Slow Cooker Bone-In Turkey Breast — ⏰🙌🧡 Learn how to make a perfect turkey breast every time using your slow cooker! Making turkey breast in a Crockpot results in juicy, tender turkey every time and is nearly impossible to dry out! Save the drippings at the bottom of the slow cooker for making into turkey gravy. Whether you want to free up oven space for a holiday meal or you’re looking for an easy weeknight dinner, this EASY recipe creates AMAZING turkey every time!
Table of Contents
Although I’ve mastered the fine art of roasting a whole turkey, I most often wind up cooking just a turkey breast for my family’s Thanksgiving meal.
It’s a smaller cut of meat, so I’m able to cook it with more confidence – and so will you. And since I do not have a big extended family who I am sharing the meal with, my immediate family and I end up with a reasonable amount of leftovers. Personally, I don’t need a freezer full of turkey that will take months to get through!
The best way to cook a turkey breast so it turns out moist and juicy every time? In a slow cooker!
There are so many reasons to slow cook a turkey breast in your Crockpot this holiday season:
- Using your Crockpot frees up oven space that can be used to make your favorite Thanksgiving and Christmas side dishes instead.
- You can set it and forget it when cooking turkey breast in a Crockpot. No babysitting or time-sensitive basting required!
- Crockpot roast turkey breast is much harder to overcook, so you’re pretty much guaranteed to have perfect results every time.
- Cooking just a turkey breast instead of a whole turkey is ideal for smaller to medium families or smaller gatherings so you end up with just enough leftovers to turn into turkey noodle soup or turkey tetrazzini, and then you’re done.
If you don’t want to commit to roasting a whole turkey this year, slow cook a turkey breast instead!
Slow Cooker Turkey Breast Recipe Ingredients
For a classic Thanksgiving recipe like this slow cooker bone in turkey breast, simple is better when it comes to the ingredients. Just tried-and-true common and easy to find fridge and pantry ingredients.
- Onion
- Bone-in, skin-on turkey breast
- Butter
- Fresh garlic
- Fresh herbs (thyme, rosemary, sage)
- Salt and pepper
- Smoked paprika
- Orange juice
- Reduced sodium chicken broth
For the turkey gravy using the drippings you’ll have in your slow cooker, you’ll need:
- Unsalted butter
- All-purpose flour
- Reduced sodium chicken broth
- Salt and pepper
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Cook a Bone-In Turkey Breast in a Slow Cooker
This Crockpot turkey breast recipe takes less than 10 minutes of hands-on prep to make! After that, the slow cooker does the work for you.
- Pat the turkey breast dry using paper towels.
- Rub the turkey all over using a combination of softened butter, fresh herbs, and spices that you mix up in a small bowl.
- Place roughly chopped onion pieces into the bottom of the slow cooker insert. Then, place the turkey breast on top of the onion pieces.
- Pour the orange juice and broth into the bottom of the slow cooker insert.
- Slow cook the turkey breast on low for 5 hours. Use a meat thermometer to test the doneness of the meat — if the internal temperature registers 160ºF, it’s good to go!
How to Crisp Up Turkey Breast Skin
You can either eat the slow cooked turkey breast as is, straight from the Crock-pot.
…OR you can take the time to crisp up the skin using your oven’s broiler.
1. To crisp up the skin, preheat the broiler to 500ºF or HIGH broil depending on your oven.
2. Before the broiler gets screaming hot, place an oven rack on the second to the top rung, or high enough that the turkey will be close to the broiler, but still have clearance to enter and the space isn’t too tight because remember the breast is likely quite thick.
3. Place the cooked turkey breast on a baking tray and cook under the broiler for about 5 minutes, or just until the skin becomes crispy and is browned.
Broiling comes with a huge caveat: DO NOT WALK AWAY from your kitchen, DO NOT TURN YOUR BACK ON YOUR OVEN, do no get distracted with chatting up Aunt Peggy, or start some other task or prep work that you plan to do ‘real quick’ because broilers are HOT. Watch your turkey breast very closely.
