Description
This whiskey glazed turkey breast, dry rubbed with whiskey salt and then glazed with a whiskey orange glaze, is not just for turkey lovers, but whiskey lovers, too!
Ingredients
Whiskey Salt
1 1/2 c whiskey
1/2 c coarse sea salt
Whiskey Dry Rub
1 T fresh ground black pepper
3 T whiskey salt or regular Kosher salt
1 T smoked or regular paprika
1 T brown sugar
Turkey (I used one half of a split fresh bone in turkey breast that weighed about 5 lbs.)
Whiskey Glaze
1/4 c whiskey
2 T honey
3 sprigs sage
3 crushed and peeled garlic cloves
2 nice strips of orange zest
1 T soy
4 T butter
Instructions
Whiskey Salt
In a pot, bring whiskey to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and simmer until reduced to a syrup, thick enough to coat a spoon. I recommend using small pot and watch carefully as it starts to thicken as you don’t want it to burn or boil away. You should have about 3 T liquid.
Once reduced, immediately add salt and stir until the salt has completely absorbed the whiskey and has changed color. Pour onto a baking sheet or a piece of parchment paper and dry in the oven at 170°F or lower for 30 minutes to 2 hours. Colorado is very dry so this only took about 20 minutes here. This also depends on how much liquid you mixed your salt with. More liquid equals more drying time.
Dry Rub
Mix all seasonings together for the dry rub.
Prepare glaze in a small saucepan by bringing all glaze ingredients to a simmer over medium heat. Stir occasionally until reduced by about half. It should be thick enough to coat a spoon but NOT syrupy. Reduce to low and keep warm until ready to use. OR remove from heat and when ready to use rewarm over low heat. (This glaze is delicious.)
Turkey
Place turkey on a rack that is placed inside a large baking sheet. Make sure turkey is dry and then rub dry rub all over the turkey. Top and bottom. use all the rub. Now chill this turkey uncovered in the fridge overnight and up to two days. This makes for a nice crispy skin.
After chilling remove turkey breast from wire rack and rinse both. Line baking sheet with foil and set rack back inside. Place turkey breast back on rack and let come to room temperature for 2-3 hours.
Place oven rack in middle of oven. Preheat oven to 450. Pour 1 c water into baking sheet and roast turkey breast, rotating pan after 15 minutes. After another 15 minutes turn oven temperature down to 300.
Brush turkey breast with prepared glaze. Make sure there is still enough water in the pan which helps keep turkey moist. Add more if needed. Brush turkey every 10 minutes and bake turkey until a meat thermometer inserted into turkey breast registers 150. After reducing oven temperature to 300 turkey will probably need to bake for about 50-70 minutes longer. (This will depend on the size of the turkey.) When turkey breast reaches 150 remove from oven and let turkey breast rest for at least 30 minutes before slicing.
Notes
You will not use all the whiskey salt in this recipe.
Prep Time does not include nonactive time.
