Instant Pot Turkey Breast
When holiday chaos has oven space at a premium, Instant Pot turkey breast is your dinnertime superhero, serving up juicy, flavorful turkey breast in a fraction of the time.
🔍 Recipe At-A-Glance: Instant Pot Turkey Breast
- 🕰️ Prep Time: 10 minutes
- ⏰ Cook Time: 20 minutes
- 💛 Flavor Profile: All the flavors of your favorite Thanksgiving turkey dinners, in a quick, compact dish.
- 🍽️ Good For: Smaller Thanksgiving gatherings (but bigger than Thanksgiving for two), cozy weeknight meals, easy Sunday suppers.
- 🧡 Difficulty: The hardest part is going to be fitting the turkey breast into the Instant Pot, honestly (but I have tips below)!
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- 🔍 Recipe At-A-Glance: Instant Pot Turkey Breast
- 🧡 Why You'll Love This Recipe
- 🦃 The Ingredients You Need
- 🍁 The Equipment You Need
- 🔁 Variations & Substitutions
- 🥣 Instant Pot Turkey Breast How-To
- ⏲️ Instant Pot Turkey Breast Cooking Times
- 🙋🏻♀️ Instant Pot Turkey Breast FAQs
- 👩🏻🍳 My Expert Tips & Tricks
- 🥧 More Great Thanksgiving Recipes:
- 📖 Recipe
- 💬 Reviews
🧡 Why You'll Love This Recipe
Hiya friend: I have a personal vendetta against dry turkey. So often, white meat from a roasted turkey is dry, flavorless, and tough. It can take some serious skill to get moist and juicy white turkey meat! After many rounds of testing, I've landed on the absolute best way to get moist, flavorful turkey breast: the Instant Pot.
Here's why you'll love this recipe:
- Never-dry turkey: I've roasted dozens of turkeys and turkey breasts in my day, and here's my final word: for a full-size turkey, the key is to learn how to dry brine a turkey before roasting. But for just cooking a turkey breast, the absolute best way to get juicy, delectable turkey is to bring out your Instant Pot!
- Simple: An Instant Pot turkey breast is so simple, you can make turkey for a busy weeknight instead of just reserving it for Thanksgiving dinner!
- Makes great leftovers: If you're roasting a larger turkey breast, you're bound to have some leftovers! Turn them into turkey vegetable soup, turkey gnocchi soup, and turkey pot pie. I also love to use it in place of chicken in my pumpkin chicken soup!
🦃 The Ingredients You Need
- Bone-in turkey breast: You'll see both boneless turkey breasts (which are usually actually a half breast-around 3-4 pounds and sometimes sold as a "turkey breast roast") and full-size bone-in turkey breasts (which run from 6-10 pounds) at the store. I highly recommend sticking to the full-size bone-in turkey breast. Why? Bone-in helps the meat stay even more moist and flavorful, and you'll get more bang for your buck. Any time you buy something boneless, you are paying for the convenience of someone else removing the bones. You are paying $1-2 more per pound for boneless-and you don't end up with the bones for stock!
- Cooking fat: Ghee, lard, butter, coconut oil-any of them will work, as long as they are softened at room temperature before you start. I personally go with butter most of the time, but I tested it with coconut oil for these photos and it came out great!
Make sure to check the recipe card below for the full ingredients list, along with quantities and my expert tips and tricks.
🍁 The Equipment You Need
Using an electric pressure cooker limits the size of the turkey breast you can cook. No matter what, your bone-in turkey breast will probably go above the "Max Fill" mark: this is the one and only time it's okay! Just as long as the lid can seal well and the breast is below the rim of the pot, you're good. Here's what I've figured out:
- The 5 quart, 6 quart, and 8 quart Instant Pots will easily fit either a boneless turkey breast or a medium to large bone-in turkey breast. In my 6 quart DUO, I tested both a smaller sized bone-in turkey breast (~6 pounds) and a big one (~11 pounds), and they both fit. I did have to trim off a bit of the neck on the big one to get it below the rim of the basin. If you have a 5 quart Instant Pot, stick to smaller sizes (between 5-7 pounds). If you have an 8 quart pot, you can easily fit in one of the bigger breasts, 10+ pounds.
- The 3 quart Instant Pot Mini will probably be too small for even the smallest of bone-in breasts, but you should be able to fit a small boneless breast. I do not own a 3 quart, so this was tricky for me to test, obviously! If you do own one of the Instant Pot Minis and try out this recipe, please chime in with your experience in the comments so you can help everyone out!
- The key here: test it out! Buy your turkey breast, and see if you can get it to fit in your Instant Pot. If not, you can always roast it in the oven.
