Recipe 23: Buttermilk Soaked & Poached Turkey Breast

Since I usually celebrate Thanksgiving with only my mom & pop, our feast is drastically downsized from a traditional one with all the fixings. This year, we only have three sides (oven roasted potato wedges, balsamic-glazed brussel sprouts, stuffing) and just a turkey breast instead of the whole bird.

Feeling inspired by Food, She Thought's buttermilk-poached chicken, I adapted the technique for this year's turkey boob. And the result was most excellent: moist, tender and flavorful with an exquisite sauce from the buttermilk, leftover corn-lemongrass soup in the fridge and some simple spices I have in the pantry. My parents, who usually complain turkey being too dry and bland, finished their portion and picked away at the serving platter until it was all gone!

So I figured I might as well share this "recipe"; hopefully you can excuse the cameraphone pics and the mostly-eyeballed ingredients and instructions, since I didn't think I'd be blogging about it until afterwards.

Ingredients:
1 pound skinless, boneless turkey breast, chopped in half
1 pint buttermilk
4 generous dashes of sea salt
2 generous dashes of ground black pepper
2 generous dashes of crushed red pepper flakes
2 generous dashes of cumin
2 generous dashes of ground ginger
2 generous dashes of garlic powder (garlic salt works too, but obvs. reduce amount of sea salt correspondingly)
1 dash of white pepper
1 pint soup or broth (I opted for Imagine's corn-lemongrass, which I had leftover in the fridge)

Instructions:
1. Night before, in a big measuring cup, combine buttermilk with the spices and pour into a freezer bag/tupperware.
2. Place turkey breast halves in, using hands to thoroughly coat and submerge in the buttermilk mixture. Let soak 8-24 hours.
3. Preheat a medium sized skillet with some cooking oil or butter, then add turkey breast halves with the buttermilk mixture and half a pint of the soup/broth. Bring to a simmer on hot heat, then reduce to a medium-low heat to keep it barely simmering.
4. Poach for about 30-40 minutes (or until meat therometer registers 165F,) flipping the turkey breasts once halfway through. Add the remainder of the soup as needed to the keep the breast halves mostly submerged as the liquid start boiling down.
5. Slice, serve and enjoy. The spiced buttermilk-and-soup reduction can be used as a sauce or dip too!