Sous Vide Turkey Breast with Herbs and Garlic

succulent sous vide turkey breast sliced on a chopping board

4.62 from 13 votes

Sous Vide Turkey Breast with Herbs and Garlic

For smaller holiday gatherings,or those where you want more than one meat centerpiece, try this simple turkey breast for easy carving, incredibly juicy meat and crispy golden skin.

Prep Time10

Cook Time3 15

Chilling Time12

Total Time15 25

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: American, Western

Keyword: sous vide turkey, sous vide turkey breast, steam oven turkey, turkey with herbs and garlic

Servings:

Calories: 483kcal

Ingredients

For cooking the meat:

4.5 lb turkey breast 2kg single breast, boneless, skin on (see note for bone-in breast option)
¾ tsp salt fine or table salt
2 stalks rosemary fresh
2 stalks thyme fresh
5 leaves sage fresh
3 cloves garlic bruised, skin on is fine

To finish:

4 oz unsalted butter softened
½ tsp salt fine or table salt
½ tsp black pepper cracked

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Prepare the meat and chill overnight:

Rub the salt all over the underside and under the skin of the turkey (you can loosen the skin by carefully sliding your fingers underneath, then sprinkle salt in there and rub it all over before smoothing the skin back over the meat nicely).
Put the salted meat into a vacuum bag with the herbs and garlic tucked underneath and seal.
Return the turkey to the fridge for the flavors to infuse, for anywhere from 12 to 24 hours.

Cook the turkey:

When you’re ready to cook the turkey, preheat oven to 150°F/65°C, steam only (100% humidity).
Put the bagged meat onto a perforated pan or directly onto the oven rack and cook for 3 hours.
While the turkey is cooking, mix the butter, salt and pepper in a small bowl and set aside.
At the end of cooking, remove the turkey from the oven and cut open the bag. Discard the herbs and garlic but keep any cooking juices.

Crisp the skin and serve:

Preheat a broiler/grill to high heat. While it heats, put the turkey, skin side up, into a solid pan with the cooking juices poured around it.
Smear the butter over the skin (all of it, I know it looks like too much but trust me) and broil/grill until it’s golden brown. The butter will melt off into the pan fairly quickly, likely before you even get it under the broiler; once it does, baste the turkey with the melted butter and pan juices frequently until it reaches the color you’re looking for. If you find there are spots getting too browned, just cover those bits with a little foil while the rest of the skin catches up.
Rest the turkey in a warm place for 20-30 minutes, then carve into thin slices for serving, with some of those buttery pan juices drizzled over the top.
Leftovers, if you’re lucky enough to have any, will be tender and succulent enough to eat cold the next day.

Notes

When it comes to serving sizes, I allow 10.5oz/300g uncooked meat per person for boneless meat (bump this up to 1lb/450g if you’re doing one of the bone-in options).
Double layered zip lock bags will do for this recipe if you don’t have a vacuum bag/sealer, but I do recommend you bag the meat and seasonings somehow. This allows the seasonings to penetrate the meat better, vs just putting them next to the meat and cooking it uncovered, where the flavors will be almost undetectable in the finished dish. To do the zip lock bag option, put the filled bags into a large container of cold water. Have the inner bag’s sealing strip sitting just under the outer one, then let the water come up almost to the sealing strips of the outer bag to displace the air. Close the inner seal first, then the outer one and remove from the water.
Do not buy a brined turkey breast for this dish (most frozen supermarket turkey is brined, so check carefully). The salting and seasoning of the meat takes care of this for you; if you do it to an already brined piece of meat it’ll come out far too salty.

Nutrition