Recipe FAQs
Buy a bone-in turkey breast, which will contain both sides of the breast. Bone-in turkey breasts are juicier and more flavorful than boneless turkey breasts, and are harder to overcook.
If for some reason you cannot find a bone-in turkey breast, you can use a boneless turkey breast. It may also be skinless at that point, which is also fine. In general boneless proteins cook a bit quicker than bone-in
It’s up to you, and of course, based on what’s available at your grocery store or butcher shop. I find it’s more common to be able to get ahold of fresh (never previously frozen) breasts in comparison to a whole turkey, which are almost always frozen. So you may not have to worry about thawing your breast.
However, if you have purchased a frozen turkey breast and need to thaw it, remember this process takes a few DAYS, if done properly in the refrigerator and not on your counter (unsafe, don’t do it). The rule of thumb is 1 day for every 4-5 pounds of turkey. So if you are working with a 7-ish pound turkey breast, safely plan that it will take 48 hours to thaw in your fridge.
A bone-in turkey breast that’s roughly 7 pounds in weight will take 5 hours on low or 3 hours on high. Larger turkey breasts will take slightly longer to cook, while smaller turkey breasts will take less time to cook.
Use your best judgment when slow cooking a turkey breast in a Crockpot and adjust the cook time as needed. Because all slow cookers vary in their size, heat output, and your climate (cold vs. warm kitchen), the size of the turkey breast, bone-in or not, etc. it all affects cooking time. And obviously, cook until the bird is done, whatever that means given your situation.
A guaranteed way to wind up with a tough, dry turkey breast is to overcook it. While this is much less likely to happen in a slow cooker than oven-roasting, it’s still a possibility if you grossly over cook it.
The only way to know for sure if the turkey breast is finished cooking is to test its internal temperature using a meat thermometer. I prefer digital read to manual-read thermometers, but use what you have. The turkey breast is done when it reaches an internal temperature of 160ºF in the thickest part.
No, leave the skin on the turkey breast. Turkey is incredibly lean, so you need that layer of fat on top to add moisture and flavor.
After slow cooking the turkey breast in the Crockpot, broil it for about 5 minutes in your oven to crisp up the skin if you’d like. If you don’t care about crispy skin and you’re not a skin person no matter what, just let the meat rest briefly and then slice and serve.
I suggest using a 6 to 7-quart slow cooker, which is the typical size of most oval-shaped slow cookers. I do not recommend using anything smaller because food that’s cramped doesn’t cook as well or as evenly. I do not recommend using a round slow cooker since those are typically about 4 to 5-quart slow cookers which is a bit too small. 
I don’t recommend doing that, no. The vegetables wouldn’t cook at the same rate as the turkey breast, not to mention your slow cooker would be incredibly full if you cooked both the turkey and the vegetables in it. See above, cramped food doesn’t cook well.
Instead, cook your favorite holiday sides and casseroles in your oven. Looking for ideas? Scroll past the recipe card to see a ton of my favorite Thanksgiving side dishes and Christmas dinner sides, too.
No, you want to elevate the turkey breast on some chunks of onion to keep it out of the poaching liquid. The turkey will release quite a bit of moisture as it cooks, so the poaching liquid will eventually touch the meat — that’s not a problem.
You just don’t want the meat to be partially submerged in the broth / juice mixture from the beginning or else the turkey will cook unevenly in the Crockpot. And at that point it’s more like you would be poaching the turkey which isn’t the goal here.
This recipe calls for a bone-in turkey breast, also called a whole turkey breast. A whole turkey breast weighs roughly 7 pounds, which will feed about 6 people.
