This, to me, is one of the most delicious ways to prepare turkey breast, and in the summer it's hard to beat. If you don't want to do this now, cut and paste this and save it for the dog days of summer. There’s a classic European dish of roasted veal breast in tuna sauce, vitello tonnato. Julia Child adapted it for poached turkey breast instead of veal. (It’s much cheaper and more tender, and it works very well.) This recipe is ideal for hot weather, especially for a luncheon for several people. You make the entire recipe a day or two in advance: the day of the lunch, all you have to do is take the dish out of the fridge and, if desired, decorate it a bit. You can serve this dish with a salad, or make sandwiches with it, or just eat it plain. Delicious. If you don’t like capers, leave them out; it’ll still taste great. I’m reproducing the recipe exactly as Julia has it, but I would note that when I made it I found that the Dijon mustard tended to overpower the other ingredients; even though she calls for 2 to 3 tablespoons, I’d start with only 1 tablespoon and add a little more if needed. (I know it takes chutzpah to overrule Julia, but there you have it.) While it calls for poached turkey breast (and I include her directions for poaching a turkey breast) if you just want to try out the sauce, you can ‘cheat’ and go to the deli and get several slices of precooked turkey breast and use that. (I’ve done that ; works great, although it ends up costing about three times as much as poaching a turkey breast on your own.) She makes the point that you don’t serve it as sliced turkey with a sauce on the side; you need to smear each slice with the sauce and let the slices absorb the flavors for a day or two. You can make the sauce in either a blender or a food processor. If you have a food processor, though, the sauce is extremely easy to make. In fact, my Cuisinart has a push-tube with a hole in it that is designed to drip oil at just the right speed for emulsifying with the other ingredients. Tacchino Tonnato from Julia Child’s The Way to Cook (Cold Sliced turkey breast in tuna and anchovy sauce) For 8 or more servings 1 - 7 oz tin (1 cup) tuna packed in water, drained 1 - 2oz tin of flat fillets of anchovies packed in olive oil, drained One-fourth cup capers, squeezed dry The grated peel of one half lemon 2 to 3 tbsp Dijon-type prepared mustard (you may wish to start with just one and add more if needed) 1 large clove of garlic, pureed, then mashed to a very fine paste with one-fourth tsp salt 4 egg yolks 1 to 1 ½ cups or more virgin olive oil Drops of lemon juice Salt and freshly ground white pepper One 6-pound poached turkey breast (recipe follows this one) or 16 to 20 generous but thin slices of cooked turkey breast Decorations: 1/3 cup capers, drained; coarsely chopped parsley; lemon wedges The sauce. Puree the tuna, anchovies, capers, lemon peel, mustard and garlic paste in the machine, then add the egg yolks and puree several seconds, until the mixture has thickened. Finally, with the motor running, start adding the oil in a very thin stream of droplets, and continue without pause until three-fourths of a cup of oil has gone in and the sauce has thickened into a heavy cream. It will not be as thick as mayonnaise, but should hold itself in creamy suspension. Process in one-half cup more of oil, depending on how thick a sauce you wish to have. Season carefully to taste with lemon juice, salt and pepper; the sauce should have character, but should not be too strong in taste or it will kill off the turkey. Slicing the turkey. If you are using a poached turkey breast, discard the skin. Carefully remove in one piece the whole side of each breast from the carcass. Cut the meat at a slant crosswise (across the grain) into elegant slices less than 1/8 inch thick. Assembling. Spoon a layer of sauce in the bottom of a serving platter, and arrange the turkey on top, spreading each slice with a coating of sauce. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 24 to 48 hours before serving. Serving. Let the platter sit at room temperature for 20 minutes to take off the chill. Meanwhile sprinkle on the capers and parsley, and decorate with lemon wedges. Poached Turkey Breast Set up a 6-pound bone-in breast of turkey breast up in a kettle just large enough to hold it comfortably, surround it with 1 cup each of chopped carrots, onions and celery, and a large herb bouquet. Pour in 2 cups of chicken broth, 1 cup of dry white French vermouth or dry white wine, and enough water to cover the breast by ½ inch. Bring to the simmer on top of the stove; skim off the gray scum, which will continue to rise for several minutes. Salt lightly, then cover the pot loosely and maintain at the bare simmer for 2 to 2 ½ hours, adding a little boiling water if the liquid evaporates to expose the turkey. It’s done when a meat thermometer, pushed in to the thickest part of the meat near the shoulder (but not touching bone) reads 162 to 165 F. Let the turkey cool in its broth for at least 30 minutes. Refrigerate uncovered; when chilled, remove the turkey to a covered container.