🔁 Variations & Substitutions
Instant Pot frozen turkey breast: You sure can cook a frozen turkey breast in the Instant Pot (see instructions and cooking times below). I will warn you that a lot of times (like almost always) frozen turkey breasts come with plastic gravy packets inserted into the cavity, which are nearly impossible to remove until the turkey is defrosted. Promise me (PROMISE ME) you will not try to cook a frozen turkey breast with a gravy packet still inside.
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🥣 Instant Pot Turkey Breast How-To
Step 1: Combine fresh or dried herbs with your preferred cooking fat. I like grass-fed butter, but lard and coconut oil both work as well.
Step 2: Spread that goodness all over the outside of the turkey breast.
Step 3: Add some flavoring to the Instant Pot-carrots, celery, onions, and broth (or homemade bone broth)-and add the trivet that came along with the Instant Pot. Then place the turkey breast side-down in there and fill the turkey cavity with apples (yes, apples!) and garlic.
Seal the Instant Pot and cook according to my handy-dandy cooking time chart down below. Release the pressure.
Step 4: Optional: pop the turkey breast under the broiler to brown and crisp up the skin. This is also a great time to whip up my SUPER EASY turkey gravy from the drippings in the Instant Pot.
Let the turkey rest for 10 minutes before carving (this allows the juices to redistribute in the meat), then slice and serve!
Step 5: Strain the drippings from the Instant Pot through a fine mesh sieve.
Melt some cooking fat (I like butter, but lard and coconut oil work, too) in a saucepan, and then sprinkle on arrowroot powder. Whisk well.
Step 6: Pour in the strained drippings and heat until thickened. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
⏲️ Instant Pot Turkey Breast Cooking Times
Electric pressure cooking can be a bit like cooking blind because you can't see or test anything to check for doneness! Because of this, I created an easy-to-follow chart to help you get the perfect amount of doneness. The rule of thumb for poultry in the Instant Pot is six minutes per pound from fresh, and 10 minutes per pound from frozen. I've found that I can cheat that to slightly less in my Instant Pot.
Cooking Times for Fresh/Thawed Bone-In Turkey Breasts
Always double check for doneness by using an instant read thermometer to make sure your turkey is at 160°F in the fleshiest part of the breast-you'll get the additional 5°F (which gets you to the 165°F safe zone for poultry) by resting and browning off the skin.
| High Pressure/Poultry | Natural Pressure Release | Rest Time | |
| 3-4 lb. Turkey Breast | 21 minutes | 10 minutes | 10 minutes |
| 5-6 lb. Turkey Breast | 33 minutes | 10 minutes | 10 minutes |
| 7-8 lb. Turkey Breast | 37 minutes | 10 minutes | 10 minutes |
| 9-10 lb. Turkey Breast | 45 minutes | 10 minutes | 10 minutes |
Cooking Times for Frozen Bone-In Turkey Breasts
Make sure to remove any gravy packet from the turkey breast before cooking. Because the meat is frozen, the Instant Pot will take longer to get up to high enough temperature to seal. Always double check for doneness by using an instant read thermometer to make sure your turkey is at 160°F in the fleshiest part of the breast-you'll get the additional 5°F (which gets you to the 165°F safe zone for poultry) by resting and browning off the skin.
| High Pressure/Poultry | Natural Pressure Release | Rest Time | |
| 3-4 lb. Turkey Breast | 35 minutes | 10 minutes | 10 minutes |
| 5-6 lb. Turkey Breast | 55 minutes | 10 minutes | 10 minutes |
| 7-8 lb. Turkey Breast | 70 minutes | 10 minutes | 10 minutes |
| 9-10 lb. Turkey Breast | 90 minutes | 10 minutes | 10 minutes |
🙋🏻♀️ Instant Pot Turkey Breast FAQs
If you are working with a fresh or thawed turkey breast, you'll cook the meat at high pressure in the Instant Pot for around 21 minutes, and allow for a 10 minute natural pressure release. Make sure to check for doneness with a meat thermometer!
I've done so so many rounds of testing on this, and if you are cooking just a turkey breast, the Instant Pot truly gives you the moistest, most flavorful meat. If you're doing a full turkey, then my dry brine recipe for turkey is the way to go!
👩🏻🍳 My Expert Tips & Tricks
- Use a bone-in breast: The best flavor is going to come from a bone-in breast.
- Save the bones: You can use the leftover bones to make amazing turkey bone broth. Whenever I make this recipe, I just pop the leftover breast bone right into the same Instant Pot (no need to even clean it) to make delicious and nutritious turkey bone broth.
- Gravy troubleshooting: Feeling intimidated by the gravy part, or need to troubleshoot? My how to make gravy from turkey drippings tutorial is a great, thorough guide.
