This sous vide turkey roulade recipe is perfection on a plate! Boneless, skinless turkey breast is butterflied and rolled up with a simple sausage and cranberry stuffing.
My family may be in the minority but the Thanksgiving turkey legs are the last to be claimed. So depending on who is at the Thanksgiving meal a whole turkey does not make sense for us. Any home cook can make this turkey breast roulade recipe when you follow these easy step-by-step instructions.
So that is why last year the sous vide turkey breast was a hit at our Thanksgiving table. And this year we are going to serve a smoked turkey at my mom's house.
This is the same rolling technique I use for the stuffed flank steak that I make. Serve with a scoop of homemade cranberry sauce or get extra fancy with cranberry apple chutney. Both are super simple recipes to make. Ask the butcher for the turkey giblets and you can make classic giblet gravy instead of the simple pan gravy I show you to make in this recipe.
Serve turkey roulade for your Thanksgiving dinner or Christmas feast.
😍 Why sous vide works for this recipe
One of my biggest fears about cooking a roulade is not being able to achieve the correct internal temperature of the roll without drying out the outside of the meat. The sous vide method takes all the guesswork out of not only correct cooking temperatures but giving you juicy turkey without the hard work of the traditional oven method. I have included oven instructions for those who want to give that a go.
How to butterfly a turkey breast
- Remove extra fat from the turkey breast.
- Place one hand on the thicker edge of the turkey breast and using a sharp chef knife, start slicing the turkey breast or tenderloin along the length.
- Using long, slow strokes with the chef knife, carefully slice the turkey breast in half, horizontally, as a book would open.
- Do not cut all the way through.
- Leave the last ½ inch of the breast intact.
- Open the turkey breast as you would open a book and press the meat open.
🦃 Ingredients to make turkey roulade:
- boneless turkey breast half, skin removed and butterflied
- stuffing
- salt and black pepper
- olive oil
How to make a sous vide turkey roulade:
- Preheat the sous vide water bath to 140.
- Place the butterflied turkey breast between two sheets of plastic wrap and lightly pound the breast meat with a kitchen mallet to flatten it to less than a ½ inch thick.
- Make the stuffing.
- Spread the stuffing over one side of the turkey, leaving about ½ inch uncovered on all sides.
- Tightly roll up.
- Secure tightly with butcher’s twine, trying to keep all the stuffing inside.
- Sear the stuffed turkey breast in a light drizzle of olive oil in a hot pan on all sides until lightly golden brown, 3 to 4 minutes per side.
- Place the seared turkey roulade in a sous vide bag, silicone bag or a freezer gallon sized zip top freezer bag. Vac and seal the bag or use the water immersion technique to force the air out of the bag before closing it.
- Submerge the bag in the preheated sous vide water bath set to 140F.
- Cook for 6 hours.
- Remove the turkey roulades from the vacuum bag and place on a clean plate.
- Save the turkey juices from the bag if you are making gravy.
- Heat a heavy bottom or cast iron skillet to almost smoking.
- Pat all sides of the roulade with clean paper towels to remove excess moisture.
- Re-sear the turkey roulade on all sides.
- Remove the kitchen twine and slice in ½" slices.
- Serve with a scoop of homemade cranberry sauce and turkey gravy.
🍳 How to make a turkey pan gravy:
- In a heavy bottom pan, melt 2 tablespoons of butter and whisk in 2 tablespoons of flour.
- Cook the roux for 1 minute to cook out the flour taste.
- Add the turkey juices from the bag and whisk to combine. The mixture will be thick.
- Add additional turkey or chicken stock to thin out the thickened gravy base.
- If you like, add a splash of shite wine.
- Bring to a simmer and season with salt and pepper.
Turkey roulade in the oven.
- Heat the oven to 375.
- After searing the turkey roulades in a hot pan, cover the roulade tightly with foil and roast in the oven until an instant-read meat thermometer inserted in the thickest part registers an internal temperature at 165°F, 60 to 65 minutes.
