Cajun Roast Turkey Breast With Gluten Free Gravy

Over-the-top tender and juicy with just the right browned, crispy skin, my Cajun roast turkey breast is perfect for your lower-key holiday plans, y'all. Thawed frozen bone-in turkey breast, marinated for 24 hours in a south Louisiana-spiced broth. Then, baked low and slow in cast iron til its flavors and textures hit every melt-in-your-mouth spot in your mouth. Yep and yay...

Disclosure: A Sprinkling of Cayenne is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. 

Post Update:

This post was updated on 11/11/2019. I changed the pics and eliminated a couple of ingredients. I also changed the title to reflect its truer nature of being a true Cajun dish instead of just a southern dish. Much of the original content that I wrote on 11/21/2016 is below. However, I'm over the moon to report that Mark is now a turkey fan, and this is THE recipe that ultimately made him change his mind. 🙂

Rising to the Thanksgiving Turkey Challenge

I love turkey, and can't ever seem to get enough of it. If I thought about cooking it more throughout the year, I would try, with 'try' being the operative word. See, while I'm dreaming of eating Thanksgiving turkey bite by bite, Mark's thinking of anything else he could eat but the bird. Sigh. He just doesn't like turkey much, and he usually doesn't get behind any cooking of a turkey. Shake of the head...

Well, this year I used the blog as an excuse to make a Cajun slow roast turkey breast. And then I mentioned that if it was good, we could have another one on Thanksgiving. Mark laughed at me, saying 'It better be 'wow' good.'

So, I immediately got busy obsessing over every detail of the preparations. The Thanksgiving turkey challenge was now on, y'all, and I was determined to win for the blog, and for Thanksgiving dinner every single year of my life...

Time to Prep the Cajun Roast Turkey Breast

I went big on the Cajun roast turkey breast prep, y'all. I mean crazy BIG. I wasn't taking the Thanksgiving turkey challenge lightly. Nope. I was all in, and all in it to win it.

So, I poured a rough-chopped onion, a few celery stalks, and a green bell pepper into my food processor. Then, I topped the 'trinity' with parsley, paprika, SP&C, brown sugar, garlic cloves, and two heaping teaspoons of Tabasco:

That came out as a green paste that I added to 2 quarts of chicken broth, salt, and vinegar. After a quick stir, I submerged more than half of the turkey breast into the marinade. I covered it, then refrigerated it for 24 hours. I turned the breast over before I went to bed, at about the 12-hour marinating mark: 

The next day, I took it out of the fridge. I turned the turkey breast over carefully, and let the other side sit in the marinade while it came up to room temperature.

Time to Cook the Cajun Roasted Turkey Breast

While the bird was warming up on the counter, I preheated the oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Then, I made a quick seasoned butter sauce to rub all over the turkey breast:

Then, I put a small baking rack into the bottom of my 7-quart cast iron Dutch oven.  And, I rubbed the bird with the butter rub, and I covered it with a loose but secure foil tent before baking it for roughly three hours: 

And then I basted it again with another butter rub round when I took the foil off. I let it cook uncovered for about another 15 minutes, until it was browned and beautiful on the outside. (Oh, and 165 degrees Fahrenheit on the thickest part of the inside). 

Then, I rested it for about 30 minutes. I also whipped up the easy gluten free gravy from the pan drippings.

(If you don't have enough pan drippings to make the gravy, then just use the gluten free gravy packet that comes with your GF turkey. I can't stress enough that you must check the package, and then the company's website to make sure that you definitely do get a gluten free turkey with gravy packet. This turkey was gluten free on 11/11/19, but you MUST double-check the turkey you want to buy each and every year. If not, the company could end up changing the formula, and you could get glutened. So, be extra careful, y'all!!!)

Then, it was time to test it. And once we ate it, we discovered that it tasted even better than it looked!! Yay and happy dance!

This Cajun roast turkey breast is sooo tender and juicy that you can easily cut it with a knife. And the gluten free gravy is sooo flavorful from the marinade and the seasoned butter rub, y'all. It's sooo good that it even shocked Mark into liking turkey.

He ate it twice!! Yep and yay!!! And we're having it again for Thanksgiving dinner. And I just can't wait!! 

Share this Cajun roast turkey breast who love you enough to let you try to change their minds from time to time. And see y'all on the yum side...

