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Photo by Holly A. Heyser
Holly and I are having a quiet Thanksgiving this year. We’re planning on waking up early, heading out to hunt rabbits for a little while, then kicking back with some football and an easy dinner. Roasting a whole turkey, especially a wild one, is not what I call an easy dinner. But you gotta have turkey on Thanksgiving, right? True enough, but who says you have to have the whole turkey?
This is a pretty easy way to have a lovely Thanksgiving for a couple or small family. I am using wild turkey here but any sort of turkey you can find will work. All you need are a couple turkey wings (skinned or plucked) and some turkey breast. You could use a full half turkey breast, which runs about 2 1/2 pounds, or cut it in half if it’s just the two of you. What makes this different from everyone else’s “simple Thanksgiving menu” posts is the way I cook the turkey and the gravy.
You start with the gravy, which hinges on sherry and some roasted turkey wings that are turned into a simple broth. You also use that broth to poach the turkey breast very gently. Poaching keeps the meat super moist, and is infinitely better for a piece of skinless breast than roasting or pan-frying. Finish it off with some simple mashed potatoes and a vegetable of your choice and there you have it: Traditional, with a bit of modern technique.
Even if you skip the Thanksgiving gravy and side dishes, I urge you to cook turkey breast this way: It is SO much moister and really lends itself to whatever gravy or sauce you feel like using that day.
Wild Turkey Breast with Turkey Gravy
Photo by Holly A. Heyser
Perfectly poaching a turkey breast is easy, but you need to know a few tricks before you begin. First, start with meat that is room temperature. This means taking the breast out of the fridge and letting it sit for 20 to 30 minutes. Second, quick-cure it by salting the breast heavily on both sides when you take it out; this seasons the meat as it comes to temperature. Third, use a good broth — in this case, the one you made from the turkey wings. And finally, never, ever, ever let the broth even simmer. You just want it to steam at 155°F to 165°F. If you let this boil or even simmer strongly, the meat will dry out and get tough.
Serves 4.
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 3 hours, mostly simmering time for the broth
WING BROTH
- 2 turkey wings (both drumette and second digit)
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- Salt
- 2 quarts water
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tablespoon cracked black peppercorns
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon dried sage, or 1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage
- 1 cup chopped onion
- 1/2 cup chopped carrot
- 1/2 cup chopped celery
GRAVY
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 3 tablespoons flour
- 1/2 cup sherry or Madeira
- 1 to 1 1/4 cup turkey wing broth
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- Salt and black pepper to taste
TURKEY
- 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 pounds skinless turkey breast
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- Preheat the oven to 425°F. Coat the turkey wings in the vegetable oil and salt well. Roast in a cast iron frying pan or other oven-proof pan until nicely browned, from 45 minutes to an hour.
- Put the roasted wings in a pot with all the other ingredients for the broth and bring to a simmer. Simmer gently until the meat wants to fall off the bones. This will take about 90 minutes with a domesticated turkey, longer for wild. You can pick off the meat and eat it later, or you can put some in the gravy, too.
- Once you have the broth made, take the turkey breast out and salt it well. Let it sit on a cutting board for 30 minutes or so to come to room temperature.
- Bring the broth to a simmer and drop the turkey breast in. The turkey should be submerged by the broth. If it is not, add water or chicken stock. Once the turkey is in the broth, move the pot to your weakest burner and turn the heat to its lowest setting. Cover the pot and let it cook in the hot broth for at least 30 minutes, and up to 1 hour if you are using a full half breast. Remember to never let the water simmer! You are looking for a target temperature of 155°F to 165°F. So long as you are in that ballpark, you will not overcook the turkey.
- Make the gravy while the turkey is poaching. Heat the butter in a small pot over medium-high heat. When it’s hot, add the flour and mix well. Cook this, stirring often, until it smells nutty and turns milk-chocolate brown, about 10 minutes. Stir in the sherry. The mixture will seize up, so slowly stir in 1 cup of the hot broth until the gravy has the consistency of melted ice cream. Add salt, black pepper and Worcestershire sauce to taste. Turn the heat to low and stir from time to time. If it gets too thick, add a little more broth.
- To check if the turkey has cooked all the way through, either test it with a meat thermometer — you want it to read 155°F — or slice the thickest part and look: You want a blush of pink in the meat. Slice and serve with mashed potatoes and a vegetable of your choice. Ladle over lots of gravy!
Photo by Holly A. Heyser
Would you sous vide if you had the equipment? Or stick with the poach?
Mark: Ha! I *really* wanted to write this up as a sous vide recipe, but I figured no one would have the equipment. But yes, it is perfect for sous vide. Salt well, smear with butter and sous vide at 150-155 degrees for 1 hour to 90 minutes. I’d go with the 90 minutes to be safe — not like you will overcook anything at that temp…
Great idea and recipe. Especially after last year’s 40 pound turkey debacle. Hope to try this soon.
Off topic: Rabbits in November? I’m curious .22 or shotgun? 12 gauge or 20?
Very nice and simple recipe Hank.
Will have to try this on my next turkey.
The first of the season was deep fried.
Talk about time consuming, but delicious.
What a great time of the year.
Turkey, rabit, quail, dove, waterfowl, porcini, chanterelle, dungeness crab, abalone, and more can all be had if adventurous enough.
Steve: Shotgun, 20 gauge, with steel shot. That way I can shoot at any quail, doves, turkeys or ducks that I might find.
I just bought a half a turkey breast at the local market, and it’s nearly four pounds! (1.7kg) I don’t think the Germans slaughter their turkeys young… Anyway, how long do you think it will have to poach? Is there a minutes/pound rule? I really want to do this for our family dinner on Friday, since my father-in-law always says he doesn’t like turkey because it’s too dry. I would like to prove him wrong.
Kelly: That is a HUGE turkey breast. You can do one of two things: Cut the breast into a couple pieces so they cook faster, or you can just cook it longer. A 4 pound breast will be pretty thick on the fat end, so if it were me I would cut the breast in two and poach them for at least 1 hour. The good thing about this technique is that if you’re wrong and the breast isn’t cooked, you can cut into it and see — and then return it to the hot water to finish.
So long as you never simmer the water you can leave the turkey in there for hours. Just keep it between 155 and 165 degrees.
Tried this yesterday. Really good. Thanks for the idea.