Food Review: Kirkwood Turkey Breast
11/29/2019
By Mike Thayer
When you don't want or need to cook up a big bird or perhaps you prefer to carve bone-free meat, buying a boneless turkey breast has many advantages.
Plenty of bird for two people plus leftovers, I picked up a 3 pound Kirkwood turkey breast at Aldi for $8.99. Found in the frozen section, the turkey comes with a gravy packet and is wrapped in a butcher's twine net. The net holds the breast tightly together, which helps keep the breast moist during cooking. There's advantage number one, you don't have to net it yourself.
Advantage number two, because it's only three pounds and it's boneless, there's far less thawing time. A big 15-20 pound bird can take days to thaw in the refrigerator - 24 hours for every 4-5 pounds of bird - and think of all that space being taken up waiting for that big turkey to thaw out!
I brined my turkey, guaranteeing a moist bird no matter the cooking method, be it a traditional oven roast, grilling, smoking or frying. For my brine recipe, click here and review the poultry page. There's another advantage, you don't need a huge container to brine a turkey breast. Not everybody has that kind of refrigerator space, let alone a second refrigerator to brine. You could do a cooler set up, but that can be a hassle.
After brining for 24 hours, dabbing the turkey breast dry and applying a dry rub it was ready to go in the oven. Only 90 minutes is needed at 350 degrees, skin side down in a cast iron skillet. I basted the bird with a combination of garlic, butter, a squeeze of lime juice and a hint of cayenne pepper.
Letting it rest for about 10 minutes after taking it out of the oven, the bird carved up super easy and boy was this bird moist and delicious! And using the cast iron skillet crisped up the skin perfectly. Yes, sneaking bites of turkey while carving was a MUST!
A bit before that bird came out of the oven, I started to prepare the gravy that came in a packet with the bird. The packet recommends using pan drippings in the preparation and that is a MUST do, as the gravy was a bit unremarkable on it's own. Along with some of those pan drippings, additional adds of garlic, black pepper and another pinch of the cayenne pepper made the gravy pretty decent. It was a bit meager in portion however, barely enough for two people, nothing leftover.
Very reasonably priced, the Kirkwood boneless turkey breast is easy peasy to prep, roast, carve and enjoy! It's definitely a repeat buy and I give it 4 out of 5 Bachelor on the Cheap stars.
I bought one of these for Thanksgiving this year, since at the most there will be three of us. I think I will try your cast iron skillet idea to roast it and make my stuffing in the crock pot. Sounds easy enough.
Posted by: Cindy | 11/24/2020 at 11:02 PM
Just cooked a Kirkwood turkey breast I bought from aldis. You could barely cut it with the knife it was so tough and didn’t taste well.
Posted by: Janet Shaw | 09/30/2021 at 04:23 PM
What country does Aldi’s buy its frozen Kirkwood boneless Turkey Breast w frozen graveyard packet from?
Posted by: Frankie Miller | 10/14/2021 at 07:54 PM
My husband and I just had a Kirkwood boneless turkey breast that I purchased from Aldi in Lancaster, Ohio. Followed all the directions to a tee but it was so tough I had to use an electric knife to slice it and even then it was extremely difficult to eat. I won't be buying Kirkwood products again after this experience. I paid $8.99 for the item and would like to have my money refunded.
Posted by: Susan Saddler | 11/25/2021 at 03:57 PM
I purchased a Kirkwood boneless turkey from Aldi in Minnesota, followed the direction perfectly, basted it every 15 min or so, looked good, time to cut it was a huge problem, so tough, could not slice it at all, forget about eating it, you could not chew it, never again!
Posted by: Jill K Marlow | 11/26/2021 at 05:58 PM
Kirkwood frozen turkey breast was the worst turkey I have ever had. I followed the cooking directions exactly. The turkey was tough and tasteless. I cut it up and fed it to my dogs and cats.
Posted by: CLARICE MOUNIER | 11/26/2021 at 06:12 PM
I bought 2 of the Kirkwood turkey breasts, one in the crock pot and one in a cooking bag. They were both terrible..like everyone else commented, tough, stringy and dry. I won’t ever buy another one.
Posted by: Janet Coghan | 12/22/2021 at 06:06 PM
That turkey breast Kirkwood, made my mother and I sick, throwing up within half hour. But with the flu going around I never know if it was the flu or if it was the turkey so kind of bums me out.
Posted by: CYNTHIA LOUISE EVANS | 12/24/2021 at 05:55 PM
Sorry - Can’t agree with any of these posts. The turkey was fabulous and in fact we purchased 4 more for the future. They are seasonal and thus we stocked up. Directions are simple, roasting pan,cover in vegetable oil, cook for 80-90 minutes.
Posted by: AJ | 12/25/2021 at 12:16 PM
We bought this Turkey Breast because the Sodium content is listed lower than an excessively salty Butterball boneless breast. We cooked it covered with foil, and it came out really good. Best Turkey breast we had in years. .
Posted by: Jim | 01/11/2022 at 06:42 PM
Bought Kirkwood frozen turkey breast from Aldi. Cooked to 155 degrees then let sit for approx. 10 minutes under foil before slicing at 165 degrees, as per directions. It was extremely tough, almost inedible.
Posted by: Mimi | 01/12/2022 at 06:25 PM
I have bought these turkey breast before was happy to see Aldi had the again they have always turned out great everyone loved them. Just would like to know where you get your turkey from?
Posted by: DOTTIE WILLIE | 10/31/2022 at 07:15 PM
I bought two turkey breasts from Germantown in Wisconsin and one weighed 2#13oz with one gravy. The other one weighed 2#4oz with two packets of gravy. That is 9oz difference Over a half pound! Putting extra gravy in to make the right weight is not turkey. I’m very unhappy with the way you do this.
Posted by: Fran Becker | 11/19/2022 at 10:37 AM
All of you overcooked this breast! Should take out at 137-138 degrees. Cover let rest for 30 min & temp will rise to 142/44 deg.
Posted by: Carla | 11/23/2022 at 02:56 PM
Remember that there’s no “medium rare” when it comes to chicken and turkey, you’ve GOT to make sure it’s properly cooked all the way through to an internal temperature of at least 165 degrees. Nobody wants a food borne illness.
Posted by: Mike T. | 11/23/2022 at 03:40 PM
Best turkey I ever had….took it out of the oven….tasted it, love at first bite!
Posted by: Louise | 12/25/2022 at 02:42 PM
Absolutely horrible. I've been cooking Turkey and Turkey Breast for 40 years. This is the worst Turkey I have ever eaten. Well..actually was unable to eat it. I cooked it exactly as directed and we were truly unable to eat it. It was stringy, dry and tasted weird. And the gravy??? What in the world was it? Just nasty. Threw out the entire thing. With all of these complaints being so close to the same I highly doubt it was the cooks fault or how it was cooked.
Posted by: Peggy | 01/23/2023 at 07:52 PM
For those of you complaining about stringy, chewy turkey, you need to remove the meat roast netting before serving.
Posted by: Steve Y. | 02/12/2023 at 10:52 AM
No gravy packet? Haven't tasted the turkey yet....a little sceptical.
Posted by: Gloria | 05/21/2023 at 04:50 PM