Tender turkey breast in a sweet and sour blueberry-balsamic sauce.
This is one of those few recipes found online that I just have to cook IMMEDIATELY. There are lots and lots of great recipes found on all the great blogs out there and I mean to make so many of them all the time. I do make lots, but sometimes it takes me some time until I actually cook one that I have been meaning to cook for a long time, many others get forgotten (so sorry about that) and others are just replaced by other versions of the same recipe, versions which at one particular moment seem better than the previous version. There is just too much choice out there.
But for once in a while I find a recipe that I have to make right away. The main reason for such a decision is of course the “attractivity” of the particular recipe, but not only. If I happen to have everything I need at home is always a very important factor and in this case I did have almost everything, I only had to find a suitable day (like a Sunday) and remember to defreeze the turkey breast in time.
It was the first piece of turkey I cooked from the huge half turkey I bought a few weeks ago from a farm in our village. In the meantime I managed to cook another piece of it and used the leftover bones to cook a wonderful bone broth, which I hope I will be able to post soon. I love it being able to buy our meat and eggs directly here in the village from people I know, who really take care of their animals and do not feed them antibiotics and inappropriate food. Even if I cannot always say that I notice a big difference, for example between store eggs and village eggs, I still feel better knowing that I am feeding my family the best possible produce. And I do taste and feel the difference when it comes to meat, the meat I buy here is really like a thousand times tenderer and tastier than the supermarket meat.
But back to the recipe: in case you do not want to cook a whole turkey for your Thanksgiving dinner, this would be a great alternative to eat turkey anyway. Probably not very traditional (and I really don’t know much about that, as I have never had any Thanksgiving dinner in my life) but for sure delicious. Otherwise just save the recipe for Christmas or another Sunday when you feel you want to treat your family with a real festive meal.
The original recipe, which I really didn’t change much is here – Feasting at Home. What I did change is that I used dried dates instead of figs and plain mustard instead of whole grain, I didn’t have any figs or whole grain mustard at home.
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 2-4
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 large onion
- 5 rosemary sprigs
- 1 bone-in turkey breast with skin on, about 1-1 ½ kg/2-3 pounds
- salt and pepper
- 200 g/ 2 cups frozen blueberries (divided)
- 90 g/ 1⁄2 cup dried dates/ dried figs, chopped
- 120 ml/ 1⁄2 cup balsamic vinegar
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- 1-1⁄2 tablespoons mustard/ whole grain mustard
- 1⁄4 teaspoon salt and pepper
- Preheat the oven to 230 degrees Celsius/ 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Slice the onion thinly. Pour the olive oil into a large cast iron pan or another oven-proof dish. Add the rosemary and the sliced onion.
- Rub the turkey breast with salt and pepper all over and place skin-side up in the pan. Reduce the oven temperature to 200 degrees Celsius/ 400 degrees Fahrenheit and roast for 40 minutes.
- In the meantime make the blueberry balsamic glaze. Place about 50 g/½ cup of the frozen blueberries in a small saucepan together with the chopped dates/figs and the balsamic vinegar. Bring to simmer and cook on low heat, uncovered until reduced by half. Add the mustard, the maple syrup and some salt and pepper.
- After the initial 40 minutes, brush the turkey breast with the glaze and pour the rest on top of it. Shake the pan, add the rest of the blueberries around the turkey. Turn the temperature down to 180 degrees Celsius/ 350 degrees Fahrenheit and roast for about another 20 minutes or until the turkey breast is cooked through.
2 comments
This looks and sounds absolutely delicious! I like that you subbed dates for the figs. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you, Kim.