After cooking (which reduces the weight) and you take the bone out (reduces the weight), a 7 pound turkey breast turns into about 4 pounds. Most adults – especially on a special day like Thanksgiving where people have a u0022feastingu0022 mentality and east more than usual, I find most people easily eat 3/4 to 1 lb of turkey.
So I would say this serves 6 nicely, with a nice bit of leftovers, although not tons of leftovers. If you’re factoring in kids or lighter eaters, then you can stretch the yield to 8 people perhaps.
In my opinion, when it comes to turkey recipes, you should plan on about 1 pound of turkey per person. That’s cooked turkey, so raw is slightly more/heavier.
With that being said, not everyone in my family actually eats a full pound of turkey on Thanksgiving since our table is loaded down with so many side dishes as well! Even if you plan on 1 pound per person, you will have a nice amount of leftovers but not too much. Remember, the beauty of a turkey breast made in your slow cooker rather than an oven roasting whole bird is that you won’t have excessive amounts of leftover turkey!
What to Serve with Slow Cooker Bone-In Turkey Breast
Storage and Reheating Instructions
In the fridge: Leftover turkey breast can be stored in an airtight container for up to 5 days or frozen for up to 3 months. When refrigerating, I recommend spooning some of the gravy over the meat to keep it moist because turkey tends to dry out a bit in the fridge unfortunately.
To reheat individual servings of turkey: I usually just nuke my plate in the microwave at 30-second intervals.
To reheat larger servings: Place thicker turkey slices in a baking dish with a little broth, cover the pan with foil, and warm at 325ºF for about 10 minutes or until heated through. Personally, that sounds like a lot of work, but not every has a microwave.
Need to Use Up That Leftover Turkey?
I’ve got some recipes that use leftover turkey for ya! Try one of the following:
Easy 30-Minute Turkey Noodle Soup
Hawaiian Roll Turkey and Cheese Sliders
Turkey Tetrazzini
Easy Turkey Pot Pie
Sweet Potato and Chicken (or Shredded Turkey) Soup
Turkey Pasta Salad
Easy 30-Minute White Chicken (or Shredded Turkey) Chili
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Slow Cooker Bone-In Turkey Breast
Ingredients
Turkey
- 1 large white or yellow, peeled and diced into 1-inch chunks
- one 7-pound bone-in turkey breast, with skin on*
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened to room temp
- 2 to 3 cloves garlic, finely minced
- 2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves, chopped**
- 2 teaspoons fresh rosemary, chopped**
- 2 teaspoons fresh sage leaves, chopped**
- 1 to 2 teaspoons kosher salt, or to taste***
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika, or regular paprika if preferred
- ½ to 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
- ½ cup orange juice, chicken broth may be substituted if you do not want a light citrus flavor
- ¼ cup reduced sodium chicken broth
Gravy
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 2 cups broth, from the turkey drippings in the slow cooker, plus more if needed
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Turkey – Spray the ceramic portion of the a 6 to 7-quart slow cooker with cooking spray and scatter the onions chunks evenly over the base of it; set aside momentarily.
- Pat the turkey breast dry; set aside momentarily.
- To a small bowl, add the softened butter, garlic, all herbs, salt, pepper, and stir with a small spoon to combine and mix evenly. Tips – I really recommend fresh herbs however if you don't have all of them as fresh herbs and need to use some dried herbs from your pantry, it's fine. Use half the quantity of dried herbs compared to fresh. For example, use 1 teaspoon dried thyme rather in place of 2 teaspoons fresh thyme. I use 2 teaspoons salt (maybe more) because I am not brining this turkey first in saltwater, and I use reduced sodium broth, but to ensure the turkey tastes amazing, I find it does need a solid 2 teaspoons salt, but salt is a very personal thing. You can always add more salt later on if you're very sensitive to salt and want to use less salt to begin with.
- Rub the seasoned butter mixture all over the turkey breast including on top, underneath, and you can gently rub a bit in between the underneath the flap of skin and the actual meat, taking care not to rip the skin. Tip – The only way to really add the butter rub is with clean hands. Wear kitchen gloves if you'd like.
