This roasted turkey breast is coated in a savory garlic and herb butter, then baked to golden brown perfection. The perfect quick and easy option for a holiday meal or everyday dinner!
When I’m feeding a crowd for the holidays, I make a whole roasted turkey. When I’m entertaining a smaller group, I opt for something like roasted cornish hen or roasted turkey breast instead. This is the best turkey breast I’ve ever had, it’s tender, flavorful and juicy – no dry meat here! Don’t forget the Instant Pot cranberry sauce and homemade dinner rolls on the side!
I love a good roasted turkey, especially around the holidays. That being said, sometimes it’s just my family of 5 and we don’t want to cook up a whole huge turkey. This roasted turkey breast is the perfect option. It’s super flavorful, quick cooking, and festive for any holiday meal like Christmas or Thanksgiving.
For other variations on this dish, be sure to check out my smoked turkey breast and Instant Pot turkey breast recipes. If you have any leftovers, check out my favorite leftover turkey recipes like turkey casserole, turkey pasta carbonara, turkey tetrazzini and turkey salad.
Table of Contents
Roasted Turkey Breast Ingredients
To make roasted turkey breast you will need a turkey breast, butter, garlic, sage leaves, rosemary leaves, thyme leaves, parsley, kosher salt, black pepper and herbs for a garnish.
How Do You Cook A Turkey Breast?
To make this roasted turkey breast recipe, first make seasoned butter by mixing minced herbs, garlic and seasonings into softened butter in a small bowl. Rub the butter on the turkey breast coating the whole breast. Place your turkey in a baking dish or roasting pan. Roast the turkey at high heat to crisp the skin, then lower the heat to cook everything thoroughly. Baste the turkey occasionally with pan drippings. When the roast reaches the correct internal temperature, remove it. Let it rest, then serve the turkey breast.
Tips For The Perfect Turkey
- You can use a fresh or frozen turkey for this recipe. Just make sure to thaw the turkey before roasting it.
- Use a meat thermometer to make sure the thickest part of the breast reaches 165 degrees F before serving the meat.
- You can use a half turkey breast or a whole turkey breast for this recipe. However, a whole turkey breast will take longer to cook. You will want to double the butter mixture to coat a whole breast.
- If your turkey breast is larger or smaller than the size indicated in the recipe, you can adjust the cook time accordingly. Turkey breast cooks for approximately 20 minutes per pound.
- Garnish the roasted turkey breast with fresh herbs or even small fruit for a beautiful presentation.
- Bring out the best in your bird with turkey gravy!
Quick Tip
Rub the butter mixture on top of the turkey skin and under the turkey skin.
Recipe FAQs
Typically a bone-in turkey breast takes about 20 minutes per pound to cook in the oven.
Your turkey breast is done when a thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the breast registers 165 degrees F. Be careful not to go too far about 165 degrees or you risk your meat being on the dry side. I use an oven safe thermometer probe that stays in the turkey as it cooks so I can continuously monitor the temperature.
The general rule of thumb is to cook one pound of roasted turkey breast per person. If you want plenty of turkey for leftovers, aim for 1 1/2 – 2 pounds per person.
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Flavor Variations
If you’re not in the mood for garlic and herbs, try one of these other options to add some flavor to your roasted turkey breast!
- Mexican: Mix the softened butter with my taco seasoning which includes chili powder, garlic powder, cumin and oregano.
- Cajun: Mix the softened butter with Cajun seasoning.
- Bacon Wrapped: Wrap 6-8 strips of bacon around the turkey breast until completely covered. This works best if you remove the turkey skin first.
- Maple: Add 2 tablespoons of maple syrup to the butter mixture.
This roasted turkey breast is sure to be a huge hit with family and friends. It’s even great for an everyday dinner option on a chilly fall or winter night, comfort food at its finest!
Turkey Breast Side Dishes
Sweet Potato Casserole with Marshmallows
1 hr 50 mins
Candied Carrots
25 mins
Southern Cornbread Dressing
1 hr 15 mins
Roasted Turkey Breast Video
Love This Recipe?
Please leave a 5-star 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 rating in the recipe card below & a review in the comments section further down the page.
Roasted Turkey Breast with Garlic and Herbs
Ingredients
- 6 lb bone in turkey breast I use a half breast
- 5 tablespoons butter softened
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1 tablespoon sage leaves finely minced
- 1 1/2 teaspoons rosemary leaves finely minced
- 1 tablespoon thyme leaves finely minced
- 2 tablespoons parsley finely minced
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- rosemary sprigs for garnish optional
- cooking spray
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Coat a baking dish with cooking spray.
- Place the butter, garlic, sage, rosemary, thyme, parsley and salt and pepper in a bowl. Stir to combine.
- Loosen the skin of the turkey breast. Spread half of the butter underneath the skin of the turkey, and the other half of the butter on top of the turkey breast.
- Place the turkey in the baking dish. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until skin has just started to brown.
- Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Bake for approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes, basting occasionally with pan juices.