Garbage man took the turkey today - It's gone and I'm over it! Teresa - Butterflying the chicken is simple. Just take some shears and cut along both sides of the back bone to remove it. Flip it over, push down hard in the middle of the breast till it cracks and lays flat. Lay it on a broiler rack and pull up the legs to rest between the thigh and the breast. Here's the full recipe. It calls for putting potatoes under the broiler rack, and man do they come out tasting good! The turkey recipe used a 16x12 disposable roasting pan under the rack rather than the pan bottom so that you could fit more stuffing. In either case, the object is to have somewhere for the fat to run without smoking up your kitchen. It's a very effective trick. Crisp-Skin High-Roast Butterflied Chicken with Potatoes If you prefer not to brine, use a kosher chicken - it is salted and has a taste and texture similar to a brined bird. For extracrisp skin, after applying the flavored butter (if using), let the chicken dry uncovered in the refrigerator 8 to 24 hours. Russet potatoes have the best potato flavor, but Yukon Golds have beautiful color and better retain their shape after cooking. Either works well in this recipe. A food processor makes quick and easy work of slicing the potatoes. Serves 4 1 cup kosher salt (or 1/2 cup table salt), for brine 1/2 cup granulated sugar 1 whole chicken , 3 1/2 to 4 lbs, preferably free-range or other high-quality chicken such as Bell and Evans, giblets removed and reserved for another use, fat around cavity removed and discarded 2 1/2 pounds russet potatoes (4 to 5 medium), or Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and sliced 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick Vegetable cooking spray (nonstick) 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil 3/4 teaspoon table salt (for potatoes) Ground black pepper 1. Dissolve salt and sugar in 2 quarts cold water in large container. Immerse chicken and refrigerate until fully seasoned, about 1 hour. Meanwhile, adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 500 degrees. Line bottom of broiler pan with foil and spray with nonstick vegetable cooking spray. Remove chicken from brine and rinse thoroughly under cold running water. Following illustrations 1 through 6, butterfly chicken, flatten breastbone, apply flavored butter (if using), and position chicken on broiler pan rack; thoroughly pat dry with paper towels. 2. Toss potatoes with 1 tablespoon oil, salt, and pepper to taste in medium bowl. Spread potatoes in even layer in foil-lined broiler pan bottom. Place broiler pan rack with chicken on top. Rub chicken with remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons oil and sprinkle with pepper. 3. Roast chicken until spotty brown, about 20 minutes. Rotate pan and continue to roast until skin has crisped and turned a deep brown and an instant-read thermometer registers 160 degrees in thickest part of breast, 20 to 25 minutes longer. Transfer chicken to cutting board. With potholders, remove broiler pan rack; soak up excess grease from potatoes with several sheets paper towels. Remove foil liner with potatoes from broiler pan bottom and invert foil and potatoes onto cookie sheet or second cutting board. Carefully peel back foil, using a metal spatula to help scrape potatoes off foil as needed. With additional paper towels, pat off remaining grease. Cut chicken into serving pieces and serve with potatoes.

I found a recipe using a technique I tried with roast beef and I really liked how this turkey turned out. Defrost the turkey, Remove the wrapper and let it sit in the refrigerator uncovered over night to dry the skin. Allow to warm to room temperature for 2 hours Stuff and cook uncovered at 300d for 1 hour. Then cover with aluminum tent for 18 - 20 hours at 200d. When ready to serve, heat oven to 400d and crisp the skin for 10 - 15 min. It was a 12lb bird. Start cooking at 6pm for a 2pm dinner. Stuffing temperature is to be 165d when done. Let it sit 15 - 30 min before carving. My stuffing is box and according to directions. I add cranberries, chopped walnuts, chopped onions, and sliced water chestnuts, half in the bird, half in a separate pan.

Well, I ran out of time yesterday to cook it in the crock pot, so I ended up roasting it in the conventional oven. First of all I should point out that the breast weighed 1.75#, not the 2.75# I gave in my initial post. Anyway, here's what I did: I followed Linda's guidelines (thank you, Linda) but at Compumom's temperature (350F). In a large roasting dish, I placed the half-breast on a nest of thinly-sliced onion (1 large onion) and several peeled garlic gloves. I seasoned the breast with S&P and I few other savory seasonings I like, topped with a several dots of butter over the skin, and popped the dish in the fridge until ready to heat up the oven. Meanwhile, I cut 3 large (the size of baseballs!) red potatoes into chunks tossed them with a little olive oil and dried rosemary - just enough oil to lightly coat the potato pieces At baking time, I poured 1/4C dry white wine and about as much chicken broth (both at room temp) around the breast (not over it) and placed the potatoes in the bottom of the dish around the breast. Covered loosely with a foil tent and baked about 1.5 hours (I checked after 1.25 hours but not quite done). Removed from oven when temp reached 165F with instant-read thermometer, let sit 10-15 minutes with foil tent. The meat was extremely juicy and tender. The thin slices of onion caramelized in the wine/broth/juices and created a delicious sauce for the potatoes - as well as being tasty to eat. (There were a few thicker slices that didn't caramelize; next time I'll be sure ALL the slices are thin - they'd also be a nice addition to a turkey sandwich the next day.) Next time I may add a bit more liquid to create a bit more juice, but really it was fine as is. I still maintain it's possible to make a juicy tender delicious turkey/chicken breast in the crock pot --- if done correctly --- and I plan to give that a whirl sometime soon. I've found several recipes on-line with very favorable reviews to indicate they are worth trying. Thank you all for your suggestions and input! PS - I wanted to add brussels sprouts (halved) with the potatoes but was afraid this would increase cooking time. Will that work, all together in the same dish at the same time? The potatoes went in with the turkey and all turned out fine.