Bachelor on the Cheap

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.