Earl Cooks Turkey for "Turkey" Alone with Many

I never find Thanksgiving leftovers to be a problem...until this year. We brought home our turkey leftovers and it was mostly DARK meat, which is fine for me...but not for "Turkey", my wife. She will eat only white meat on poultry. You can't cover it with enough cranberry jelly or gravy to get her to eat it. More for me right? Right and wrong. I can't be eating leftovers and have her starve to death now, can I? So when she suggested I buy a turkey breast and suggest she would like to have them regularly, I was thrilled. Turkey and Thanksgiving has special meaning for me because of my mom's love for both. She would buy a  breast and cook it up for herself and eat for a week. So when my "Turkey" wanted turkey, I thought I would do it a bit like my mom did and in commemoration of her, use the same roasting pan she used and make it a bit better, if not in spirit maybe in taste.


I grew up with a Magnalite Oval Roaster on the oven every Sunday, with a nice roast cooking away and veggies caramelizing along with the beef, but the roaster isn't big enough for a whole turkey, but a breast is ideal for this, and I was just in time to get Thanksgiving prices on bone in breasts for just $1.77/lb. I thought I would try a product by PictSweet farms from their Recipe Helpers line called simply Mirepoix. Frozen carrots, onions and celery, finely diced and ready to add to my roaster. I had the items already in the fridge but I want to give these a try, and I will keep them on hand! Save me a bunch of time and effort I didn't have since I still had potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes, stuffing and green beans to prepare.

The turkey breast, from Norbest, was frozen and under 4 lbs. The perfect size for this weeknight feast. Because it was frozen, special precautions were taken to make certain it cooked long and hot enough without being too dry. Into my roasting pan I drizzled some EVOO and placed the mirepoix in. I then seasoned the mirepoix with kosher salt & garlic pepper. Placing the frozen breast into the roaster I seasoned it with poultry seasoning, freshly ground pepper and salt. I started with a 350℉, preheated oven, which I will turn down to 325℉ after the first 2 hours of roasting.  I also basted the bird with real butter, half a stick. After the 3rd hour, I removed the lid and set my oven to cook from the top element (broil but not in temp) to brown the skin. I Basted again with the juices from the pan. After the 4 hours, I removed the
turkey from the oven and with an instant-read thermometer, checked the temp, even though the pop-up timer had popped, and it was perfect. I removed it from the oven and replaced the cover to let it rest, about ½ hour. During this time, I prepared the other items I would be serving, most of which were leftovers from Thanksgiving. I had Daughter #2's dressing and potatoes, "Turkey's" sweet potatoes and almost enough Son-in-Law's Gravy. So I added to his gravy with a mix I picked up called Pioneer Brand Roasted Turkey Gravy Mix. It was okay, but once I added the leftovers to it it was great. We also had my Green bean casserole, so except for the glazed ham and rolls, this was the same dinner we had Thanksgiving Day!