Make This 3-Ingredient Turkey Breast For the Easiest-Ever Thanksgiving

Let’s face it: With the sides and desserts and gravy, it’s a lot of work to make an entire Thanksgiving turkey along with everything else—especially if there’s only a handful of people who are going to enjoy it at your holiday table. And while I love turkey leftovers as much as the next person, my 15-year-old son is picky, picky about most leftovers, and my husband can’t eat nearly as much turkey as he thinks he can.

So, instead of cooking a whole turkey for the three of us, my solution in recent years has been to cook a boneless turkey breast instead—or two, because my teenager can eat an entire roasted turkey breast in one sitting by himself.

While I’ve made this super-simple turkey breast recipe a couple of times for actual Thanksgiving, I also make it at least once every year in the summer because Thanksgiving in July has become a tradition in my family.

One year after Thanksgiving, Aldi had turkey breasts on sale, so I bought a couple and tossed them into my freezer. I re-discovered them in July and decided we had to use them. And, if you’re making turkey breast, well, you might as well make all the fixings, and that’s how Thanksgiving in July got started.

Key Ingredients

I have two secret ingredients for this simple turkey breast recipe: bourbon and poultry seasoning. I started adding bourbon to my Thanksgiving turkeys years ago when I was making whole turkeys for my entire family (my parents, my two sisters, their spouses and kids and aunts and uncles, the list goes on). I would baste the turkey with bourbon and butter, and it tasted so good that when I scaled down to a turkey breast for just my husband and son, I figured bourbon would also work well (and it does!). 

The poultry seasoning came from my noticing that grocery stores tend to sell out of fresh sage and thyme around Thanksgiving. But Aldi (my favorite grocery store) always has poultry seasoning in stock. While it isn’t quite as good as fresh herbs, this fragrant herb-and-spice blend is a close second, and so convenient. Plus, using it means there’s no prep to do!

If you can get your hands on some fresh rosemary, sage, or thyme, you can finely chop the herbs and sprinkle a little bit on top of the roasted turkey for extra flavor (bonus: you can also use them to dress up the platter!).

Lastly, I switched over to using extra-virgin olive oil instead of butter since a turkey breast doesn’t need basting. But, if you prefer, you can also drizzle on some melted butter instead. 

The Right Cut of Turkey to Use

Although I really like bone-in turkey breast, Aldi doesn’t sell bone-in, so I get boneless instead. The bonus with boneless is that it’s a super quick-cooking cut, so it can be ready on your table in just an hour.

And if you hit the frozen aisle a week or two after Thanksgiving, you can get boneless breasts on sale and stock up in your freezer—maybe Thanksgiving in July will become a family tradition for you, too! 

Double It for a Crowd

If you’re hosting a few more people for your gathering (but still want to skip the work of roasting a whole bird), simply double the recipe and roast two boneless breasts side-by-side on the baking sheet.