Cajun Roast Turkey Breast With Gluten Free Gravy

Let the highly seasoned marinade and butter rub do most of the work for you this Thanksgiving. Make this Cajun Roast Turkey Breast With Gluten Free Gravy for a memorable holiday meal. Or make it for yourself, and section and freeze leftovers for salads, soups, and sandwiches.

Print Pin Rate

Course: Main Dish/Holiday

Cuisine: Southern

Keyword: cajun roast turkey breast, gluten free cajun roast turkey breast, roast turkey breast, roast turkey breast with gravy

Prep Time: 1 day day

Cook Time: 3 hours hours

Total Time: 1 day day 3 hours hours

Servings: 6

Author: A Sprinkling of Cayenne

Ingredients

• 1 6 to 7 pound bone-in turkey breast
• For the Cajun Turkey Breast Marinade
• 8 cups gluten free chicken broth or turkey broth
• 1 large onion, cubed
• 1 large green bell pepper, seeded and cubed
• 3 celery stalks with leaves, rough chopped
• 4 garlic cloves
• 2 teaspoon dried parsley leaves
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 2 heaping teaspoons Tabasco
• ⅓ cup salt
• 6 whole black peppercorns
• ½ cup apple cider vinegar
• For the Butter Rub
• 1 stick butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon Tabasco
• ¼ teaspoon gluten free liquid smoke
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• ½ teaspoon paprika
• ½ teaspoon parsley flakes
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon black pepper
• For the Gluten Free Gravy
• 1 tablespoons tapioca starch
• ¼ cup cold water

Cook ModePrevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

• Pour onion, bell pepper, celery, garlic, and parsley into food processor. Pulse til incorporated. Add paprika, brown sugar, and Tabasco to processor. Pulse again until well-combined.
• Pour chicken broth in large bowl with fitted lid. Add seasoning mixture from blender, and stir until combined.
• Submerge one half of the turkey breast in the marinade. Cover, and refrigerate for 24 hours. Flip the breast over in the marinade after 12 hours, if possible.
• Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
• Remove bowl from refrigerator. Turn turkey breast over, and let come to room temperature for about 30 minutes.
• Carefully remove turkey breast from marinade. Shake off excess marinade, and lay in a colander for a few minutes until most of the marinade is released from the bid. Discard marinade in bowl.
• Set a small baking rack inside of a large cast iron Dutch oven. Place the turkey breast on top of the rack.
• Stir the seasoned butter rub ingredients in a bowl until incorporated. Use your hands to massage the rub into the turkey breast.
• Cover the turkey with a loose aluminum foil tent. Roast turkey for 3 to 3 ½ hours, or until a digital thermometer inserted deep with the breast reads 165 degrees F. Remove foil tent.

  If desired, make another butter rub, and use a basting brush to baste the uncovered bird during the last 30 minutes of cooking time.
• When the turkey is ready, remove from oven. Then, let rest 30 minutes.
• If you have pan drippings, place them over a medium high fire. Mix the tapioca starch and water together to make a slurry. Pour the slurry into the roast turkey pan drippings, and stir until incorporated. Bring to a boil, stirring often until the mixture smooths out.
• Remove from heat.
• Let stand 5 minutes. Serve gluten free gravy over Cajun roasted turkey breast, if desired.

Notes

PLEASE make sure that you buy a clearly marked gluten free turkey breast that says 'No water added' on the package. If you buy a water added turkey breast, you will end up with cups of water at the bottom of the Dutch oven that you cannot use to make gravy. The turkey meat will still be tender, but you won't have any gravy.

Check the bird after 1 hour. If no pan drippings are at the bottom of the Dutch oven, add 1 cup of gluten free chicken broth or turkey broth to the bottom of the pot.

Keep checking the liquid levels at the bottom of the pot, ensuring that their is enough liquid at the bottom of the Dutch oven to prevent the turkey from burning (or starting an oven fire.) This is EXTREMELY important, so please set multiple timers to go off throughout the cooking process.

If you don't have pan drippings at the end of the cooking process, use the gluten free turkey gravy packet that usually comes with the gluten free turkey breasts. Contact the company directly if you have any doubt that the included turkey packet may not be gluten ree. 

Click here to follow on Instagram @asprinklingofcayenne

The information shown is an estimate provided by a third-party, online computer-generated nutrition calculator, not a registered dietitian or certified nutritionist. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods and individual portion sizes, along with other factors.

See our full nutrition disclaimer here.