How long to roast a turkey breast 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!

Read on for full instructions on roasting the best tender turkey or turkey breast.

First – Thaw Turkey Breast

The best place to thaw a frozen turkey or frozen turkey breast is in the refrigerator… However, that can take a LONG time (up to a week) depending on the weight of your turkey.) Below is the estimated thawing time per pound:

• 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! The running water helps thaw the turkey faster. If you use this method, make sure to keep all dishes and food prep away from the raw turkey. Then, sanitize your kitchen sink and surroundings with a beach or alcohol-based cleaner and paper towels to avoid food borne illnesses.

However, thawing a turkey inside the cooler refrigerator is best for food safety practices.

Tools Needed

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Paper Towels

Kitchen Sanitizer

Large Roasting Pan with a –

Roasting Rack

Meat Thermometer – There really is no way around this one… You need a meat thermometer! The perfect turkey is cooked by temperature, not by time. That’s because each turkey is a different size and all ovens cook a tad bit differently from each other.

An extra-large Cutting Board

Roast Turkey Ingredients

• 12 -14 lb Turkey or Turkey Breast
• 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 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)

Bring Turkey Breast To Room Temperature

Now that your turkey is thawed, it’s time to prep it for roasting! 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. This will bring the bird’s temperature up and help dry the turkey skin off.

Preheat Oven

Move your oven rack down to the lowest level, and preheat to 350° F oven.

Prep Turkey!

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.

Season Turkey Breast

In my humble opinion, 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 can make mushy stuffing.

Instead, can cook your turkey stuffing in a rectangular glass casserole dish. I like to use turkey or chicken stock, saute onions, celery (and I love to add sausage.) This makes perfect stuffing that’s richly flavored, perfect textured (and turns out better, in my opinion, than roasting it inside the turkey.)

Aromatics

If you don’t stuff your turkey, you’ll have room in the large cavity for aromatics! Aromatics help season the turkey meat and add delicious flavors to your pan drippings for gravy! Tod o this, place large pieces of chopped onion, celery stalks, thyme, rosemary, salt, and pepper inside the large cavity of a whole turkey before roasting.

You can also add aromatics under the roasting rack in the roasting pan! They will also perfume turkey meat and add flavor to the pan drippings while your turkey roasts. The water in your pan will prevent anything from burning! You can use: fresh herbs, shallots, carrots, celery, and 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) 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!

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. *Remember to remove foil halfway through roasting time so the skin gets nice and brown!*

Using a Meat Thermometer, 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.

If for any reason you want to roast the turkey at a higher or lower temp, follow these time guidelines for un-stuffed birds:

8 – 12 lb Turkey Breast, roast at:

• 325°F for 2¾ to 3 hours

12 – 14 lb Turkey, roast at:

• 425°F for 2¼ to 2½ hours
• 400°F for 2½ to 2¾ hours
• 350°F for 2¾ to 3 hours
• 325°F for 3 to 3¾ hours

15 – 16 lb Turkey, roast at:

• 425°F for 3 to 3¼ hours
• 400°F for 3¼ to 3½ hours
• 350°F for 3½ to 3¾ hours
• 325°F for 3¾ to 4 hours

18 – 20 lb Turkey, roast at:

• 425°F for 3½ to 3¾ hours
• 400°F for 3¾ to 4 hours
• 350°F for 4 to 4¼ hours
• 325°F for 4¼ to 4½ hours

21 – 22 lb Turkey, roast at:

• 425°F for 4 to 4¼ hours
• 400°F for 4¼ to 4½ hours
• 350°F for 4½ to 4¾ hours
• 325°F for 4¾ to 5 hours

24 lb Turkey, roast at:

• 425°F for 4¼ to 4½ hours
• 400°F for 4½ to 4¾ hours
• 350°F for 4¾ to 5 hours
• 325°F for 5 to 5¼ 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 to 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 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.

Meat Thermometer

A Meat Thermometer is a very important tool when cooking big birds! Raw turkey has salmonella and a host of other germs that can make you sick. Making sure your turkey is fully cooked eliminates any of those threats!

For food safety, a turkey or turkey breast must reach an internal temperature of 165°F at the deepest point you can measure before you take it out of the oven… The internal temperature will continue to rise after you remove it to about 180 degrees. Some people like to take their bird out of the oven earlier so that after resting the internal temperature only gets up to 165, BUT I recommend we all play it on the safe side and wait till the internal temperature is 165 before removing it from the oven!

Use your meat thermometer to measure the internal temperature of roasted turkey breast before you stop cooking your turkey! Some people just look at the color of the skin and meat to decide if their turkey is done… They’ll cut into the turkey and if the juices that run out are clear (not pink) they consider it done. This isn’t a reliable method! First off…. They are losing all those good juices and the meat will end up being dry! Second, Pink color may be gone BEFORE the turkey reaches 165 degrees inside! Plus, heritage turkeys and smoked turkeys do not always lose the pink color… Even when they are cooked to over 165°F inside.

How To Use A Meat Thermometer

You can use an instant read thermometer or a remote thermometer (remote thermometers have a probe you insert before roasting, and that shows the internal temperature on a digital display sitting on your kitchen counter).

Insert thermometer probe into the thickest part of the breast or thickest part of the meat can also be the thigh. (But do not to touch the bone because touching the bone skews the temp). Turkey thighs are ideal to place probe because they can take longer to fully cook.

When the internal temperature show 165 degrees F, then carefully remove it from the oven and place the roasting pan on a cutting board on a protected surface.

Ingredients

• 12 -14 lb Turkey or Turkey Breast
• 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

1. Defrost Turkey (See post for when to take your turkey out of the freezer)
2. Remove From Package
3. 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.
4. Add aromatics (Sage, Thyme, carrot, and onion pot to the turkey and roasting pan.
5. Cover Turkey with Aluminum Foil and bake for half the time (about 2 hours for a large turkey)
6. 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.
7. Let Turkey rest for 20 minutes after removing from oven.
8. Enjoy!

Let Your Turkey Rest BEFORE Carving!

For juicy meat: After your turkey reaches 165 degrees F, 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!

Letting your turkey sit and rest lets the juices inside settle and be reabsorbed into the meat… Carving a turkey too soon allows all the yummy juices that make the meat moist run out, and you are left with dried-out meat and a puddle on the carving board!

Letting your bird rest gives you plenty of time to make gravy and get everything else ready to serve!

What To Do With Leftover Roast Turkey

I LOVE leftover roast turkey breast! Use it in green salads for a light and healthy meal, or just on a plate with leftover candied yams! I also love leftover turkey on leftover stuffing or homemade bread rolls with cranberry sauce, or on a plate with leftover stuffing and green-bean casserole! You can also freeze leftover turkey and add it to soups and stews when you need it! There are so many ways to use leftover turkey, but make sure to use or freeze after 4 days in the refrigerator.

If you’re making this for Thanksgiving, print your free Thanksgiving Coloring Pages to keep everyone busy while you’re cooking!

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