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Roasted Turkey Breasts
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Roasted Turkey Breasts with My Mother’s Stuffing

Turkey breast is an easier way to celebrate Thanksgiving than cooking a whole bird. You can use this delicious Greek recipe for a Sunday feast as well.
Course dinner, Lunch
Cuisine Greek, Greek cuisine, Mediterranean diet
Keyword Diane Kochilas, Mavrodaphne, stuffing, turkey
PREP TIME 15 minutes
COOK TIME 1 hour 5 minutes
SERVES 9

Ingredients

  • 2 boneless skinless (optional) turkey breasts, about 3 pounds each

Marinade:

  • 2 cups Mavrodaphne or other sweet red wine plus more for roasting
  • 2 tablespoons Greek garlic paste or 4 garlic cloves minced
  • Juice of 1 orange
  • 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
  • 3 tablespoons extra-virgin Greek olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon Greek dried oregano

For Roasting:

  • 2 carrots coarsely chopped
  • 2 green apples sliced
  • 2 celery sticks chopped
  • 1 leek chopped
  • 1 fennel bulb chopped
  • Fresh thyme sprigs
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • 8 bacon strips

Related Recipes:

  • One Recipe for My Mother’s Stuffing
  • One Recipe for Turkey Gravy

Instructions

  1. Using a meat mallet, on a clean, hard surface, pound the turkey breasts slightly to thin them out and open them up a bit. Whisk together all the ingredients for the marinade and marinate the turkey breasts in a large bowl at room temperature for one hour before baking, or for several hours or overnight, covered and chilled. Bring to room temperature before stuffing.
  2. Preheat oven to 325 F /160 C.

  3. Place the first turkey breast on a large baking sheet and season generously on all sides with salt and pepper. Spread about half the stuffing over the surface of the breast and roll up. Using kitchen twine, secure the breast closed. Repeat with second breast.

  4. Spread the carrots, apples, celery, leek, fennel and thyme sprigs on bottom of a well-oiled baking pan large enough to hold the rolled breasts. Place the two breasts over the vegetables and wrap with strips of bacon. Pour the marinade over the breasts. Add a cup more of mavrodaphne or other sweet (or dry) red wine.
  5. Cover the pan completely with parchment then aluminum foil. Place in the oven and bake, calculating 25 minutes per pound, or 50 minutes per kilo. About 45 minutes before removing from oven, remove the aluminum foil and baste the turkey every 15 minutes with the pan juices and with additional wine, until it is deep reddish brown.
  6. Remove, let rest for at least 30 minutes, tented with aluminum foil. Remove the bacon and the twine, and serve.

Notes

For the stuffing you'll need the following recipe:

My Mother’s Turkey’s Stuffing

Serve it with Turkey gravy :

Turkey Gravy