Juicy Baked Turkey Breast — 🦃🍁👏🏻 Don’t need a whole turkey? This recipe for baked turkey breast is PERFECT! The turkey is juicy, moist and tender inside with crispy skin outside. This is an EASY recipe that uses dried herbs and spices to deliver big flavor with minimal effort on your part – and you won’t have leftover turkey for days, either!
Table of Contents
There are times when you don’t need a whole turkey such as you have a smaller family, you want to enjoy turkey at times during the year other than over the holidays, or you simply don’t want to deal with endless turkey leftovers. Then this recipe for roasted turkey breast is just what you need!
Turkey breasts are much smaller (obviously) so they’re easier to roast to moist and juicy perfection. No dry turkey here!
This herb roasted turkey breast is packed with flavor thanks to a simple wet rub made with brown sugar, lemon juice, olive oil, oregano, parsley, thyme, and sage. Despite the sugar, the flavor of the turkey is not sweet (it’s only 2 tablespoons for an entire turkey) but instead the turkey is perfectly seasoned, earthy, and savory.
For a subtle citrus flavor, the turkey breast rests on lemon slices as it roasts. The lemon slices also elevate the turkey breast just enough to help hot air circulate all around the meat so it roasts evenly in the oven without using a baking dish with a rack.
This recipe is sure to be a holiday meal win for your family for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Year’s Eve dinner celebrations! And if you’re like me and you crave turkey other times of the year, especially during the cold winter months, this is a do-able baked turkey breast recipe even on weeknights that’s ready in 90 minutes.
Ingredients for Oven Baked Turkey Breast
This citrus herb roasted turkey breast is infused with flavor using very simple ingredients. To keep this recipe super simple and budget-friendly, I stuck to all dried herbs and spices that I keep in my pantry at all times.
Gather the following:
- Bone-in turkey breast – properly thawed from a frozen turkey or from a fresh turkey if you’re lucky enough to find it (with the packet of giblets removed from the inner cavity )
- Lemons – one will be juiced and one will be sliced and roasted with the turkey
- Olive oil – I used olive oil rather than butter but you can sub with softened butter if you’d like. My other turkey recipes such as Foolproof Roasted Turkey and Easy Oven Roasted Citrus Turkey both use butter so I wanted to mix it up with this one
- Light or dark brown sugar
- Dried parsley
- Dried oregano
- Garlic powder
- Ground sage
- Ground thyme
- Kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Smoked paprika – has a deeper flavor than regular paprika, but substitute regular if that’s what you have
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Bake a Turkey Breast
Baking a bone-in turkey breast is quicker and easier than you’d think – just about 15 minutes of prep time and about 1 hr 15 mins to bake.
Tip: Remember to allow time for the turkey breast to thaw completely in the fridge before you bake it! See the FAQs below for more info.
Here’s an overview of the best way to bake a turkey breast:
- Arrange the lemon slices in the bottom of a large roasting pan such as a 9×13-inch casserole dish, or similar size. You don’t need a pan with a rack since you’re going to place lemon slices on the bottom and they act as the ‘rack’.
- Remove the packet of giblets and neck from the cavity of the turkey breast. Pat the skin dry with a clean paper towel and place turkey breast in the roasting pan, breast-side up.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, herbs and spices. Rub all over the turkey breast, including under the skin.
- Roast the turkey uncovered at 325ºF, basting occasionally with the pan juices. When the thickest part of the breast reaches an internal temperature of 155F-160F, as measured by a digital thermometer, remove it from the oven, and tent it with aluminum foil.
- You must let it rest for 15 to 20 minutes before carving, at this point the internal temperature should have reached 165ºF and the turkey will be safe to eat and the juices will have redistributed in the meat.
How to Tell When a Turkey Breast Is Done Baking
Many sources say to bake turkey until it reaches 165ºF in the breast, but in my experience, that results in dry turkey – especially when it’s just the lean white breast meat.
I pull my turkey breast from the oven when it reaches 155ºF and rest it for a full 20 minutes. During that time, the juices have time to settle and the carryover heat from the oven raises the internal temperature to 160-165ºF. All experts agree that it’s safe to eat at 165F and some say 160F is fine, too.
Don’t just guess when the baked turkey breast is done! Make your life easy by purchasing a digital meat thermometer or laser thermometer. They cost around $15 bucks and make roasting a Thanksgiving turkey breast SO easy!
Have Leftover Turkey? I’ve Got Recipes!
I have lots of turkey recipes on my site that can all be made using leftover Thanksgiving turkey. Some reader favorites include this Turkey Noodle Soup, Turkey Pot Pie, Turkey Tetrazzini, and Turkey and Cheese Sliders.
Recipe FAQs
Roasting times will vary depending on the size of your turkey breast. Plan on baking a bone-in turkey breast for 15 minutes per pound, and pull it out of the oven when it reaches 155ºF. Let the carryover heat bring the temperature up to 165ºF as the turkey rests.
Technically yes, but bone-in turkey breasts are much more flavorful and remain juicier once baked. Plus, bone-in turkey breasts contain the whole breast (not just one side), meaning you’ll end up with more meat for the same amount of effort! Apart from all of that, it’s tricky to find boneless turkey breasts in my experience.
Both will work, but if you purchase a frozen turkey breast you need to allow plenty of time to thaw it before baking (info provided below).
