With Thanksgiving right around the corner, I thought it would be a great time to share our family’s favorite oven roasted turkey breast recipe.

This is my mom’s recipe, and she has used this method for many, many years. It is just tradition for us to make it this way!
Note: This post may contain Amazon affiliate links. See my full affiliate disclosure policy here.
This recipe uses a bone in turkey breast, which is all white meat. The boneless turkey breast varieties will have a different cook time and different texture. We prefer the bone in turkey breast, which you can find at most grocery stores – WalMart, Publix, etc.
This works for a smaller group to medium crowd, especially with all the side dishes! For the years we hosted a large crowd, my mom would make two of these bone in turkey breasts, rather than a whole bird.
And side note: if you are wanting to make turkey for an even smaller crowd, check out my air fryer turkey breast tenderloin recipe.
Heads up: Be sure and give your frozen turkey breast plenty of time to thaw. For a Thursday meal, I would take mine out of the freezer on Sunday morning, and let it thaw in the refrigerator.
How to make oven roasted turkey breast
First, gather your ingredients. For tastiest results, always use the best quality ingredients you have access to.
Ingredients
To make this oven-roasted turkey breast recipe recipe, you will need the following ingredients:
- 1 bone-in turkey breast, about 6 pounds
- 1 oven bag with included closure/ bag tie
- garlic salt (or you can sub half garlic powder, half salt)
- black pepper
- paprika
- onion powder
- olive oil
- all purpose flour
- celery
- onion
Feel free to include any of your favorite fresh herbs. That being said, we make this exact recipe listed as is every Thanksgiving and love it!
Why turkey breast?
Why use a turkey breast versus a whole entire turkey? I really like the simplicity of turkey breast. You don’t have to worry about trying to cook the dark meat enough while not drying out the white meat, which is the case cooking a whole bird. There is no basting in this method either, so no fuss!
Plus, there are a LOT of other things needing your attention on Thanksgiving Day. Thanksgiving is basically the kitchen olympics at our house. The simpler, the better! This simple recipe is the easiest way to make juicy turkey breast.
And don’t worry, this recipe is so very tasty, full of flavor, tender and yielding juicy meat. You are not sacrificing any taste to get that simplicity!

Prepping and seasoning
Rinse the turkey breast, remove any giblets from the cavity, and pat dry with paper towels. It a small bowl or ramekin, mix all the spices and the oil, and stir to combine.

Rub that mixture all over the turkey, inside the cavity as well as outside for maximum flavor. I even go up under the skin of the turkey breast with mine. Use your hands to gently pull the skin away from the meat a little, as you go up under it with the spice and oil mixture. Place the onion and celery in the cavity.
Take the flour, and add it to the oven bag. Use your hands to clamp the opening (so that flour doesn’t go everywhere!), and shake the bag to distribute the flour.
Place the bag in your roasting pan, and open it up.
Place the turkey breast in it. Note: We sit ours right in the bag. There will be drippings that the turkey is sitting in after it is cooked. We love that! If you don’t want your turkey sitting in its drippings, add some extra celery and onion, and sit the turkey breast on top of that. Use the included bag tie to close the bag.
Use scissors to cut three small holes in the top of the bag to let steam release. (NOTE: My mom always does all of the steps up to this point the night before Thanksgiving, and puts the bag with the seasoned turkey in the refrigerator overnight. It saves tons of time, but is not required. I tested all steps done the day of, and it was still great!)
What temperature to cook turkey breast in the oven
We prefer a slow roasted turkey breast type situation. Here is our cooking process. Place the pan in a preheated oven at 325 degrees F, and make sure that the oven bag is not touching the top or sides of the oven. Adjust your shelves if you need to!
How long to cook turkey breast in the oven
Cook until internal temperature reaches 165 degrees, which turns out to be about 2 hours and 15 minutes for my 6 pound bone-in turkey breast. This is a general rule of thumb, and you should adjust if your turkey breast is significantly bigger or smaller than this.
Feel free to use and instant-read thermometer, if you want to make sure.
Rest
Let the turkey rest at least 30 minutes before carving. This helps to redistribute the juices, and it makes it taste amazing!
We usually let ours rest anywhere from an hour to 1.5 hours while we cook all of our side items in the oven. It will still be warm after this long, so no worries.
Carve on a cutting board with a sharp knife and enjoy! And don’t forget the cranberry sauce.