- Check the temperature of the turkey by inserting a thermometer into the thickest part of the meat. The turkey can come out of the oven when the thermometer registers at least 160 degrees.
- Cover the turkey with foil and let it sit for 5-10 minutes, or until thermometer registers at least 165 degrees F.
- Garnish with rosemary and serve.
Notes
- Rub the butter mixture on top of the turkey skin and under the turkey skin.
- You can use a fresh or frozen turkey for this recipe. Just make sure to thaw the turkey before roasting it.
- Use a meat thermometer to make sure the thickest part of the breast reaches 165 degrees F before serving the meat.
This looks so incredibly (dare I say the word?)… moist and succulent! Awesome for thanksgiving!
great idea for our Thanksgiving dinner! Looks very moist and tender!
This turkey looks perfectly cooked. I love the mix of herbs.
The breast is the best part so this recipe is right up my ally! Looks absolutely delicious, can’t wait to try it out!
For the Mexican variation, could you provide the amount of each spice to add?
You would omit the fresh herbs and instead use 2 teaspoons chili powder, 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, 1/2 teaspoon lime zest and 1/2 teaspoon cumin.
I’m sorry for a dumb question but can I use a roasting pan instead of a baking dish?
Yes that’s fine!
Hi –
“6 lb bone in turkey breast I use a half breast”
Did you use a half of a 6 pound breast? Or was the half – 6 pounds? Sorry for the dumb question, but I want to be sure before I get one. Thanks!
There are two types of turkey breasts sold – a half which is one side of the breast, and a full which is both breasts. So you want 6 pounds of meat total, and it could be distributed between one or two breasts, as two breasts come as one connected piece.
Can dried herbs be used instead?
Yes use 1/3 of the amount!
Can you season the Turkey breast t night before ?
yes that’s fine!
This is the best cooking method for turkey that I have ever used. I only seasonedwith butter, salt, fresh cracked pepper, poultry seasoning, and fresh rosemary as I didn’t have the other herbs on hand. It was absolutely delicious, very moist, and flavorful!
I made this with turkey breast. I reduced the butter a bit and added herbs as directed. I cooked in my stone cooker and it was the juiciest turkey we have ever eaten. It was delicious!
This is by far the best site for recipes. I come every day and you have never disappointed me. Thank you so much you are making me famous at my zoo.
Best Turkey I’ve ever roasted! This is an amazing recipe. So easy. Followed recipe except I didn’t have fresh sage…..had to use dried. I increased butter a little too. Basted the Turkey every 20 minutes and used a meat thermometer to take out right at 160. Thank you for this amazing recipe!
Looks wonderful!
What do you recommend using in place of butter?
You could try using half the amount of olive oil but I haven’t tested it that way so I can’t say for sure how it would come out!
Delicious su
So excited by this simply easy and flavorf sounding recipe! Have always made whole turkey, 18-20 lbs. A friend gave me a breast half that is just shy of 6 lbs. Making today. I have black garlic that was given to me and I am mashing it into the butter with fresh sage and rose Mary, parsley and thyme. Love the flavor of tellicherry black pepper so grinding plenty in. Thank you so much! With roasted cauli and broccoli, onion and mushrooms; home made stuffing it will be a feast. Apple cranberry crisp for dessert. Thank you again for this recipe I will definitely keep.
We didn’t have turkey on Thanksgiving day and I was really craving a traditional meal so I decided to make this for my fiance and I a couple days after Thanksgiving. This was my first time ever cooking turkey myself and it turned out amazing. My breast was only 2.7 lbs but I still followed your recipe and didnt reduce anything and flavor was perfect. A couple things to note was that there was quite a bit of splattering happening in my oven during those first 15 minutes but not sure if that is unavoidable. The skin also didnt crisp up so I would maybe leave it longer on the higher temp but would have to be careful to not dry out. It did have a nice color thought. Other than that, the flavor was on point and will be saving this one for the future, thank you!
A friend give me a turkey breast and not having cooked turkey before, I wondered where to begin. So like most, I turned to Google. This was the second recipe I looked at. I chose this recipe because of its simplicity and the fact that the author give options for different flavors. I chose to make the cajun turkey breast. I have NEVER had a juicier turkey. It was so moist and delicious. Other than the seasoning, I followed the recipe as instructed. Thank you so much for sharing your amazing recipe. It’s a keeper 🙂
I tried this recipe with 2 turkey breast doubled the amount of herb seasoning, it came out perfectly! Topped with boysenberry/cranberry sauce I made, delicious! We are only 5 and we ate them all.
I made this yesterday for Thanksgiving and it was SO good! It turned out perfectly moist and flavorful – I basically just ate this and cranberry chutney and I am usually not a big turkey-eater! I was able to stand up the turkey breast in the roasting pan so it wasn’t laying on it’s side, and I used my oven probe to monitor the temperature. It cooked it a little longer at 450 and maybe an hour at 350, but I was watching for it to reach 160. We did make gravy with the drippings and the “gravy starter” that came with the Butterball breast (I had no idea there was such a thing, but it was super easy). I don’t think I will ever go back to a whole turkey again! Great recipe!!