This moist, flavorful Turkey Roulade is a showstopping alternative to a whole roasted turkey for Thanksgiving! Here, I’ll be showing you how to make a turkey roulade.
This is a comprehensive guide to prep and assemble a full, on the bone turkey breast, and make it into a boneless, ready for roasting turkey roulade.
This year, like in years past, we won’t be prepping a whole turkey for our Thanksgiving spread. That’s a lot of food for just the two of us, too much clearly, and I’m not very fond of eating leftovers for a whole week. So the answer is to cook a smaller turkey dish, like a slow cooked turkey breast or oven roasted turkey breast or turkey legs even.
This year I’m making a Turkey Roulade with turkey breast! And here I’ll be showing you how to prep the turkey roulade.
Butterflying a turkey breast is a great technique that makes cooking turkey easier and infuses more flavor. It involves cutting the breast meat almost in half horizontally to open it up like a book. This allows you to stuff it pound it to an even thickness so it cooks evenly or sauté the two halves separately for faster cooking. Learning how to butterfly a turkey breast can help you make delicious stuffed roulades, cutlets, or sautéed turkey meals.
Why Butterfly a Turkey Breast?
Butterflying a turkey breast has several advantages over roasting a whole turkey or cooking a breast intact
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Allows you to add stuffing or other flavorful fillings to make every bite delicious.
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Cooks much faster than a whole turkey or intact breast.
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Creates a uniform thickness so the breast cooks evenly. No dry white meat!
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Provides more surface area for crisping up the skin or for browning when sautéed.
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Lets you cut the breast into smaller pieces for sautéing or serving individual portions.
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Looks elegant and impressive when stuffed and rolled.
So if you’re cooking for a smaller gathering or want infused flavors and moist turkey, butterflying is the way to go.
Step-by-Step Guide to Butterflying a Turkey Breast
Butterflying a turkey breast is easy to do with just a chef’s knife and a cutting board. Here are the step-by-step instructions:
1. Start with a boneless, skin-on breast
Buy a whole boneless, skin-on turkey breast, about 2-3 pounds. Remove any netting or trussing.
2. Remove the skin
Lay the breast skin-side up. Starting at one end, slide your fingers under the skin to loosen it from the meat. Peel back and slice off the skin. Reserve for later use if desired.
3. Turn breast over and slice horizontally
Turn the breast over so the smooth side is down. Position your knife parallel to the cutting board about 1/2 inch above it. Cut horizontally into the thickest part of the breast, stopping about 3/4 inch from the edge.
4. Open up the breast
Gently open up the breast like a book at the cut. It should lay flat.
5. Pound the breast to even thickness
Cover with plastic wrap and use a meat mallet to gently pound the breast to an even 1/2 inch thickness all over.
6. Add filling and roll (optional)
For a roulade, spread on your favorite stuffing, leaving a 1 inch border. Roll up lengthwise, using the reserved skin to cover the seam.
7. Tie at intervals
Use butcher’s twine to tie the roulade closed at 1 inch intervals. Tuck in ends and tie crosswise.
And that’s it! Your butterflied turkey breast is ready for delicious recipes.
Delicious Ways to Use a Butterflied Turkey Breast
Once you’ve mastered how to butterfly a turkey breast, here are some of the amazing dishes you can create:
Turkey Roulade
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Spread with savory stuffing and roll up. Popular options are cornbread stuffing, sausage stuffing, apple stuffing, or wild rice stuffing.
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Roast or bake until cooked through and golden brown.
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Slice into rounds to reveal beautiful spiral of turkey and stuffing.
Turkey Cutlets
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Pound each half to 1⁄4 inch thickness after butterflying.
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Sauté in olive oil over high heat for 2-3 minutes per side until browned.
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Serve with pan sauce, or top with compound butter.
Stuffed Turkey Breast
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After butterflying, cover one half with filling but don’t roll up.
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Top with other breast half and tie together.
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Roast or bake until cooked through and juices run clear.
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Slice thickly and serve with pan juices.
Turkey Saltimbocca
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Pound butterflied breast thin and layer with prosciutto and sage.
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Roll up and secure with toothpicks.
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Pan fry in olive oil and white wine until cooked.
Grilled Turkey Breast
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Pound halves to 1⁄2 inch thickness after splitting.
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Brush with olive oil and seasonings.