Roasting turkey in an oven bag
Sure, there are a few of you out there who will not like the fact that this recipe uses an oven bag.

I get it, and I almost did not publish this recipe because of it. But I decided to keep it real and share it anyway!
#NotPerfect #Tradition
This post explains the pros and cons of oven bags in a funny advice column format. I am not trying to convince you of anything, though.
My view: Maybe they’re not ideal, but we literally use them once or twice a year. Once at Thanksgiving and usually again at Christmas.
They make the turkey golden brown beautifully, while keeping it juicy without any basting. So I am okay with the risks since I am not using them all the time.
As an added bonus, it collects the pan drippings, which are great for making homemade gravy.
Maybe I’ll tweak mom’s recipe and play with the different cooking methods to make it apart from oven bags later on.
But for now, I just want to forever document my mom’s original tried and true method. It’s like our little family tradition, and it results in some really juicy, delicious turkey!
Storage and leftovers
Store leftovers in a covered container or sealable storage bag.
How long is cooked turkey in the fridge? 3 to 4 days is a safe bet, and my family has gone slightly longer than that.
Be sure and check out my leftover turkey recipes here.
Tools Used to Make This Recipe
Note: These are Amazon affiliate links.
- Oven bag – I use the Reynold’s ones (not sponsored). And yes, we use the ones for 8 to 24 pounds, even though a turkey breast is only around 6 pounds.
- Roasting pan. The one I am using is technically a lasagna pan, but it works great!
- Knife for carving
Pin and share this recipe
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Oven Roasted Turkey Breast (Bone In)
This oven roasted turkey breast is my mom’s recipe, and she has used this method for many, many years. It is just tradition for us to make it this way!
Ingredients
- 1 in bone- turkey breast about 6 pounds
- 1 oven bag with included closure/ bag tie
- 2 Tablespoons garlic salt
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- 2 teaspoons paprika
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 2.5 Tablespoons olive oil
- 1 Tablespoon flour all purpose
- 3 in stalks of celery cut half
- 1 onion quartered
Instructions
-
Rinse the turkey breast, remove any giblets from the cavity, and pat dry with paper towels.
-
It a small bowl or ramekin, mix all the spices and the oil, and stir to combine.
-
Rub that mixture all over the turkey, inside the cavity as well as outside for maximum flavor. I even go up under the skin of the turkey breast with mine. Use your hands to gently pull the skin away from the meat a little, as you go up under it with the spice and oil mixture.
-
Place the onion and celery in the cavity.
-
Take the flour, and add it to the oven bag.
-
Use your hands to clamp the opening (so that flour doesn’t go everywhere!), and shake the bag to distribute the flour.
-
Place the bag in your roasting pan, and open it up.
-
Place the turkey breast in it. Note: We sit ours right in the bag. There will be drippings that the turkey is sitting in after it is cooked. We love that! If you don’t want your turkey sitting in its drippings, add some extra celery and onion, and sit the turkey breast on top of that.
-
Use the included bag tie to close the bag.
-
Use scissors to cut three small holes in the top of the bag to let steam release. (NOTE: My mom always does all of the steps up to this point the night before Thanksgiving, and puts the bag with the seasoned turkey in the refrigerator overnight. It saves tons of time, but is not required. I tested all steps done the day of, and it was still great!)
-
Place the pan in a preheated oven at 325 degrees, and make sure that the oven bag is not touching the top or sides of the oven. Adjust your shelves if you need to!
-