- Don't forget the sides: Turkey breast with gravy is a match made in heaven with my Slow Cooker Mashed Potatoes. For a little bit of green on your plate, roast up some Brussels Sprouts with Apples and Bacon or make my Fresh Green Bean Casserole Recipe. And I love to add some fruit to the plate, with my Chunky Cranberry Applesauce, Instant Pot Applesauce, or my Freezer Applesauce.
🥧 More Great Thanksgiving Recipes:
If you tried this Instant Pot turkey breast or any other recipe on my blog, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the comments!
📖 Recipe
Instant Pot Turkey Breast Recipe
Ingredients
For the Turkey Breast
- ¼ cup butter, ghee, lard, or coconut oil softened
- 2 teaspoons dried sage OR 2 tablespoons fresh chopped sage
- 2 teaspoons dried thyme OR 2 tablespoons fresh chopped thyme
- 2 teaspoons dried rosemary OR 2 tablespoons fresh chopped rosemary
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 2 teaspoons sea salt
- ½ teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper
- 7 pounds bone-in full turkey breast defrosted and any gravy packet removed (see notes to cook from frozen or different size turkey breasts)
- 1 cup chicken or turkey broth
- 1 small onion roughly chopped
- 1 small carrot roughly chopped
- 1 stalk celery roughly chopped
- 2 cloves garlic peeled
- 1 small apple sliced
For the Turkey Gravy
- 2 tablespoons butter ghee, lard, or coconut oil
- 1 tablespoon arrowroot powder
- 1 ½ cup strained drippings from turkey
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- In a small bowl, combine the softened butter, ghee, lard, or coconut oil with the sage, thyme, rosemary, garlic powder, salt, and cracked pepper.
- Dry off the turkey breast with paper towels. Then spread the herb mixture over the entire breast, including separating the skin from the breast meat and putting it between. If using coconut oil, the mixture might start to solidify on a cold turkey breast-that's okay, just spread it the best you can; the flavor will still be there in the final meat. Set aside.
- In the basin of your Instant Pot, place the broth, onion, carrot, and celery. Then place the metal trivet on top. Place the turkey breast, breast side down, in the Instant Pot. Fill the cavity with the garlic and apple slices.
- Close the Instant Pot lid and turn the level to "Seal." Cook on high pressure (or use the Poultry setting) for 6 minutes per pound, following the chart above in the post.
- When the cooking time is up, let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes, then manually release the remainder of the pressure. Preheat oven broiler to high.
- Transfer the turkey breast to a baking pan-breast side up-and cook under the broiler until the skin is crisp and brown, about five minutes. Remove from broiler and let rest for 10 minutes before slicing.
- To make the gravy: While the turkey is broiling, strain the drippings from the Instant Pot through a fine mesh sieve.
- In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, melt butter, ghee, lard, or coconut oil. Sprinkle in the arrowroot powder and whisk until well combined. Pour in 1 ½ cups of the strained drippings. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 2 minutes. Season with additional salt and pepper if desired.
- Serve turkey slices topped with turkey gravy.
Video
Notes
- Turkey breasts come in one of two ways-either full size, which is actually two breasts still connected by the breast bone (about 6-8 pounds on average), or a half breast (about 3-4 pounds). You'll see the full size breasts more frequently in the store, and just as long as it isn't too big, a full size breast should fit fine in a standard Instant Pot. If you happen to find a larger breast, you can halve it and cook one half at a time to make it work.
- Many frozen turkey breasts come with a gravy packet in the cavity of the breastbone. I recommend discarding this packet and making your own gravy from the drippings. It's a breeze to do, it tastes much better, and most of the gravy packets contain ingredients that can be off-putting to health conscious folks.
- To cook from frozen: Make sure you can remove the gravy packet and all packaging. Begin with Step #3 of the recipe, placing the frozen turkey breast in the Instant Pot without the herb coating. Cook on high pressure for 10 minutes per pound, following the chart in the blog post. When cooking time is up, transfer the turkey breast-breast side up-to a baking pan. Melt the butter, ghee, lard or coconut oil and combine it with the herbs, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Brush this mixture liberally onto the turkey breast, and then cook in a 425°F oven for 7-10 minutes, until golden brown and crisp.
This turkey breast recipe is so easy that we've made it for random weekend dinners, not just Thanksgiving. The herb butter takes it over the top!
Sorry. I can't promise to not try to cook it frozen without removing the gravy packet. I can't get that thing out!!!! It was ripped wide open though while trying, so I'm hoping that's actually a helpful thing. I'm totally going to try it right now. I'll try to post an update on how it went 🙂
Good news! It turned out totally fine!!!
Hello. Just wondering what kind of apple you used or would recommend. Thanks.
Hi, Heather! Any apple you have on hand will do. As long as it's something you enjoy the flavor of, it will be great!