If you know me well enough, you know that my favorite meal is a Thanksgiving turkey dinner. Even in the heat of summer, I’ve been known to show up with Kenya at my favorite Los Angeles deli to sit at the bar and dive into their turkey platter with an extra side of cranberry sauce. For the nights that I don’t have the time or patience to cook up an entire turkey myself (which is pretty much ALL the time), I just buy a turkey breast to whip up in no time flat.

If you’re preparing Thanksgiving dinner for a small group, this recipe is for you! In less then 90 minutes you can have a juicy, healthy turkey breast that your family will rave about. Sure that means no Flinstones-size drumsticks or wishbones on your table, but other than that it will be 100% Thanksgiving. Plus, this recipe is super simple, costs me just over $15 (not bad for an organic turkey) and makes dinner for 4 people with plenty of leftovers for sandwiches the next day!

Simple Roast Turkey Breast (Serves 6)

1 4-5 Lb Turkey Breast, bone in, skin on
1 Tbsp Butter, softened
2 Tsp Fresh Thyme, chopped fine
1 Tsp Lemon Zest, chopped fine
1/2 Tsp Garlic Powder
1 Tsp Salt, divided
1 Tsp Oil

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. In a bowl make a paste with the butter, thyme, lemon zest, garlic powder and 1/2 tsp salt.
3. Carefully separate the skin from the meat over the breast and rub the meat with the butter mixture under both breasts.
4. Place the turkey on a sheet pan (I cover my pan with foil) and rub the turkey with the oil and 1/2 tsp of salt.
5. Bake for 30 minutes and then reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees.
6. Bake for an additional 50 minutes or until an instant read thermometer in the thickest part of the breast registers 160 degrees.
7. Remove turkey breast from the oven and allow to rest for 15 minutes.
8. Carve and serve.

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Tags: , butter, cooking for kids, cranberry sauce, garlic powder, how to cook turkey, how to make a turkey, how to roast turkey, lemon zest, los angeles delis, oil, salt, thanksgiving, thanksgiving dinner, thanksgiving dinner for kids, thanksgiving feasts, thanksgiving for kids, thyme, turkey, turkey breast, turkey recipes

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 at 7:59 pm and is filed under All Recipes, Big Kids Recipes, Entrees, Meats and Proteins, Toddler Bites, gluten free. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.