozen turkeys because they’re already packaged in a salt solution. If you still wish to brine your frozen turkey, reduce the amount of salt in the brine by half.
What you’ll need
- This is a wet brine, so you’ll need about 1 gallon of water and 2 cups of orange juice.
- Kosher salt tenderizes the meat and gives it moisture.
- Brown sugar adds flavor and helps brown the skin.
- Combination of herbs, spices and orange peels are used for flavor.
The recipe card lists out each brine ingredient individually with measurements.
Brining instructions
Step 1: Simmer the orange juice, salt, brown sugar, cloves, sage, bay leaves, rosemary and orange peels in a small saucepan for 30 minutes. Let the liquid cool completely and then transfer to a large stockpot and add 2 gallons of cold water.
Step 2: Place the turkey in the brine, cover the stockpot with a lid and place it in refrigerator for 8-16 hours. Rinse the turkey under cold water to remove any extra salt left over from the brine. Pat the turkey dry using paper towels.
🔪 Step by step instructions
Preparing the turkey
Step 1: Preheat your oven to 275°F. If your turkey came with a plastic pop-up timer you can remove it. Rub the turkey with garlic powder, onion powder and black pepper.
Step 2: Place a few onions, carrots, garlic cloves and pieces of celery in the turkey’s cavity with a sprig of rosemary and a sprig of thyme. Use toothpicks to close up the extra skin at the bottom of the bird. Tuck the skin over the top cavity.
Note: Commercial turkey timers (the plastic ones that come inserted in the bird) pop out at 180-185°F, which results in an overcooked, dry turkey. The proper range of temperature for poultry is 160°F-165°F, which you’ll need a probe thermometer to read.
Step 3: Place the remaining carrots, onions and garlic cloves in the roasting pan and add the sage and remaining fresh herbs. Pour 2 cups of broth into the bottom of the pan.
Step 4: Cover the entire pan with foil and roast for 2 and ½ hours (or 20 minutes per pound).
Step 5: When the turkey has about 10 minutes left of roasting time, combine the softened butter with the orange zest. Rub the turkey with the citrus butter and place it back in the oven, uncovered.
Step 6: Adjust the oven temperature to 350°F and roast the turkey for 1 and ½ hours more (or 10 minutes per pound). Baste the turkey every 20-30 minutes. Once the internal temperature of the turkey registers at 165°F, the turkey is done. Remove the turkey from the roasting pan and let cool slightly before transferring to a cutting board.
Preparing the gravy
Step 1: Remove the vegetables and herbs from the roasting pan. You can set them aside or discard them. Transfer the liquid from the pan to a spouted measuring cup. Once the fat settles on top, you can use a spoon to skim the fat and discard it.
Step 2: Reserve ⅔ cup of the liquid and transfer the rest to a saucepan. Make a slurry by whisking some flour into the reserved liquid and then pour the slurry into the saucepan.
Step 3: Bring the saucepan to a simmer over low heat. The gravy will thicken as it simmers. Simmer for about 2 minutes or until it reaches your desired consistency.
Carving bone-in turkey breast
Step 1: Place the turkey breast on the cutting board, with the skin side facing up. Use a sharp knife to slice the turkey breast down the middle, stopping at the bone.
Step 2: Use your knife to slice along the curve of the breast on each side, until the breast meat comes off the bone. Slice each half of the breast crosswise as shown below.
💭 Tips and tricks
- A frozen 8-pound turkey breast needs to thaw in the refrigerator for 36 hours.
- Remove the plastic, pop-up timer that’s inserted in the bird prior to roasting. A probe thermometer is much more reliable.
- Brining a turkey that comes frozen is optional. If you wish to brine your frozen turkey, reduce the amount of salt in the brine by half.
- Remember to remove the pouch of gizzards from the turkey’s cavity before brining or seasoning the turkey. Some people like to add gizzards to their gravy.
- A bone-in breast will often tilt to one side since there are no legs to balance it. Place some roasting vegetables underneath to keep the breast sitting upright.
- Feel free to re-cover your turkey at any point if you feel that it’s getting too dark.
- Let the turkey breast rest for 15 minutes before carving.
⏲️ Roasting times
Here’s how to calculate roasting time by weight:
- 1st stage of roasting (275°F): 20 minutes per pound (example: 8 pound turkey x 20 minutes = 160 minutes or 2.5 hours)
- 2nd stage of roasting (350°F): 10 minutes per pound (example: 8 pound turkey x 10 minutes = 80 minutes which is around 1.5 hours)
For an 8 pound, bone-in breast the total roasting time is about 4 hours.
