Roasted Garlic Rosemary Turkey Breast

This Roasted Garlic & Rosemary Turkey Breast is my favorite way to make a turkey breast. It only needs a handful of ingredients & is super simple to prepare. 

I don’t know if y’all know this, but I’m a huge fan of cast iron cookware. I collect it as well as cook in it all the time. I’m really a fan of about cast iron anything – as long as it’s old. I get completely starry eyed when I see antique cast iron stoves.

Not long ago, I went to the Liberty Antique Festival & saw an old covered cast iron sitting in the corner, not having any attention paid to it. I went to check it out closer & my heart started going pitter patter. It was an old Griswold! And it had a self basting lid! I hesitantly asked the seller what she wanted for it, and she said $40!

Y’all, my heart about jumped out of my body I was so happy. If you collect cast iron at all, then you know this is a pretty good find. I use lots of newer cast iron as well, but there really is nothing like the vintage cookware. It’s just so much better in my opinion… nothing else cooks quite like them.

It needed a bit of love but luckily I’ve cleaned up an old rusty cast iron or 50 before.

I was amazed by how beautifully it cleaned up and couldn’t wait to cook on it.

I was planning on sharing this recipe that I created for Roasted Garlic & Rosemary Turkey Breast so I decided to use my ‘new to me’ Griswold cast iron skillet for it this time. I just knew it would photograph so pretty without even having to do anything extra to it, and I was right. Isn’t it gorgeous?

I promise you that it tastes even better than it looks. 

Now that we’ve all marveled over my new cast iron (haha) now let’s marvel over this turkey breast.

Roasted garlic, fresh rosemary, butter, salt & pepper. That’s it… that’s all you need to make a perfectly flavored turkey breast that would make anyone drool. You’ll wanna take it out after it’s been cooking for 20 minutes because it’s going to smell so good… but don’t do that because raw turkey is gross. That fabulous smell is going to totally permeate your home & leave anyone inside salivating. If you have a dog who drools a lot, you may wanna have the neighbors keep him for the day. Just saying… 😉

Make sure you go for the bone in turkey breasts, they have so much more flavor than the boneless ones. Bones = flavor. With every cut of meat.

You can make a gravy with this recipe quite simply too. If you use a cast iron or another stovetop/ovensafe pan – then it makes the gravy part so much easier.

I can’t even begin to describe how amazing this recipe is – so you really need to make it, and soon too. It’s so delicious. You can use the same method on chicken breasts too, just decrease the cooking time.

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Roasted Garlic Rosemary Turkey Breast

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 2 hours hours 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 2 hours hours 50 minutes minutes

Servings 6 servings

Ingredients

• 3 heads garlic tops removed but bulbs stay together
• 10-12 fresh sprigs of rosemary
• 1 bone in turkey breast - about 6 pounds rinsed & patted dry with a paper towel
• 2 sticks butter room temperature
• garlic salt to taste
• black pepper to taste

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Rub 1 stick of butter all over the turkey breast & push some underneath the skin.
• In a baking dish, baking pan, or cast iron skillet - place 1 stick of butter in the center of the pan. Put one of the garlic bulbs (with tops removed but bulbs still intact - cloves exposed & facing up) under beside the butter & top with half of the rosemary sprigs. Place the turkey breast on top of the butter, garlic & rosemary. Sprinkle the turkey breast with garlic salt & pepper to taste. Place the other 2 garlic bulbs (with tops removed, cloves exposed & facing up) beside the turkey breast & top the turkey breast with the remaining rosemary sprigs.
• Bake at 325 for 2 to 2.5 hours or until an instant read thermometer inserted into the thickest part reads 160 degrees. Transfer the turkey breast to a cutting board & let it rest for 30 minutes. The temperature will continue to rise as it rests to reach 170 degrees.
• Carve the breast, serve with gravy (recipe follows) if desired. Serve the roasted garlic alongside the turkey for folks who really love their garlic (like me!) to eat the caramelized roasted garlic cloves with their turkey.

To make a gravy:

• Pour any pan drippings into a degreasing cup or small bowl. Reserve 3 tablespoons of the fat & discard the rest. Add the juices to 3 cups of low-sodium turkey or chicken stock. Add the reserved fat to the pan and place on a burner over medium high heat. Scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Stir in the flour and cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Whisk in the stock and continue to stir. Add some roasted garlic cloves, if desired. Bring to a boil and cook until thickened, about 3 minutes. Strain the gravy and season with salt and pepper to taste.