How to Cook a Butterball Turkey Breast

This is how to cook a Butterball turkey breast in oven until juicy with crispy skin! Use our easy brine or dry rub for the ultimate yum.

Brined Turkey Breast in the Oven

Ok so you can just go simple with salt and black pepper seasonings for sure. It just takes a few more minutes though to throw together our turkey dry rub so I would highly recommend that. If I am in more of a hurry, and don’t think about what I need to prep the night before that is the route I go.

However……if you want the BEST outcome for this baby, go ahead and cut our simple turkey brine recipe in 1/3 if you only have one or two of these babies and soak overnight. OMG is all I have to say y’all. You literally need nothing on these if you do this. The salt, sugar and garlic permeate the meat all the way thru perfectly.

You can see above where we set all the pieces in there and are pulling out these two to bake. I do NOT rinse them off because that makes the flavors more subtle and we like the taste of it all. All you have to do is just line your baking sheet with foil (for easier cleanup) and set these babies right on top. Easy right??

You could use this before making our pressure cooker turkey breast or if you were to follow our turkey in air fryer recipes too. Like I said, our easy brine linked above is meant for the whole bird so if you just bought the white meat piece(s) then you wouldn’t need as much. It is very simple to cut it in half or a third.

Do you cook a butterball turkey breast covered or uncovered?

Both. You want to cook or essentially steam them under foil. on your sheet pan to get the meat super tender in the thickest part. Then once the temperature is almost to where you want it to be then you uncover so the skin can get crispy too.

Butterball Turkey Breast Cooking Time

You want to keep it moist right? That is key. Best way to do that with thicker pieces of protein is to keep them covered. That way you can ensure the insides kinda’ steam in their own juices all the way to the center perfectly. The skin will remain soft, but you can fix that at the end quite quickly using the broil function. Total time is 1 hour 35 minutes.

Baked Turkey Breasts at 325

• You’ll achieve the best turkey breast if these are brined overnight.
  • If so that is all the seasonings you’ll need.
  • Alternatively you can dry skin with paper towels and coat outside with our turkey dry rub if you’d rather. Quicker and just as wonderful. Do not do both, choose one.
• Preheat your oven to 325 F. LIne baking sheet or roasting pan with non stick foil.
• Lay breasts on top with half your olive oil on top of each. Cover with non stick foil tightly.
• Bake for 1 hour 30 minutes until thickest part reaches 160 F.
• Then uncover, switch to broil setting and drizzle remaining olive oil or pat of butter on top of each one.
  • if you didn’t add dry rub or brine sprinkle seasonings of choice on top now

How do you get turkey skin crispy?

Broil uncovered once the internal temp is 160F for additional 3-4 minutes or until skin is nicely golden brown to your liking. Remove the pan and cover with foil to keep warm for about 10 minutes of resting before you slice. Alternatively you can crisp air fryer turkey breast at 400 for a few minutes.

When it comes to internal temp you also need to keep in mind that when it rest, your meat will continue to rise another 5-10 degrees. So you want to take it out as soon as it reaches the safe range, or 5 degrees before. Always test outside of the oven too to get the most accurate read.

How to Cook a frozen Turkey Breast

Now what if you have had a really forgetful moment and you realize your meal is still rock hard. That is right, you forgot to take it out to defrost and now it is a few hours from dinnertime. Everyone is going to be hangry very soon and that just isn’t going to be pretty.

You can follow these same preparation instructions below but add 30 minutes under the foil for frozen turkey breast in the oven. Personally I think that under high pressure turns out the best. You will want to pop it under the broiler when done for Instant Pot frozen turkey breast, like you do with this one.

The beauty of this if you brine or use a rub at the beginning is you can serve right away after resting. NO salt and pepper necessary, just slice and serve as is. You’re going to need to drain juices from the pan so you could thicken that with some cornstarch a bit to make a rich gravy. We even make our baked turkey wings the same way.

What can you make with leftover turkey breast

Now if you do have some meat left you should always use as much as you can in the next few days. We have a ton of leftover turkey recipe ideas on our site.

I hope we have covered all of the questions you may have had in this post and you’re clear. Below is a printable recipe card for you too.

Keep it handy for years to come after you fall in love with this method or just come back. We love seeing you so don’t go anywhere. 😉

Try our turnovers and then go from there. Way more interesting than a roasted turkey breast sandwich day after day. I mean….just no.