Turkey Crown Cooking Time and Tips

This recipe will guide you through every step of the way for how to cook a Turkey Crown. 

From what size turkey crown to buy, how many people it serves, how long to defrost, preparing to roast, adding flavour, what temperature and how long to cook.

As well as basting advice, the safe cooked temperature, resting time, how to carve bone-in Turkey Breast and finally how to create turkey gravy from the leftover stock and drippings.

Ensuring you have moist, tender slices of roast turkey for your Christmas Roast Dinner or Thanksgiving meal and convincing you that turkey is not dry when prepared and cooked correctly!

We also have a slow cooker turkey crown recipe, which keeps the oven free to cook all the side dishes.

How to cook a turkey crown?

Check out our quick video below showing how to cook a turkey crown.

Continue reading for what size turkey crown to serve how many people, and the defrosting and cooking times for the weight.

We have cooked a defrosted 2.5kg Turkey Crown from Tesco, as seen in the pictures.

You can jump straight to the recipe card to get straight to cooking.

What size Turkey Crown do I need?

Turkey crowns are great for a small family, although they range in size and can still serve a large family. They are also easier to fit in the oven than a whole turkey!

Use our handy chart to work out what size turkey crown to buy to feed 4 people or up to 14 people!

Turkey Crown weight	How many servings (with Christmas dinner)
1.5kg / 3lb	4 People
2kg / 4.5lb	5-6 People
2.5kg / 5.5lb	7-8 People
3kg / 7lb	9-10 People
3.5kg / 8lb	11-12 People
4kg / 9lb	13-14 People

The serving suggestions are based on how much to serve at Christmas with all the trimmings.

We cooked a 2.5kg turkey which gave 4 slices of breast meat each to two adults and 2 slices each to four children.

We still had some leftover turkey for our cold meats platter the next day!

How to prevent dry turkey crown?

You must do a few things to cook the best turkey crown, so it is not dry. From what turkey to buy, defrosting correctly, making sure the turkey you are cooking has been pre-brined.

Adding stock to the roasting tin, keeping it covered for most of the cooking time, making sure to cook for the right time, not to overcook and allowing it time to rest.

I will go into more details for each of these below. 

What is a turkey crown?

In simple terms, a turkey crown is a whole turkey, with the legs and wings removed. Sometimes the drumettes are still intact.

So you are getting a turkey breast with the bone still in.

It is easier and quicker to cook than a whole turkey and perfect for people who prefer white breast meat.

If you are feeding a small family and still want the dark meat from legs and wings, we have a small whole turkey recipe for you.

What Turkey Crown to buy?

There are many choices these days. What does it all mean? Here is some advice when shopping for your turkey.

Free-Range

A free-range turkey means the turkey has had access to roam freely outdoors and eats as it pleases. They tend to grow slower and gain more fat which means more flavour!

Organic

Organic turkeys are also free-range (as above) but fed a strict, regulated, pesticide-free diet.

Bronze

Bronze Turkey is a traditional dark-feathered breed, a slow grower; the meat has a more robust, intense flavour.

Black Turkey

The Norfolk black turkey is considered the oldest breed in Britain, originally from Spain and bought over by Spanish explorers; they have a gamier flavour than the white variety.

Read more about the history for Christmas Turkeys.

Just to be clear, bronze and black turkeys are referring to the colour of their feathers. The meat is the same colour as the white-feathered turkeys.

I have had Bronze, Organic and Free-Range turkeys in the past. They are worth the extra splurge for lovely slices of flavoursome poultry if you can afford them.

However, you can still get excellent results with a supermarket turkey when cooked correctly.

Fresh or Frozen Turkey Crown?

You can use fresh or frozen turkey for this recipe; just remember to defrost ahead of time.

Frozen turkey is an affordable option, so you can buy it in advance from the supermarket. 

The bonus is these are available all year round; remember, roast turkey is not just for Christmas and Thanksgiving!

When cooking a frozen turkey crown, you must be a few days ahead when preparing; make sure you allow enough time to defrost the turkey.

Defrosting Turkey Crown

When defrosting a turkey crown, do so in the fridge. Make sure to place the turkey on a deep tray or pot on the bottom shelf. It prevents raw turkey juice from pouring out of the packaging and contaminating other produce in the fridge.

Use the below chart for how long to defrost a turkey crown. Time the defrosting so that once it has defrosted, you will cook it within two days.

Frozen Turkey Crown Weight	Defrost time in the fridge
1.5kg / 3lb	14 hours
2kg / 4.5lb	20 hours
2.5kg / 5.5lb	25 hours
3kg / 7lb	30 hours
3.5kg / 8lb	35 hours
4kg / 9lb	40 hours

Brining?

Brining is a process where the turkey is submerged in saltwater overnight before cooking which adds extra moisture and helps it cook more evenly without drying it out. You can also dry brine turkey in coarse salt.

Before brining a turkey crown, you need to check the turkey’s label; most store-bought turkeys in the UK have already been pre-brined or injected with brine. 

The label will say, pre-brined, basted or check the ingredients list; if water and other ingredients are listed, that means it has already been brined.

How to keep the turkey moist?

The best way to cook turkey crown without drying out during cooking, is by adding plenty of fat! Turkey is a low-fat meat and can dry out during the long roasting time. 

Adding butter inside the skin and all over the top and inside cavities helps to keep the meat moist.  

