How To Roast Turkey Breast – Cooking Time & Temps Per Pound

Roast Turkey Breast is the perfect size turkey for small gatherings and smaller families! You can scroll down to get turkey cook times and temperatures to roast a turkey breast per pound!

Your entire family is going to love this crispy skin and tender white meat that’s perfect with cranberry sauce for any Sunday dinner, Thanksgiving, or Christmas Feast!

Key Ingredients for Your Perfect Roast Turkey!

Liquid (2 cups water, or turkey/chicken broth): You’ll add this to the bottom of your roasting pan. It’s prevents pan drippings from burning, keeping the turkey moist through the steam it creates… And it forms the base for the most flavorful gravy you’ve ever had! Using turkey or chicken broth instead of water will amp up that savory goodness even more!

The Turkey (12-14 lb Turkey or Turkey Breast): This is, naturally, the main event! Whether you go for a whole turkey or just a turkey breast, this recipe is designed to bring out its best. A 12-14 pounder is a fantastic size for most gatherings, giving you plenty of delicious meat.

Salted Butter (1 1/2 cubes): Butter is your secret weapon for a golden, crispy skin and incredibly moist meat. Salted butter adds an extra layer of flavor right from the start. You’ll be using a good chunk of it to really coat that bird, and if you plan on basting, just remember to reserve about half a cube for that job.

The Herb & Spice Dream Team: This blend is where all that amazing savory flavor comes from! Rosemary (2 tsp chopped & fresh sprigs): Fresh rosemary brings a beautiful, piney aroma and flavor that’s classic with turkey. Don’t skip the fresh sprigs to tuck inside the cavity—they really infuse the bird! Thyme (1 tsp dried & fresh sprigs): Thyme adds delicate, earthy notes that complement the rosemary… Like the rosemary, fresh sprigs tucked into the turkey will make a big difference! Garlic Powder & Onion Powder (1 tsp each): These two are fantastic for adding deep, savory background flavors without having to mince fresh garlic or onion that might burn on the skin.

Salt & Black Pepper (2 tsp salt, 1 tsp black pepper): These are your flavor fundamentals! Don’t be shy with the salt; it’s crucial for seasoning the meat thoroughly and helps to crisp up the skin. 😉

Aromatics (2 Carrots, 4 Celery Stalks, 2 Shallots, 1 Onion): These aren’t just for show! Chopped carrots, celery, shallots, and onion go into the roasting pan (and sometimes the cavity) to create a fragrant bed for your turkey. They release steam and infuse the turkey and pan drippings with incredible flavor, which is perfect for gravy later!

How To Roast Turkey or Turkey Breast

Thaw Turkey: The best place to thaw a frozen turkey or frozen turkey breast is in the refrigerator:

• 4–12 lbs: 1 – 3 days
• 12–16 lbs: 3 – 4 days
• 16–20 lbs: 4 – 5 days
• 20–24 lbs: 1 week (6 days)

If you’re short on time, however, place your whole turkey, or whole breast in the kitchen sink and let the cool water run over it for a day! Then, sanitize your kitchen sink and surroundings with a beach or alcohol-based cleaner and paper towels to avoid food borne illnesses.

Bring Turkey Breast To Room Temperature: Take your thawed whole bird, boneless turkey breast, or whole turkey breast out of the packaging. Discard wrapping and sanitize counter that may have come in contact with any turkey juices. Place turkey breast on a roasting rack, in a roasting pan, on the counter at room temperature for 1 hour.

Preheat Oven: Move your oven rack down to the lowest level, and preheat to 325°F or 350°F oven (which ever you are using). It is recommended that your roast your turkey at 325°F so that the middle cooks before the exterior dries out.

Prep Turkey: Generously rub softened (or room temperature) SALTED butter to cover your turkey breast, or a whole turkey! A medium 12- to 14-lb turkey will need a half cup, 1 cube, of butter. Massage the butter over the top of the skin.

Season Turkey Breast: The best way to season turkey breast is by evenly spreading these seasonings over top:

• 2 tsp chopped rosemary
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 tsp. dried thyme
• A teaspoon black pepper
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• A teaspoon onion powder

If You Are Roasting A Whole Turkey, Stuff Small Hole With Apple To Keep Breast Moist This may sound odd… But breast meat can dry out, and stuffing the small hole (or neck cavity) with an apple cut in half protects it from drying out!

STUFFING: I do not recommend roasting your turkey with stuffing, because it slows down cooking time and makes mushy stuffing…. Plus it’s harder to make sure the turkey is all the way cooked throughout;)

Aromatics: Aromatics help season the turkey meat and add delicious flavors to your pan drippings for gravy! To do this, place large pieces of chopped onion, celery stalks, thyme, rosemary, salt, and pepper inside the large cavity of a whole turkey before roasting.

The water in your pan will prevent anything from burning! Add: fresh herbs, shallots, carrots, celery, and add 2 cups of cold water UNDER the roasting rack inside the large roasting pan.

If you will be basting your turkey, add 1/2 a cube of butter to the bottom of your pan now.

Cover (Then Uncover) The Turkey

To protect turkey skin from browning too soon, loosely cover the bird and roasting pan with aluminum foil. Make sure to put the shiny side of the aluminum foil facing out. ***Remove foil halfway through roasting time so the skin gets nice and brown!***

Cook Time Chart for Turkey (in a conventional oven at 350°F or 325°F)

How Long To Roast Turkey Breast – General Rule: The simplest way to figure out turkey roasting times is to calculate 13 minutes per pound at 350°F for an un-stuffed turkey, or 15 minutes per pound for a stuffed turkey. Or 15 minutes per pound at 325 unstuffed and 17 minutes per pound at 325 for a stuffed turkey.