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Grill over direct heat for 6-8 minutes per side.
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Slice and serve with grilled veggies.
Tips for Successfully Butterflying a Turkey Breast
Follow these tips when butterflying a turkey breast for perfect results:
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Use a very sharp chef’s knife for clean cuts.
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Cut slowly and let the knife do the work. Don’t force it.
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Open up the breast gently after the horizontal cut to keep it intact.
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Pound evenly to prevent pockets of thickness. Thinner at edges.
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Don’t overstuff if making a roulade. It can leak out and dry out.
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Truss and tie every inch to hold roulade shape during cooking.
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Cook to an internal temperature of 165°F for food safety.
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Let rest at least 10 minutes before slicing for juicy meat.
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Save pan juices to make gravy or sauce.
With this easy technique, you can infuse delicious flavor into turkey breast meals for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or anytime!
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Step two – Remove the first turkey breast from the bone
To do this you will need a sharp paring knife (or if you’re deft with knives, you can use any sharp knife that you can manoeuvre well and isn’t heavy) to help separate the breast meat from the bone.
Locate the hard breast bone in the middle that separates the two turkey breasts. Make a cut along one side of the breast bone, making sure to stay as close to the bone as possible.
Continue to cut along the breast bone to separate the breast meat from the bone. You can gently lift the turkey breast meat to expose the bone so that you know where to cut to get a fully intact breast meat portion (see pictures below).
You will come across a tendon that attaches the breast meat to the bone (near the wing joint of the breast bone), just make a small cut to sever the tendon from the bone.
Now you have a completely separated piece of turkey breast. Repeat this process to separate the second turkey breast from the bone.
You should now have two turkey breast sections, and one turkey breast bone. Don’t discard this bone because you can roast this and make a flavorful turkey broth to make gravy!
Step seven – Assemble the roulade (time to roll up the meat)
This part is fun to do, but can be tricky.
- Start at one end of the turkey breast and start rolling it up (as shown below), keeping it as tight/taut as possible. Do NOT roll up the turkey breast in the skin, yet.
- Once you have rolled up the turkey breast, while keeping it as tight as possible, place it on the stretched out turkey skin with the seam side of the turkey roulade facing up, and then wrap the skin around the roulade.
- The objective is to have the skin wrapped around the roulade, with the seams of both the roulade and the skin facing up.
- Tightly cover the rolled up turkey breast with the skin, and then place the roulade on the board with the seam side up as shown below.
- Using the twine, tie the turkey roulade at 1 inch intervals as shown below. Tie the twine, starting from the ends, working your way towards the middle. This will help keep the shape of the roulade.
- Remember to tie the twine fairly tightly and secure with double knots. The knots should be near the seam, so that the presentation side looks neat.
- Stretch out the skin at either end, and over the meat (if possible). You can tie a string across the turkey roulade horizontally as well, to help maintain the shape further.
Alternatively, you can roll up the roulade and then tightly wrap it with plastic wrap without using any twine. However, it’s a little more tricky to keep the shape this way, and I prefer to use twine.
Now you have an assembled turkey roulade!
How to Butterfly with Martha Stewart
FAQ
Should you butterfly a turkey breast?
How do you butterfly a turkey breast?
Continue to 2 of 8 below. To butterfly, begin with a boneless, skinless turkey breast. Many already come rolled and tied or wrapped in string netting; the netting and string need to be removed, as well as the pop-up thermometer if there is one. Unroll the breast and lay it on a cutting board.
How do you cut a turkey breast with a knife?
Think of the turkey breast like a closed book that you need to open at about the halfway point. Turn the breast over so the smooth side is facing down. Holding the knife parallel to the cutting board, slice into the thickest portion of the breast, keeping the knife about 1/2 inch above the cutting board.
How do you make a butterflied turkey breast roulade?
To make the butterflied turkey breast into a roulade, spread an even layer of filling (such as a traditional sage stuffing) over the turkey. Don’t spread to the edge; otherwise, some of the filling will leak out and look messy.
How do you remove skin from a turkey breast?
Using a boning knife, a utility knife, or a paring knife , cut away any remaining skin by sliding the blade underneath the edge of the skin and pulling it away while simultaneously slicing along the membrane that holds the skin to the meat. Continue to 3 of 8 below. Turn the turkey breast over so the skin side is facing down.