Cook until internal temperature reaches 165 degrees, about 2 hours and 15 minutes for mine.
-
Let rest at least 30 minutes before carving. We usually let ours rest anywhere from an hour to 1.5 hours while we cook all of our side items in the oven.
-
Carve and enjoy!
Recipe Notes
Be sure and give your turkey plenty of time to thaw. For a Thursday meal, I would take mine out of the freezer on Sunday morning, and let it thaw in the refrigerator.
This post originally appeared on A Pinch of Healthy 11/9/2017.
Mary Beth says
Delicious!! I made three turkey breasts for Easter using this method. So tender and flavorful! I will admit I wasn’t crazy about the texture of the skin, so I pulled it off. Then I put some fresh oregano bunches around it to distract that there was no skin! Ultimate compliment was my 19 year old niece claimed the leftovers! Thank you for the great recipe and easy directions!
Marjorie @APinchOfHealthy says
Yay Mary Beth! I am so happy to hear this.❤️
Alleyjazz says
This was super delicious!
Marjorie @APinchOfHealthy says
I am so glad you enjoyed it!🙌🏻
Caroline Landon says
Do you remove the turkey from the bag while it is resting, or leave it in until it’s time to carve?
Marjorie @APinchOfHealthy says
Hi Caroline! I leave it in the bag until it is time to carve.👌🏻
Paula says
I don’t have much experience with cooking turkey but this sounds easy and delicious so I’m going to give it a try!!! Do you have any suggestions for doing this the day before and reheating the next day?
Marjorie @APinchOfHealthy says
Hi Paula! I suggest seasoning it the night before and letting it hang out in the fridge (in the oven bag and everything, right ready to go). Cook it the day of, and do the timeline math to make it come out of the oven about an hour before you plan to eat. That is what we do every year, and it works out great. I hope you enjoy it. Happy Thanksgiving!
Kevin Smith says
I’ve seen some posting on putting the breast skin side down with the cavity upwards. What do you suggest?
Marjorie @APinchOfHealthy says
Hi Kevin! I suggest it as written, with the breast meat facing upward. Reason being: what’s below it sits in the juices and will not get crisp skin. I hope you enjoy, and Happy Thanksgiving!
Audrey says
This sounds delicious, I’m trying it for our turkey this year. Mine always turned out so dry. Thanks for the tip with the bag.
Marjorie @APinchOfHealthy says
I hope you enjoy it Audrey!❤️
Donna Grubb says
Can this recipe done with stuffing the turday breast? Thank you for your help.
Marjorie @APinchOfHealthy says
I have not done it that way before, so I cannot say for sure.
Shannon says
Yes you can use stuffing.. but I do suggest taking it out after resting the turkey breast and putting it in the oven to keep warm(and to dry out since it will be sitting in the juices) my mom always made one dressing(stuffing) that she put in the turkey and one that she didn’t, just in case people didn’t like wet stuffing.
hope pietrzyk says
Can I use the turkey oven bags to cook frozen turkey breast 6 lbs without defrosting?
Marjorie @APinchOfHealthy says
Hi Hope! I would never recommend doing this recipe without thawing the meat first.
Angela D says
I just wanna say this is the perfect recipe. I used it at Thanksgiving and was asked to do it again for New Year s. Perfect tender juicy breast. Thank you for giving me a new holiday tradition. Oh and the color is beautiful. Yummilicious
Marjorie @APinchOfHealthy says
Amazing to hear, Angela🙌🏻
Jessie O’Donnell says
Plan to cook this for Christmas. I Especially like that I can prepare everything the night before.
By the way my oven bags have been in my pantry for years and box is open. Should I buy new ones?
Marjorie @APinchOfHealthy says
The bags should still work fine. Hope you enjoy it, and Merry Christmas!
Alison Thetford says
We had it on Thanksgiving. Excellent and enough juice to make a delicious gravy!