- Remove the turkey breast from the oven, transfer to a cutting board, tent with aluminum foil, and let rest for 15 minutes before slicing.
🔥 How do you reheat turkey roulade?
II reheat in a sous vide bath for 30 minutes but if you are in a real hurry, I will place slices in a pan along with a splash of chicken stock turkey stock or water and heat covered over medium heat. The roulade will heat and steam in the pan and be ready in a few minutes.
📝 Frequently asked questions, answers and tips:
I love the sous vide cooking technique because it is perfect for prepping food ahead of time. I will make the turkey roulades and using a vacuum sealer, keep the turkey rolls in the bags, in the refrigerator for up to 5 days ahead of when I want to serve them.
To reheat using sous vide, place the roulade back in a bag and submerge back into a preheated 140 water bath. Warm for 30 minutes, remove, slice and serve.
Turkey Roulade Recipe
There is more to a recipe than just the recipe card. Frequently Asked Questions within the blog post that you may find helpful. Simply scroll back up to read them!
EQUIPMENT
Ingredients
- One 2-½-pound boneless turkey breast half (skin removed and butterflied or 4 turkey tenderloins)
- 2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
- 1 box stuffing cubes (about 3 cups)
1 small onion (diced (about 1 cup))- 8 ounces ground sausage
- 1 cup apple cider
- 2 large cloves garlic (minced)
- ½ cup unsweetened dried cranberries
- ⅓ cup chopped pecans
- 2 tablespoon chopped fresh sage or 3 teaspoons dried (crumbled)
- ½ teaspoon salt (plus more to taste)
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (plus more to taste)
Instructions
- Preheat the sous vide water bath to 140F.
- Butterfly turkey breasts or turkey tenderloins.
- Place the butterflied turkey breast or tenderloin between two sheets of plastic wrap and lightly pound with a meat mallet to an even thickness of about ½ inch. Keep cold while you prepare the stuffing.
- Toast the pecans in a small dry skillet over medium-high heat until fragrant, stirring frequently, about 3 minutes; set aside to cool.
- In a medium sized skillet over medium high heat, brown the sausage, breaking it up with a wooden spoon. Cook until no longer pink.
- Add an additional tablespoon of oil in a large heavy skillet over medium heat.
- Add the diced onion and cook, stirring, until golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes.
- Add the garlic and cook another minute.
- Add the stuffing cubes, cranberries, pecans, 2 tablespoons of the fresh or 2 teaspoons of the dried sage, and ½ cup of the broth to the pan. depending upon the consistency of the stuffing (you want the mixture to be moistened, but not too wet, since the turkey will release moisture when cooked).
- Spread the stuffing over one side of the turkey, leaving about ½ inch uncovered on all sides.
- Tightly roll up and secure tightly with kitchen twine, trying to keep all the stuffing inside.
- Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large heavy bottom pan over medium heat until hot and almost smoking.
- Sear the stuffed turkey breast on all sides until lightly browned, 3 to 4 minutes per side.
- Place the seared turkey roulade in a sous vide bag, silicone bag or a freezer gallon sized zip top bag.
- Submerge the bag in the heated sous vide water bath. Secure the bag to the side of the container.
- Cook for 6 hours.
- Remove the kitchen twine and slice into ½" slices.
- Serve with cranberry sauce and a pan gravy.
Notes
- Remove extra fat from the turkey breast.
- Place one hand on the thicker edge of the turkey breast and using a sharp chef knife, start slicing the turkey breast or tenderloin along the length.
- Using long, slow strokes with the chef knife, carefully slice the turkey breast in half, horizontally, as a book would open.
- Do not cut all the way through.
- Leave the last ½ inch of the breast in tact.
- Open the turkey breast as you would open a book and press the meat open.
Nutrition
Nutrition Disclosure
Nutritional facts are estimates and are provided as a courtesy to the reader. Please utilize your own brand nutritional values to double check against our estimates. Nutritional values are calculated via a third party. Changing ingredients, amounts or cooking technique will alter the estimated nutritional calculations.
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