Unstuffed Turkey Cook Time Chart at 350

Stuffed Turkey Cook Time Chart at 350

Unstuffed Turkey Cook Time Chart at 325

Cook Time Chart for Turkey (in a conventional oven at 325°F)

Stuffed Turkey Cook Time Chart at 325

8 – 12 lb Turkey Breast, roast at:

• 325°F for 2 3/4 to 3 hours.
• Start checking internal temps after 2 hours.

To Baste or Not to Baste Your Turkey

Basting your turkey every 30 minutes or so helps moisten and flavor the breast meat! It’s really simple to baste, and just requires your to open your oven and carefully squirt the liquid from the bottom of the pan over the top of your entire turkey! The butter you added to your roasting pan makes a better basting solution. You can also use turkey broth.

The positive: Basting turkey really helps the turkey skin to brown nicely…

The negative: HOWEVER, it is questionable whether basting liquids penetrate turkey skin and really moisten the meat. PLUS opening the oven every 30 minutes or so lets the heat out and lowers the temperature. This will make the roasting time longer till the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees at the deepest point (fully cooked).

This is why we put butter under the skin and an apple in the smaller hole. These methods help keep the turkey meat moist without lengthening the roasting time. Plus, you can put your turkey in the oven and not have to keep checking it every half hour minutes as the turkey cooks.

The Secret to a Juicy Turkey: Your Meat Thermometer

When you’re cooking a big bird, a meat thermometer is the only way to guarantee a juicy and safe result! It takes all the guesswork out of roasting, so you can stop worrying and enjoy the process.

For food safety, the internal temperature of your turkey needs to reach a minimum of 165°F. But here’s the trick to avoiding a dry bird: you don’t actually cook it all the way to 165°F in the oven!

A remote thermometer is a fantastic tool for this—it has a probe you insert into the thickest part of the breast or thigh before roasting, so you can monitor the temperature on a display outside the oven. An instant-read thermometer also works great for a quick check.

Once the thermometer reads 160°F at the deepest point of the meat (make sure you’re not touching any bone!), carefully remove the roasting pan from the oven. The turkey’s internal temperature will continue to rise as it rests, safely reaching that 165°F mark, leaving you with a perfectly cooked and tender turkey.

More Thanksgiving Recipes

Now that you’ve got the main event covered with this amazing turkey, let’s make sure the rest of your holiday dinner is just as perfect! I have all the classic side dishes ready for you, from Smoked Turkey to The best Turkey Stuffing. And don’t forget the side dishes we all love like Green Bean Casserole, My Favorite Cranberry Sauce, creamy Mashed Potatoes and Gravy From Scratch, sweet Candied Yams and pumpkin or! Pecan Pie

I want to know what YOU think… Please leave a review!

Oven Roasted Turkey – Christmas & Thanksgiving Recipe

The perfect oven-roasted turkey with cook times and temperatures to ensure a moist and delicious Christmas or Thanksgiving feast!

5 from 10 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: dinner, Holiday Dinner, Thanksgiving

Cuisine: American

Prep Time: 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 4 minutes minutes

Additional Time: 10 minutes minutes

Total Time: 44 minutes minutes

Servings: 10

Calories: 54kcal

Author: Juliea Huffaker

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Ingredients

• 1 Turkey or Turkey Breast 12-14 pounds
• 1 1/2 cube SALTED Butter 1/2 a cube of butter is used if your will be basting turkey
• 2 tsp chopped rosemary
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• A teaspoon black pepper
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• A teaspoon of onion powder
• 2 carrots
• 4 celery stalks
• 2 shallots
• Thyme
• Rosemary
• 1 Onion
• Salt
• Ground Black Pepper
• 2 cups water turkey or chicken broth work great too

Instructions

• Defrost Turkey (See post for when to take your turkey out of the freezer)
• Remove From Package
• Remove Neck and Season. Generously rub softened (or room temperature) SALTED butter to cover your turkey breast, or a whole turkey, under the skin! A medium 12- to 14-lb turkey will need a half cup, 1 cube, of butter. Starting at the neck hole (smaller hole), carefully push your hands under turkey skin (careful not to rip turkey skin, and do NOT separate skin completely from turkey.) Massage most of the butter UNDER the turkeys' skin, and a little over the top of the skin.
• Add aromatics (Sage, Thyme, carrot, and onion pot to the turkey and roasting pan.
• Cover Turkey with Aluminum Foil and bake for half the time (about 2 hours for a large turkey)
• Uncover Turkey and roast for the remaining time or till it reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees at the deepest point. And remove from oven.
• Let Turkey rest for 20 minutes after removing from oven.
• Enjoy!

Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgDUJO1lfPM

Notes

Always use a meat thermometer to check for doneness.

For moist meat: After your turkey reaches 165 degrees F remove it from the oven… Now it’s really important to leave it alone on the counter and let it REST, uncovered, for at least 20 minutes before you carve it!

Check the internal turkey temperature about ¾ of the way through that time, and then again every 10 minutes, and roast until the temperature reads 165°F when checked at the thickest area of the thigh (do not touch the bone) and thickest area of the breast.

Leftovers: There are so many ways to use leftover turkey, but make sure to use or freeze it after 4 days in the refrigerator.

Nutrition

Serving: 1g | Calories: 54kcal | Carbohydrates: 5g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 2g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 14mg | Sodium: 528mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 2g