Making a turkey breast for Thanksgiving dinner this year was so easy and delicious that I decided to do it again for Christmas dinner. It’s just the two of us, so the smaller portion worked nicely. We love cranberry sauce, so this Cranberry Glazed Turkey Breast worked on several levels. Easy turkey breast plus built-in cranberry sauce, plus it promises to be incredibly juicy. What’s not to like?
You can find my 2022 Christmas Dinner Menu as a free downloadable Google Doc. It includes a schedule, a shopping list, and an equipment list. The checkboxes on the lists are interactive and cross off each item when you click them. You may also print it or save it and make any changes you like.
This cranberry glazed turkey breast recipe is so good that I make it several times a year … I’ve perfected this recipe to the point where a turkey breast comes out of the oven so juicy, so moist that it’s hard to believe that super lean turkey breast meat can be like that.
The Ingredients
There are only nine ingredients in this Cranberry Glazed Turkey Breast recipe, and two of those are salt and pepper. The rest are almost as easy to find. I had the chicken broth, dried thyme, honey, and apple cider vinegar on hand.
That left me to shop for turkey breast, butter, and cranberries. They were all easy to find at my regular grocery store. I found fresh cranberries, but I loved that frozen were an option. I can find those year-round.
The Process
The first part of this Cranberry Glazed Turkey Breast recipe is making the cranberry glaze. It was quick and easy to do. I just added the ingredients to a saucepan, brought them to a boil, and let them simmer for about 5 minutes.
I prepped the turkey breast while the glaze simmered. The one I found had the rib bones, but they weren’t too difficult to remove thanks to my boning knife. I saved the ribs to make Turkey Stock, but you can discard them.
Once the ribs were removed I mixed up the salt, pepper, and thyme to season the meat. I rubbed it on both sides, lifting the skin to get it underneath. Then I tucked the loose bits of meat underneath and moved the extra skin to cover a bare spot and prevent it from drying out.
The cranberry glaze was ready while I was prepping the turkey, so I set it aside until I was ready for it. Then I used a wooden spoon to press it through a mesh strainer placed over a small mixing bowl. The glaze was very thick and stuck to the sieve, so I had to scrape a lot off the underside.
I spooned the newly made cranberry glaze over the turkey breast, put in the meat thermometer, and added the chicken broth and butter to the baking dish. The recipe says about 45 minutes, but mine took longer—closer to an hour.
I let it rest for about 5 minutes, then I sliced it for a few photos and it was dinner time. I have to say I wish I had let it rest for longer because a lot of the juices ended up on the platter. Unfortunately, the sun was setting and I was running out of light for the photos. Otherwise, I was well pleased with this recipe.
By the way, the juices ended up burning to the bottom of the pan, so I wouldn’t count on being able to make gravy with them as the recipe mentions.
Timing
This recipe lists times of 20 minutes to prep, 45 minutes to cook, and 1 hour and 5 minutes total. Mine went a little over that, but it was thanks to my meat thermometer. I’m counting that as a good thing—no one wants rare turkey! Here’s how it went:
- 18 minutes to prep
- 58 minutes to cook
- 5 minutes to rest
- 1 hour 12 minutes total
