ISO help cooking frozen turkey breast

[damao33]

Hey guys

I'm new to the forums here and enjoy cooking, so I'm reallly glad I found this site. Anyways, one of my favorite foods is tukey, but so far my only cooking experience with it is with deli meat, sausage, and ground. So today at the store, the jennie-o frozen turkey breast was on sale and I bought one that's about ~9 lbs.

I have never had any experience with this before and really have not done too much cooking with the oven before. I plan on inviting some people over and making it next week and was wondering if any of you guys know of any simple but tasty recipes, maranaides, rubs for this dish.

any help would be greatly appreciated and I'm looking forwards to wasting a lot of my time in the future on this forum :P.

 

[jennyema]

WELCOME TO DC!

I would suggest brining it, which involves soaking it in a salt/sugar/water solution and then roasting it. Brining makes the meat moister and also adds a great savory flavor.

You can also grill a turkey breast, but I have never dones so.

 

[SierraCook]

Here is some information on cooking a turkey breast in the crockpot. I have never done it, but my mom cooks turkey breast in the crockpot all the time and it turns out great.

Turkey breast in the slowcooker

and some other ideas.

Ideas for using turkey breasts

 

[Caine]

Everything you ever wanted to know about cooking a turkey, in two languages (neither of which is Turkish, BTW!) can be found at the BUTTERBALL HOTLINE <---click this

 

[auntdot]

'People over' and 'never done that before' can lead to interesting results.

I don't know anyone who likes to cook who hasn't done pulled off a great meal they have never tried, but we all ahve stories of those meals that, well, just did not live up to our expectations, shall we say.

Would go with jenny on this, brine and roast. But it is summer here is the northern latitudes and don't know where you live or whether the party is amenable to that.

Grilling could be fun but it is fraught with more danger than a simple oven roast. I have just gotten into grilling recently, rather late in life, and am learning a lot, but screw up with great regularity. Fortunately, my goofs usually taste pretty OK. But I am not proud of them.

Have no experience with the slow cooker other than for keeping dishes warm for parties, sorry. Have gotta try that manner of cooking one of these days.

Turkey breast tends to become dry if not handled with TLC, so would go to the suggested websites and definitely brine.

Just a few ideas from here, good luck and I'm sure it will be great..

 

[damao33]

thanks for the ideas and links guys, I've been looking at a few other websites and think I may have a plan.

Since its a 8-9 lber, i plan on start thawing 2 days before and stick it in a brine overnight. Take it out in the morning and cover it with butter, oil, seasoning. Stick it in a casserole dish and cover with foil. Cook for about 3 hours with some veggies thrown in there while basting. Finally pray that it comes out good!

ok a couple of questions:

1. What ingredients should go into this brine? I have maranaided ribs and chicken with beer before, would it work well with turkey?
2. What seasonings have you guys put on your turkey and had it come out good?

I'll definitly have more and will post them on here. I'm still in college and learning, so the expectations from my friends probably won't be too high for this meal, but I do want it to be an awesome meal for em.

thanks!

 

[kitchenelf]

First, check to see if your turkey breast is already injected with a brine solution. The reason being is - if your turkey breast has more salt than your brine the brine will pull the salt from the turkey, making it dry. If it does have a solution in it just jack up the salt in your brine a bit.

I brine my turkey in pure apple juice with:

kosher salt
brown sugar
fresh garlic, peeled and smushed
fresh rosemary
fresh peppercorns
fresh lemons or limes

I heat the apple juice (with everything in it) just enough to dissolve the salt and sugar. Let cool thoroughly by filling a couple ziplock bags with ice and then placing the bags in the warm brine. This will help chill it fast so you can put the turkey in. Once the brine is completely chilled put your turkey in. I just use a stockpot for mine. I also place a bowl on top filled with something to keep the turkey from floating.

Oh, I forgot measurements - say for 1 gallon of apple juice I might use 1/2 cup salt and 3/4 cup brown sugar - then:

4 cloves garlic
4 sprigs rosemary
2 TBS (small palmful) peppercorns
2 lemons or limes
even an orange or two is good

I slice and squeeze the fruit in and then add the fruit too.

 

[damao33]

hey guys

well the turkey is on the bottom of the fridge and is dethawing, gonna try to stick this thing in the oven tuesday and see how it goes. I don't think i'll be brining it since the turkeys seems like it it was soaked in a 15% solution... but I did manage to get my hands on a syringe, what are some liquids I could inject into the meat?

thanks

 

[LMJ]

hey guys

well the turkey is on the bottom of the fridge and is dethawing, gonna try to stick this thing in the oven tuesday and see how it goes. I don't think i'll be brining it since the turkeys seems like it it was soaked in a 15% solution... but I did manage to get my hands on a syringe, what are some liquids I could inject into the meat?

thanks

Ooo, injecting is kind of a hack move for hacks who don't brine... You don't wanna go down that road, it leads to things like Cream of Mushroom Soup-based casseroles and Hamburger Helper. Bad juju!

If you won't want to go thru the trouble of brining, I suggest aromatics. Try half an apple, 5 dried allspice berries, half an onion, half a bulb of garlic, a few sprigs of sage and rosemary (if you all you can get is powdered, don't bother... but dried rosemary leaves, which look like pine needles... uhm, use about a tablespoon of those if you've got them), and a finger of fresh ginger root (usually near the garlic in the produce section, they look like this, find one with smooth, firm skin and break off a "finger" of about 2 inches in length, more wouldn't hurt). Oh! And a stick of cinnamon. BTW, if you need herbs and spices, stay FAR away from the shelves at your grocery store; find someone who deals in bulk herbs and spices, or find an Arab or Indian grocer. Supermarket chains charge CRIMINAL prices for herbs and spices that have been sitting on the shelf for far too long.

