Kelley's Turkey with Rice and Gravy

Tonight's dinner is a breeze for a cook with kids and a full-time job. Few people cook turkey on a regular basis, saving the bird for holiday feasts. However, a turkey breast makes a tasty meal, and kids usually clean their plates. I used to be afraid of turkey. And then my sister in-law Kelley taught me the right way to do it.

Kelley's been cooking turkey breast for years. Her daughters love turkey, rice and gravy. When they were little and staying home with a nanny, Kelley would put the turkey breast in the fridge and ask the nanny to put it in the oven at about 3:00 or so. Well, one day Kelley's girls had a doctor's appointment (or something like that), so she asked the nanny to put the turkey in the oven and then bring the girls to town to meet Kelley before going home. The nanny did as she was told, but it wasn't until 5:30 or 6:00 that she remembered she'd forgotten to remove the plastic wrap covering the turkey breast! Of course, by that time, Kelley and her kids had gotten home from their appointment, and when they took the turkey out of the oven, it was shiny with a plastic coating. But it smelled delicious. Kelley had to throw the turkey away and serve peanut butter sandwiches for dinner.

From then on, Kelley realized the turkey cooking was up to her. But with a full-time job, she knew roasting the turkey breast wasn't an option. So she pulled out the crock pot. Here are the instructions (you may want to read them twice before trying this method out yourself):

Put a turkey breast in the crock pot. Sprinkle it with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Put the lid on. Turn the crock pot on.

That's it!

Select the setting that best fits your schedule. Because turkey breasts are so big, I usually ask the butcher to cut them in half. I freeze on half and cook the other. I turn the crock pot on low before I leave for work in the morning. When my son comes home from school, he always turns it off for me. Six hours on low is just right for half a turkey breast. If you're cooking the whole breast, maybe it'll need eight hours.

Now, one of my favorite products in the world is Reynolds Slow Cooker Liners. Not only do they make crock pot cleanup a breeze, but they also allow me to collect all the drippings from the turkey breast, which makes the gravy a breeze too. Here's how I make the gravy:

I put the turkey drippings in a small sauce pan. Then I mix up about a cup of chicken bouillon and heat it in the microwave. I add that to the drippings. I heat the mixture until it boils. While it's heating, I mix two tbsp. of corn starch with cold water. When the bouillon/drippings mixture boils, I add the corn starch mixture and stir until it comes back to a boil, at which time it thickens up into gravy.

I serve the turkey breast and gravy with Uncle Ben's whole grain brown rice (I always use Uncle Ben's. It's the best.), cranberry sauce and a green vegetable. Tonight it was broccoli. I wish you could see the meal. But we were halfway through dinner before somebody asked, "Are you going to blog about this meal?" Although I don't have a photo, I can report that everybody belonged to the clean plate club tonight.