A Thanksgiving recipe. Roasted Turkey Breast seasoned with mustard and thyme.
I know. Already!
But today is November 1st, and if I want to stay on track with all that I want to share with you before Thanksgiving comes with its turkey and sides and leftovers, gotta start early. Bear with me, and I assure you that it’ll be worth it!
The last few years I’ve taken to twisting up Thanksgiving in ways that involve more than poultry seasoning and boxed gravy (I love poultry seasoning! But not boxed gravy) and this year, we’re giving our favorite holiday fixings a little French twist.
That’s right, Thanksgiving done French! It’s going to be exciting.
The idea came to me really because I had an idea for a different sort of dessert to make, and I worked backwards from there.
The good thing about French flavors is that traditionally, they’re not all that different from ours. Herbs and butter, with a little wine here and a leek or two there. Otherwise, the essence is similar, so if you want to change up the food of the day a little bit but don’t want to get as crazy as, say, a saffron and chorizo dressing, this is the menu for you.
We’re starting with turkey because it all stems from there. I’m doing a roasted turkey breast again because, small households require smaller birds to feed it. Simply dressed with coarse ground mustard, garlic, fresh thyme, olive oil and a few bay leaves for good measure, the bird really does still shine through. If you’re making a whole bird, the ingredients still work, just scale them up.
And gravy? Take that boxed stuff away, and let’s do a simple pan gravy. It’s okay, you’ve done it before, and it’ll be so good that you never want to use a mix again!
Butter, flour, wine, mushrooms, thyme and stock, S&P. That’s it. Really!
The whole bird + gravy comes together gloriously fast, in a little over an hour, so you’ll have much more time to mix and mingle and be with all of your favorite peoples.
Roasted Turkey Breast
Roasted turkey breast with a hint of French flavors, mustard and thyme rubbed underneath the skin for a moist, flavorful bird.
Ingredients
- For the turkey:
- 1 2.5-3lb bone-in, skin-on turkey breast
- 2 TB coarse ground Dijon mustard
- 4 cloves fresh garlic, minced
- 2 tsp fresh thyme
- 1 TB olive oil
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tsp coarse salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- For the gravy:
- 1 TB unsalted butter
- 1 TB all-purpose flour
- 5 baby bella mushrooms, stemmed and finely diced
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 tsp fresh thyme
- 1/2 cup dry white wine
- 1 cup turkey or chicken stock
- 1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
- salt and pepper, to taste
Directions
- Step 1 Preheat the oven to 375F.
- Step 2 In a small bowl, mix together the mustard, garlic, thyme and olive oil to make a paste. Using your fingers, tear the skin apart from the breast, leaving a bit of a pocket. Spread the paste under the skin completely. Add the two bay leaves under the skin.
- Step 3 Sprinkle the top of the turkey with salt and pepper.
- Step 4 Place the turkey breast on a roasting rack over a roasting pan. Roast in the oven, about 1 hour (until the internal temperature reaches 160F), allowing about 20 minutes per pound of meat cooking time. Remove from the pan and set aside to rest about 20 minutes.
- Step 5 While the turkey is resting, make the gravy. Place the roasting pan over medium heat. Using the pan drippings (there likely won’t be much), add the butter and let it melt. Add the flour and stir and cook until brown. Add the mushrooms and cook for about 3 minutes. Add the wine, and using a wooden spoon, scrape up all the bits from the bottom of the pan. Add the thyme and stock and let simmer until desired thickness. Add the parsley at the end, and season with salt and pepper as desired.
- Step 6 Slice the turkey, and serve with the gravy
