I bake turkey in an oven bag for a slight twist on traditional. Prepare the bag by shaking a tablespoon of flour in it, add roughly-chopped onion,carrots and celery, and season the vegetables with fresh or dried sage (or poultry seasoning mix - or your favorites), salt and white pepper. Follow directions for use, time, and temperature per oven bag box. The nice thing, it can be baked in a 9x13-inch cake pan or lasagna pan, is done in less time than traditional baked turkey breast, doesn't require basting, meat never dries out, and clean-up is pretty simple.

You will end up with a generous amount of turkey broth/drippings that can be used for gravy, soup stock, and probably enough for portions for the freezer.

I like to put a mellow fresh herb, such as thyme, under the skin, and cook, loosely covered, in an inch or two of white wine. People on TV say you have to use the same quality wine you'd drink at the table, but in my experience, if it tastes okay out of the bottle, it'll be fine on the turkey. Conversely, if it's too complex or interesting a wine, it's not really good in cooking and a huge waste of money unless it's leftover. I use Two Buck Chuck (Charles Shaw from Trader Joe's at $2.49 nowadays), and get raves.

If you're a big garlic fan, you can chop a lot of garlic and mix it with softened butter, and rub it all over the bird (parts). Be careful of the cooking temperature, however, because garlic gets acrid when it gets too hot. This is better low and slow, like 300ð or so, depending on your oven.

My favorite for turkey breast is barbecue. You can make it towards the Thanksgiving rather than 4th of July by adjusting the seasonings. More cumin less chili.

You can even oven smoke it, on a rack, in a roaster with soaked, fragrant wood chips, and covered tightly, but be careful with it so the smoke is well sealed in and you let it out under the hood, or you'll have campfire chemicals in your house.

It's still summer here in SoCal. :) Have fun starting your Autumn!

I have better luck with the oven bag also. I rub olive oil all over the turkey breast and season with lots of sea salt & light pepper. I place several stalks of celery in the bottom of the bag for the turkey to sit on.
Always turns out great.
Betty

I think my Dad may have been one of firsts to go "deconstructed" for Thanksgiving. Growing up, T-day rotated among grandparents, Dad, his sister & brother. FULL houses and typical spread of more food than actually needed!?!

Dad was not a fan of dark meat. He also didn't like picking a carcass after the meal... a job that usually got relegated to me as a teen. When it came around to his turn one year, he bought TWO whole bone-in/skin-on breasts, 4 wings, and 2 sets of thighs/drums. .. equal to 2 turkeys... minus the backbone and parts he just didn't want to deal with.

No doubt cost more $$ to buy all those individual parts, but pretty much no waste. The birds cooked faster... pulled white meat out of roaster before it had a chance to get dry... and we still got plenty of nice dark "gunk" in bottom of roasting pan for lots of gravy.

My grandmother (Nana, his mom) got the necks and other goodies that came with the breasts... she loved all that stuff and made great turkey noodle soup with the necks alone. I don't remember anybody making stock from the bones afterward??

I roast 1/2 of a turkey breast on the grill with slices of garlic and sage under the breast. Because there are only two of us, I do this for Thanksgiving too. The gravy is made ahead of time using wings and legs purchased at the time.

I ended up cooking them in a bag after rubbing it all over and under the skin with a compound butter of garlic, salt, pepper, poultry seasoning and thyme. They turned out great. I served it with honey/butter glazed carrots and green beans.I remembered to snap a quick pic after I took them out of the bag and before I carved them. I hope I get better at taking food pics. I love seeing all the ones posted here but mine never seem to look quite as good as that!! This is all I got for tonight. I feel a little intimidated by the picture taking but I'll keep trying!!

A reply this time of day and you would starve to death.

It is definitely still summer here - in a big way, and it is supposed to be 87 at the beach this week-end, and so I am very glad I have A/C.

I cook turkey all year, and I freqently buy breasts that have been deboned, and then I smoke them in the electric smoker outside, using mesquite chips. Then I use the meat mostly for sandwiches, as smoked turkey is not as versatile as plain turkey.

When I roast turkey, I do a dry salt rub a couple of days before roasting, and I add no other seasoning - I like to taste the turkey, and flavorings can be added later, if needed. If I am roasting just a breast, I will rub it with my Cajun seasoning mix, however, which is basically thyme, basil, oregano (the trinity of Cajun herbs) plus garlic, onion, salt, and cayenne. I get much more adventurous with chickens than I do with turkeys. I often make a mushroom sauce with the turkey drippings, unless it has been smoked.

Apples are getting ripe on my tree, but I noticed from some of my old photos that November 2 is peak season for our tree, and so it has another month to go before we have to harvest. The tree keeps its leaves all winter, starts losing them in the spring, and doesn't get new leaves until May, leaving my bromeliads without enough shade, so that I have to move them into the pergola temporarily.

This year I will be getting cherimoya fruit from my tree for the first time, but it looks like that won't happen until November either. When I had a mango tree, it also fruited late in the fall even though summer is supposed to be the season. Maybe cherimoya will be my new Thanksgiving fruit, replacing the mango.

I've never grown pumpkins, but I do like to make pumpkin pie.

Lars

There's nothing wrong with your photo skills! Your chicken looks great and is making me hungry. Darn.

Thanks to dcarch, I've become fascinated with sous vide. I'm just reading things for now but I saw a turkey breast "porchetta" on SeriousEats that made my mouth water!

I want THIS on Thanksgiving!

I have no idea how to make this traditionally, or sous vide for that matter, but I know there are recipes out there.

Here is a link that might be useful: Turchetta

Come Thanksgiving, stores practically give turkeys away.

I cook one for the TG table, and sous vide one or two for the freezer for perfect cold cuts and other recipes.

dcarch

Since our Canadian Thanksgiving is next weekend, turkeys are on sale now for 88c/lb. Yum! We buy 2, one for the freezer to have at a later date. It's not easy getting turkeys in the 6-8 lb range, which is what we like.

Happy Thanksgiving, Jasdip !

LOL. Thanks Deeby!
I love having our TG at the end of October. And reading of all your wonderful meals in November, makes me yearn for yet another turkey dinner.