Put the half an apple, half an onion, allspice berries, PEELED garlic cloves, ginger, and cinnamon stick into something microwave safe, add enough hot water to come up about a quarter of an inch, then microwave them on high for 5 minutes.

Finally, take all the aromatics I listed, and cram them into the bird's body cavity. The idea being that the rich scents will permeate the meat while cooking, adding lots of flavor. Sort of a dry brine.

 

[Andy M.]

hey guys

well the turkey is on the bottom of the fridge and is dethawing, gonna try to stick this thing in the oven tuesday and see how it goes. I don't think i'll be brining it since the turkeys seems like it it was soaked in a 15% solution... but I did manage to get my hands on a syringe, what are some liquids I could inject into the meat?

thanks

The 15% solution is a brine. You don't have to brine. Injecting flavors might be interesting

 

[damao33]

ok sweeet

its all defrosted and i just injected it with some Lawry Maranaide. After work tomorrow, gonna coat it with some canola oil, salt, pepper, grill rub and stick it in the oven. While its going, gonna whip up some instant mashed potatoes, pasta salad, and rice. should be a gooood meal, but worse come to worse, i have 4 frozen pizzas in the fridge as backup .

 

[ella/TO]

welcome Damao. Suggestion: don't use any more salt in your coating. and do you realize you are doing 3 starches? Any kind of coloured veggie would go along with this....try some carrots, with butter, orange juice and rosemary.
Colourful and good eating. Use only 1 starch...do another veggie...or, a green salad....Enjoy your dinner!!!

 

[damao33]

hey guys

thanks for all the help! the turkey came out perfect and everyone was quite blown away. everyone is invited to thanksgiving dinner at my house, aite?

 

[Caine]

ok sweeet

While its going, gonna whip up some instant mashed potatoes, pasta salad, and rice.

I take it you're not on the Atkins diet.

 

[keltin]

I take it you're not on the Atkins diet.

I would hope that no one follows that plan. It’s been condemned by the American Medical Association, American Dietetic Association, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, and many other leading authorities in the nutritional field.

 

[Caine]

There is nothing wrong with the Atkins diet plan. There is nothing wrong with South Beach, Zone, NutriSystem, Jenny Craig, or any other diet plan. There isn't even anything wrong with the Dr. Phil diet plan, and it was written by a full blown idiot. The problem is that dieters refuse to READ AND FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS!

 

[keltin]

There is nothing wrong with the Atkins diet plan. There is nothing wrong with South Beach, Zone, NutriSystem, Jenny Craig, or any other diet plan. There isn't even anything wrong with the Dr. Phil diet plan, and it was written by a full blown idiot. The problem is that dieters refuse to READ AND FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS!

Tell that to the American Medical Association, American Dietetic Association, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, and many other leading authorities in the nutritional field. I kind of side with them.

 

[Caine]

Tell that to the American Medical Association, American Dietetic Association, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, and many other leading authorities in the nutritional field. I kind of side with them.

I don't, because the ADA, AMA, AHA, and ACS are the main contributors to the current food pyrimid, and they got the durn thing UPSIDE DOWN! Oh, and C. Everet Koop has fallen and he can't get up! The perfect balance for just about anyone except maybe long distance runners, is 40% carbohydrates, 30% protein, and 30% fat. If you're a runner, you can go as high as 60% carbs, and if you are a body builder, you'll want reverse the carb and protein percentages.

Basically, the average American eats too much of EVERYTHING, so no matter which of the food types you remove from their diet, be it protein, carbs, or fat, they're gonna lose weight because you just removed at least 1/3 of their calorie intake! Add a little exercise, and you've got safe, healthy weight loss!

 

[keltin]

I don't, because the ADA, AMA, AHA, and ACS are the main contributors to the current food pyrimid, and they got the durn thing UPSIDE DOWN! Oh, and C. Everet Koop has fallen and he can't get up! The perfect balance for just about anyone except maybe long distance runners, is 40% carbohydrates, 30% protein, and 30% fat. If you're a runner, you can go as high as 60% carbs, and if you are a body builder, you'll want reverse the carb and protein percentages.

Basically, the average American eats too much of EVERYTHING, so no matter which of the food types you remove from their diet, be it protein, carbs, or fat, they're gonna lose weight because you just removed at least 1/3 of their calorie intake! Add a little exercise, and you've got safe, healthy weight loss!

I agree with this post, but it has nothing to do with the Atkins Diet which is not a good solution for sustained weight control, not to mention it can be dangerous. Your post contains the key......eat less and exercise more. If you burn more calories than you consume then you will lose weight.

For bodybuilding, diet is dependent on whether it is contest season or off-season. During the off-season, carb in-take is greatly increased but during contest season carbs are greatly reduced. Protein stays pretty much constant year-round at the recommended daily intake of 1.5 to 2 grams of protein per pound of body weight.

 

[Caine]

Like I said, the only time a diet is dangerous, including Atkins, is when the dieter does not read and follow directions. Atkins reduces your calorie intke from carbs to practically nothing, but, and this is a big but (pun intended!) ONLY FOR TWO WEEKS! After the initial two weeks, you start bringing carbs back into your diet, but you only bring in complex carbohydrates, NOT the simple carbs like sugar, white bread, potatoes, white rice, white flour macaroni, that you USED to eat. The South Beach diet isn't quite as extreme as Atkins concerning carbs in vegetables and dairy products, it limits your saturated fat intake more than Atkins, and it includes exercise, and therefore I recommend South Beach over Atkins to my clients. But, I don't care which diet plan they decide on, I can work with it, as long as they follow it and stay with it.