Crock Pot Turkey Breast

A long time ago (right before Thanksgiving of last year) I realized that we wouldn't have any where to go to eat the big feast.  Usually we go to my brother's house but he was going out of town.  I was debating whether to invite people over to my house for dinner or just cook a little dinner for the two of us.  I don't love turkey and I certainly never want to cook a whole turkey in my house.  When I want turkey I often use turkey thighs, either for soup or just to eat.  The thought of doing an entire Thanksgiving dinner, even if it was small and just for two, was a little overwhelming.  The week before Thanksgiving I looked at what the grocery store had to offer.  They had half breasts...I don't love turkey breast but I knew my husband preferred it to dark meat so I got the half breast; it was 2.7 pounds, bone-in, skin on.

Then I was trying to figure out how to cook everything I wanted with only one oven.  How do regular families figure this out?  I have no idea.  Then I thought, 'hey, there's got to be a way to cook this turkey in the crock pot.'  There certainly is...the Internet has a lot of recipes for crock pot turkey breast.  I chose this recipe because it had seasoning that I already had.

But then, miracle of miracles, the Tuesday before Thanksgiving we were invited over to a friend's house and I immediately said yes!  For me Thanksgiving is a time for socializing and having a good time and I was dreading the quiet day at home that it was going to be.  So I didn't have to make my turkey after all.  But, guess what!  I still had that turkey breast in my freezer and I didn't want to waste it.  So now, today, with my oven broken I thought it was the perfect time to try out some new things in my crock-pot, including this turkey breast.

Here is my olive oil for brushing and my spice mixture for rubbing.  I followed her recipe exactly except that I halved it since she called for a 6-7 pound breast and I had a 3 pounder.  I still used 1/2 cup of water in the bottom of the crock pot though.  I also cooked it with the skin on and removed the skin when I carved it.  I was just being lazy on that one.  

Here it is in the crock pot with the seasoning and ready to be cooked.  Since I had a smaller piece of meat I wasn't sure how long it would cook before being done.  Would it need the 5-6 hours on low that the 6-7 pound breast would need or not?  So I set it on high for about 30 minutes then down to low for 2 hours 30 minutes.  By then it was done.  So I would say that you should cook it for about an hour per pound.  You definitely need a thermometer for this dish just to be sure.

Here is the finished breast.  I set it on a plate on a bed of paper towels since it was sitting in water in the crock pot and I wanted that to "drain."

At this point I thought, 'now what?'  I had never carved a turkey breast.  I wasn't sure what I was doing...so I watched a Youtube video and thought, 'I could've figured that out on my own.'   Oh well: it was only 2 minutes of my life.  Here is my carving work.

 
And here is my glorious Thanksgiving dinner on Martin Luther King, Jr's holiday.  No one ever said you can't have turkey on other holidays, right?  I did make mashed potatoes and biscuits from the freezer for my husband.  I usually don't eat gravy because it is bad for me (as in I can't eat flour or corn starch so what do you thicken it with?) but today I decided to make my own gravy with corn starch and take my digestive chances into my own hands.  Hopefully it works out well.  I just used the juice in the bottom of the crock pot with some water and corn starch.  It was a pretty exciting dinner and it didn't even take that much effort.  So next time, try to cook your turkey in the crock pot...that will leave your oven available for the ever-popular bacon wrapped asparagus.