It is no surprise that my favorite holiday is Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is all about family and food, two of my favorite things!

I wait all year for the Thanksgiving editions of both Bon Appetite and Food and Wine magazines. I read every recipe and then build the perfect menu. The perfect menu seems to be about the same every year lately. It is all of our favorites: Lemon Herb Turkey Breast, Auntie Pat (double-baked) Potatoes, Geri’s Double-baked Sweet Potatoes with Brown Sugar and Maple Syrup, some kind of vegetable, and Rigatoni and Gravy. I make homemade apple pie and Fireman’s Apple Cake, another family tradition. I absolutely love this meal and I look forward to it all year long.

One of the things that I have always wanted to do is host Thanksgiving outside. A couple of years ago, I had an entire plan: tent, heaters, round tables with white table clothes, flowers, candles, etc. That plan was pretty costly, so I caved and kept it inside. This year, I’m revisiting “outside Thanksgiving” again, but am starting slowly. Step 1: cook my turkey breast on the Green Egg!

So, here is my first practice recipe for Thanksgiving…Lemon Herb Roasted Turkey Breast!

Ingredients

• 5 pound turkey breast, bone in
• 1 ½ sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 shallot, mixed
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• ¼ cup fresh parsley, chopped
• 1 ½ tablespoons fresh rosemary, minced
• 1 ½ tablespoons fresh thyme, minced
• 1 tablespoon lemon zest
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• Pinch of kosher salt

Prepare the Turkey Breast

Mix the butter and all of herbs together and let the herb butter sit overnight.

Rinse the turkey breast thoroughly and dry. Separate the skin from the breast and rub the inside of the breast with the herb butter. The goal is to use about ¾ of the prepared butter on the inside of the breast. Rub the remaining butter on the outside of the breast and then season salt and pepper. Make sure to salt and pepper the underside of the breast as well. Let sit, uncovered, while you prepare the grill.

Bring the grill to 325 degrees. The turkey will cook over indirect heat. If you are using the Green Egg, make sure that you insert the plate setter.

Place the turkey breast on a rack, skin side up on the grill. Cook the turkey 15-20 minutes per pound, rotating the rack every 20 minutes. Let the turkey reach an internal temperature of 160 degrees, then remove from the grill and let sit covered for about 5-10 minutes.

So what’s the verdict?

The turkey turned out perfect!

The breast was a beautiful golden brown on the outside and the skin was nice and crispy. The breast itself was incredibly moist; you could practically cut it with a fork! We used apple wood chips in the Green Egg, which we could have done without. The turkey was just a little too smokey with the chips, so I’ll leave those off for the big day!

For our Green Egg Turkey Test I made garlic mashed potatoes, with some of the same butter that I used for the breast. Incredible! I spent so much time worrying about the turkey breast, I completely forgot to make my gravy, so you will have to read my official Thanksgiving post to get the official gravy recipe!

Happy Test Thanksgiving!