🍽 Serving suggestions
Serve this turkey with one of these delicious sides:
- Cranberry sauce
- Red-skin mashed potatoes
- Jiffy cornbread dressing
- Roasted brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes
❓Recipe FAQ’S
For traditional turkeys, 1 pound per person is the general rule of thumb. For a bone-in breast try to aim for ¾ of a pound per person.
I strongly recommend serving the stuffing (dressing) on the side for this recipe. If you want to stuff a bone-in breast you’ll need to roast the bird on its side so the filling doesn’t fall out of the cavity, or tie up the cavity with kitchen string.
Place leftover turkey meat in food storage bags. Store in the refrigerator for up to 4 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Turkey breast is best reheated in the oven. Cover it in foil and reheat at 350°F until warm.
Leftover turkey breast is perfect for slicing and putting into sandwiches with leftover stuffing and cranberry sauce. You can also use turkey as a replacement in any chicken soup recipe.
⭐ Other recipes you’ll love
Love this recipe? Please leave a 5-star 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟rating in the recipe card below & consider scrolling down and leaving me a review if you REALLY liked it. Thanks!
Bone In Turkey Breast – Roasted
Equipment
- 1 roasting pan stainless steel
Ingredients
Brine ingredients (optional for frozen turkeys)
- 2 cups orange juice
- 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
- 4 sprigs rosemary
- 8 cloves garlic sliced
- 4 bay leaves
- 2 sprigs fresh sage
- peel from 2 oranges
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 16 cups water
- 1 cup kosher salt
Turkey ingredients
- 8 pound bone-in turkey breast with skin, remove gizzards from turkey's cavity.
- 2 large onions quartered
- 2 stalks celery
- 1 large carrot peeled and cut into pieces
- 8 cloves garlic
- 4 sprigs rosemary
- 4 sprigs fresh thyme
- 4 sage leaves
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 8 tablespoons salted butter softened
- peel from 1 orange cut into thin strips
- 2 cups turkey broth or chicken, store-bought
Gravy ingredients
- 2 cups turkey drippings reserved from roasting
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Instructions
Brining the turkey (optional)
- Simmer the orange juice, salt, brown sugar, cloves, rosemary, sage, bay leaves and orange peels in a small saucepan for 30 minutes. Let the liquid cool completely and then transfer to a large stockpot and add 2 gallons of cold water.
- Place the turkey in the brine, cover the stockpot with a lid and place it in refrigerator for 8-16 hours.
- Rinse the turkey under cold water to remove extra salt left over from the brine. Pat the turkey dry using paper towels.
Preparing the turkey
- Preheat oven to 275°F. Rub the outside of the turkey with garlic powder, onion powder and black pepper.
- Place a few onions, carrots, garlic cloves and pieces of celery in the turkey's cavity with a sprig of rosemary and a sprig of thyme. Use toothpicks to close up the extra skin at the bottom of the bird. You can tuck the skin in at the top cavity.
- Place the remaining carrots, onions and garlic in the roasting pan and add the sage and remaining fresh herbs. Pour 2 cups of broth into the bottom of the pan.
- Cover the roasting pan with foil and roast for 2 and ½ hours (or 20 minutes per pound).
- When the turkey has about 10 minutes left of roasting time, combine the softened butter with the orange zest. Rub the turkey down with the butter and place it back in the oven, uncovered.
- Adjust the oven temperature to 350°F and roast the turkey for 1 and ½ hours more (or 10 minutes per pound). Baste every 20-30 minutes. Once the internal temperature registers at 165°F, the turkey is done. Remove the turkey breast from the roasting pan and let it cool slightly before transferring to a cutting board.
Preparing the gravy
- Remove the vegetables and herbs from the roasting pan that the turkey was in. Set them aside or discard them. Transfer the liquid from the pan to a spouted measuring cup. Once the fat settles on top, use a spoon to skim and discard the fat.
- Reserve ⅔ cup of the liquid and transfer the rest to a saucepan. Make a slurry by whisking some flour into the reserved liquid and then pour the slurry into the saucepan.
- Bring the saucepan to a simmer over low heat. The gravy will thicken as it simmers. Simmer for about 2 minutes or until it reaches your desired consistency.
Notes
- Remove the plastic, pop-up timer that’s inserted in the bird prior to roasting. A probe thermometer is much more reliable.
- An 8 pound breast needs a full 36 hours to thaw.
- 1st stage of roasting (275°F): 20 minutes per pound (example: 8 pound turkey breast x 20 minutes = 160 minutes or 2.5 hours)
- 2nd stage of roasting (350°F): 10 minutes per pound (example: 8 pound turkey breast x 10 minutes = 80 minutes which is around 1.5 hours)
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