- Place the turkey on top of the onion chunks.
- Add the orange juice, reduced sodium chicken broth, and place the lid on the slow cooker.
- You can slow cook on HIGH for about 3 hours, or on LOW for about 5 hours. Tips – Resist the urge to keep opening the lid and peek on it. That let's the heat out and just delays the cooking process unnecessarily. Turkey breast is safe to consume when the internal temperature is 160F. In order to know that, I advise not guessing. Instead use a digital thermometer. You can pull the turkey from the slow cooker when the temp is about 155F. The internal temp will continue to rise even out of the slow cooker to the safe level of 160F. When taking the temp, make sure to go into the deepest part of the meat, but do not hit bone because the reading will be inaccurate.
- Rest the turkey for 5 to 10 minutes before slicing it if you are not moving on to the next steps, which are all optional.
- Crispy Skin, optional – If you want crispy skin, it's easily accomplished. Preheat your broiler to 500F or high broil, and move a wire rack to approximately the second highest rung in the oven. Tip – Make sure to eyeball the space it so that when you place your turkey breast (usually pretty thick) on a baking sheet, it has clearance to enter the oven and not actually touch the broiler. Do this before the oven and broiler get screaming hot.
- Place the cooked turkey breast on a baking sheet and place it on the pre-positioned oven rack and broil for about 5 minutes, or until the skin is as golden and crisped as desired. Tips – Broiling comes with a huge caveat: DO NOT WALK AWAY from your kitchen, DO NOT TURN YOUR BACK ON YOUR OVEN, do no get distracted or start another task or prep work that you plan to do ‘real quick’ because broilers are HOT. You can easily burn and ruin your turkey breast in 1 minute flat, and at that point, your holiday meal is definitely not going to be the smashing success you were hoping. Watch the turkey extremely closely!
- After the turkey skin is as golden as desired, remove the sheet pan from the oven, and allow the turkey to rest for 5 to 10 minutes. If you're making gravy, this is perfect.
- Gravy, optional – Strain the cooking juices/broth that have accumulated in the basin of the slow cooker into a 2-cup glass measuring cup. Tips – Straining is necessary because you don't want onion chunks in the finished gravy. However, the ceramic basin of the slow cooker is heavy and it'll be hot – be careful. If you need to dunk a 1/2 cup measuring cup in and dole out the broth 1/2-cup at a time, do it. I personally don't flip the whole thing over. It's tricky, hot, heavy, and you risk hot broth going everywhere!
- If you don't have 2 cups of cooking juices/broth, add additional reduced sodium chicken broth from a carton or can so that you have 2 cups; set aside.
- To a high-sided medium saucepan, add the butter, and heat over medium-high heat to melt.
- Add the flour to the melted butter, and cook for 1 minute; whisk the entire time. Tips – This is called a roux and is necessary so that later on the gravy thickens properly. Don't shortcut this step or your gravy will not thicken and will have a terrible raw flour taste.
- Slowly drizzle in the 2 cups of broth into the roux, whisking the entire time so that your gravy doesn't have lumps later.
- Turn the heat to medium or medium-low, and continue gently simmering the gravy for about 5 minutes, or until it has thickened. Whisk nearly constantly to avoid lumps.
- Taste the gravy and add salt and pepper, to taste. Tip – If you used reduced sodium chicken broth, and unsalted butter, I woudn't be surprised if you need 1 to 2 teaspoons salt, and about 1/2 teaspoon pepper, but of course always season to your personal taste preferences.
- Serving – Slice the rested turkey breast as thick or thin as desired, and serve with gravy, or as desired.
- Storage – Extra turkey and gravy (stored separately) will keep airight in fridge for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months. Reheat gently in the microwave or as desired before serving. I like to drizzle a bit of gravy over turkey meat before I store it to help keep it moister.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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