Fresh turkey breasts are fairly easy to find around Thanksgiving (although I find they sell out quickly in San Diego where I live – definitely hit and miss). So if you can find one, you might as well purchase a fresh turkey breast and save yourself the hassle of thawing a frozen turkey breast. If you have a Trader Joe’s in your area, I have good luck there, even during “turkey offseason” months.
Plan for 24 to 36 hours of thawing per 4 pounds of turkey. Most frozen turkey breasts take 1 1/2 to 2 full days to thaw completely since they’re usually in the range of 4-6 lbs.
I suggest thawing the turkey breast in the fridge. NEVER thaw on the counter as that can lead to the development of bacteria and ultimately food poisoning.
If you forgot to thaw the turkey breast in the fridge (it happens!), submerge the packaged breast in ice water. It takes 30 to 45 minutes per pound to thaw a turkey breast this way, and you’ll have to change out the ice water regularly.
I wrote very extensively about thawing a whole turkey if you’re curious about that, too.
I aim for 1 pound of turkey per person (and some sources say 1 to 1.5 lbs per person) but it varies based on appetites and what else you’re serving. Remember that the turkey is just one of many dishes served on Thanksgiving or Christmas so the likelihood of anyone actually eating a full pound of turkey is slim. With all kinds of great sides like mashed potatoes, make-ahead mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, and cranberries, many people will eat less than 1 lb of turkey.
If you need to free up some oven space this year, follow my Slow Cooker Turkey Breast recipe instead. That recipe also has instructions on how to crisp up the skin of the turkey breast since I know how much people love to pick off the crispy skin!
Please do! I have an Easy Turkey Gravy recipe that uses pan drippings.
For a more flavorful gravy, you can add some vegetables (carrots, onions, celery) plus 1 cup of turkey or vegetable broth to the bottom of the roasting pan while baking this turkey breast.
What to Serve with Baked Turkey Breast
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Juicy Baked Turkey Breast
Ingredients
- 5 pound bone-in turkey breast, properly thawed from frozen or use fresh turkey (turkey breasts in the range of 4-6 lbs are fine; read blog post how to properly thaw a turkey, you’ll need 24-36 hours in the fridge)
- 1 medium lemon, sliced
- Juice from half of 1 lemon
- ⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar, packed (I used dark but light brown sugar is fine)
- 2 teaspoons dried parsley
- 1 ½ teaspoons dried oregano
- 1 ½ teaspoons garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon dried sage
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
- ¾ to 1 teaspoon smoked paprika, or to taste
- Fresh herb sprigs and citrus slices, optional for garnishing
Instructions
- Arrange the main oven rack on the middle position in your oven and preheat the oven to 325F. Tip – If in doubt, go lower rather than higher with rack selection.
- Place lemons slices into the bottom of a 9×13 baking dish or roasting pan. The slices are going to act like a roasting rack, so you don't need a roasting pan with a wire rack insert.
- Remove the thawed turkey from the packaging and remove the neck and any giblets packet from the inside of the turkey breast cavity. I discard them.
- Pat the turkey skin with paper towels to dry and place the turkey into your roasting pan on top of the lemon slices, breast side up.
- To a small bowl, add the the lemon juice, olive oil and all remaining ingredients (except the optional fresh garnishing items) and stir to combine.
- Rub the wet mixture both underneath the turkey skin (using caution not to tear it) and all over the outside of the turkey until evenly coated.
- Roast the turkey uncovered for 15 minutes per pound (for this 5 lb turkey = 75 mins), basting occasionally with the pan juices, until the internal temperature of the thickest part of the turkey breast is 155 to 160F, as measured by a digital thermometer. Roasting Tips – The turkey is not quite at a safe temp to eat yet, so you must rest it, see next step. If at any time during baking the top is looking a bit too dark or looks to be burning (unlikely), you can drape a sheet of foil over the top of the roasting pan which will shield the exterior of the turkey from additional browning.
- Remove the turkey from the oven and place a piece of aluminum foil over the top to seal in the juices and allow the internal temp to come up to 165F, which is the safe temperature to consume it. Therefore, you should allow for about 15-20 minutes before carving and serving it.
- Optional – If you'd like to make gravy using the pan drippings while you're resting the turkey and waiting, go for it. Follow my Easy 15-Minute Turkey Gravy recipe.
- Slice the turkey and serve warm, or optionally place it on a serving platter and garnish with fresh herb sprigs (rosemary, thyme, sage, etc.) and citrus slices.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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I have a pre cooked Turkey Breast from Costco. Will the Rub make any difference on the Turkey since all that needs to be done is to “warm it up”?
Would it be better to use a Glaze instead and what would be the best with a Citus taste?
If it’s already precooked, then yes, all you are doing is warming it up and I am sure they seasoned the turkey already. If you’re going to serve it with gravy, I wouldn’t do a glaze. Sounds like it could get a bit “too much” for personally. Maybe try some lemon pepper https://amzn.to/3CnaS75 or something that’s labeled as citrus https://amzn.to/4fGGUsU and that one does not have salt, the first does. You will need to be mindful of that too since Costco probably salted up the turkey breast quite a bit.
Love the prep work on getting the breast so juicy. I vertical roast my turkey breast and take it out at 162 degrees internal and let it rest up to 165 degrees.
Thank you and your method sounds perfect! It’s great pay very close attention to the temperature and know just when to pull it and then rest it. So important!