We also add extra flavour to the butter using garlic and fresh thyme leaves. And adding black pepper all over the skin.

Can you stuff a turkey crown?

There is a cavity under the breastbone and in the neck that can be stuffed, we usually add some fresh thyme and a clementine cut in half. 

Don’t stuff turkey crown with stuffing as this will increase the cooking time, leading to dry turkey! Instead, we like to make our sausagemeat stuffing balls separately. 

How to tie up a turkey crown?

Some turkey crowns come with drumettes or whole wings attached. We find it best to tuck these under the bird and use cooking string to keep them together, to prevent them from sticking out at funny angles during cooking.

Roasting tin

Use a medium-sized deep walled roasting tray, with two onions halved and two carrots cut into quarters to sit the turkey crown on top. 

The vegetables work in two ways, a rack to keep the turkey crown raised off the base of the roasting tin. 

Whilst adding extra flavour to the stock, which later gets made into a delicious gravy. We will go into more detail about creating a turkey gravy later.

Turkey Foil

It is best to keep the turkey crown loosely covered with foil during most of the cooking time. If you can, buy an extra wide turkey foil, otherwise use two sheets. This keeps the moisture in and prevents the turkey from drying out.

Use plenty of foil over the top of the turkey crown, try to prevent it from resting on the actual turkey skin. Secure across the long edge of roasting tin only. Leaving the two shorter ends open.

Keep foil on until the last 30 minutes of cooking.

What temperature to cook a turkey crown

Only one temperature is needed during the entire cooking process. Preheat the oven to 180°C fan / 190°C / 375°F / Gas mark 5. Convert oven tempertures here.

Roast Turkey Crown Cooking Times

Use the below chart for how long to cook turkey crown based on the size. It may be different from the time shown on the packet, but this is one of the reasons everyone has dry turkey every year!

Turkey Crown Weight	Cooking time
1.5kg / 3lb	1 hour 40 minutes
2kg / 4.5lb	1 hour 50 minutes
2.5kg / 5.5lb	2 hours 00 minutes
3kg / 7lb	2 hours 10 minutes
3.5kg / 8lb	2 hours 20 minutes
4kg / 9lb	2 hours 50 minutes

Trust me, follow the above and check the final temperature of the turkey crown. Worst case scenario is you will have to put it back in the oven to cook longer.

Basting during cooking?

We only baste once during cooking. Keeping the crown covered loosely in foil keeps the moisture in so regular basting is not needed.

Also, every time you remove the turkey from the oven, it loses heat and will need to be cooked longer.

Browning turkey skin

30 minutes before the end of cooking remove the foil. Baste all over using a brush or baster, return to the oven to allow the turkey skin to brown evenly.

How to check if a turkey is cooked?

There are a few ways to check, but the best way is to check the temperature.

I highly recommend buying a cooking thermometer for the safest way to help determine that the turkey is cooked through; they are cheap and put your mind at ease!

What temperature should cooked turkey be?

Place into the thickest part of the breast (make sure not to push all the way through!) For the turkey crown to be cooked, the temperature should be over 74°C / 165°F.

If it has not reached the right temperature, place it back in the oven (covered to prevent skin burning) and cook for an extra 15 minutes, then check again.

No thermometer?

If you have not got a thermometer, pierce into the breast and check that the juices run clear with no pink tinge.

Resting time

It is vital to allow the turkey to rest after cooking, cover loosely with foil and leave at least 30 minutes for the liquids to redistribute before carving.

Turkey Gravy from drippings

The stock in the roasting tray is full of flavour from the vegetables, turkey juices, butter, garlic and herbs. The below instructions make a lovely gravy, or if you wanted you could try our red wine turkey gravy instead.

Pour the juices from the roasting tray into a jug through a sieve to catch the vegetables and herbs.

Leave to rest, skim and discard some of the fat off the top.

Mix together cornstarch with water and add to a saucepan with the turkey drippings at high heat, whisking whilst adding.

When it thickens up, add more stock made from a stock cube or stock pot. (We find the Knorr stock pots have the best flavour). Bring to the boil.

Turkey gravy is a pale gravy, so I like to add a splash of browning to give a darker appetising colour.

Bring down to a simmer and cook on low until at the desired thickness.

How to carve a turkey crown

One of the best things about a turkey crown is how easy it is to carve!

Simply remove both breasts from the carcass and slice the breast into the desired size slices.

There will still be some soft, tender meat left to pull off around the bones and possibly some drumettes to cut away from the carcass. 

What to serve with Turkey Crown

If serving turkey crown for Christmas dinner, then check out our Honey Roast Parsnips, Yorkshire Puddings, Roast Potatoes and Cranberry Sauce recipes as seen below.

We also have a lovely traditional Bread Sauce, cauliflower cheese and sage and onion stuffing recipe, all fantastic to serve with turkey!

Oh and don't forget the gravy!

📖 Step by Step Recipe

So now you know the best way to cook turkey crown, why not check out some more of our recipes.

More Christmas Recipes

All our latest Christmas and Thanksgiving recipes here if you wanted an alternative main, try our slow cooker leg of lamb, Salmon En Croute or Boneless Rolled Rib Beef.

Leftover Turkey Recipes

Leftover turkey can be used in one of our fantastic leftover recipes. We do a fantastic turkey and ham pie which use up the leftover turkey, ham and vegetables. Or a delicious turkey curry.