The turkey breast is simpler to roast and carve than a whole turkey. It thus may be used for Thanksgiving if your guests are moderate in number and do not include too many voracious teen-age boys.

The rest of the year, the breast may be cooked on the week-end and frozen, to be used later in many ways. Or, it may be cut into chops, as described in the following section.

The moist-baking method is simpler than braising on the stove top. The skin side needs no preliminary browning, and the meat is never turned. A generous quantity of flavored liquid for gravy or sauce is automatically provided.

6-pound half-breast will serve 8 to 10 with some leftovers

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Rinse turkey breast in cold water and dry all sides with a paper towel. Place in unoiled baking dish, skin side up. Baste well with Madeira.

Bake in the Madeira 10 minutes, a step that shortens the time. Baste again. Add water to a depth of ¼ inch or slightly more. Season skin with thyme, salt, and pepper.

Add carrots, onion, and celery to the liquid.

Bake in liquid, maintaining water at ¼ inch. Baste a couple of times when skin looks dry, once with the pan liquid, once with fresh Madeira.

Meat will be done in about 1 ¼ or 1 1/2 hours, when meat thermometer registers 170 degrees F. in the thickest part.

Let turkey cool in its own liquid.

TURKEY CHOPS

The raw turkey breast may be cut up into chops. These are not always as neat as, say, pork chops. Perhaps they are more accurately described as pieces. (If you want neatly cut chops, cook a turkey breast from the recipe above and cut into chops after baking.)

A variety of sauces may be used with turkey chops.

This is a basic recipe, the turkey counterpart to the Braised Chicken master recipe in the chicken section.
These may rest as long as an hour, and are good as leftovers.

Serves 4

Preliminaries

Cut the turkey off the bone. Remove skin now or (easier) after cooking. Rinse the turkey in cold water. Cut chops 1 inch thick. (Or, cut the breast into pieces 1/2 pound each, to be halved after cooking.)

Place turkey pieces in the casserole. Add onions. Pour on wine. Add olive oil (to develop herb flavors, as turkey will produce little fat). Sprinkle with salt and thyme.

To braise, 30 minutes

Bring wine rapidly to simmer. Cover and simmer gently until done, about 20 to 30 minutes. Be sure that simmer is gentle.

Move turkey pieces about at the start to keep from sticking. They will brown slightly in the wine. Turn every 5 minutes or so. Check liquid, and add water if pan should appear to be running dry.

Turkey is done when pieces on a white plate drain yellow juices with no trace of rose. Instant dial thermometer will read perhaps 170 degrees F.

Deoil if desired. There should be very little oil. Remove skin if not removed before.

To finish, 5 minutes

Place slices on a serving platter, pour the sauce over them, decorate with parsley, and serve.

Variation
Turkey pieces may be cut into thin slices, as medallions or scallops, before pouring the sauce over them.

Sauces for Turkey Chops

Most sauces designed for veal or pork chops go well with turkey chops.

In general, any variation for braised chicken can be applied to braised turkey chops. Here is one example, a combination of flavors particularly suitable for turkey.

Serves 3 to 4

Preliminaries

Cut the turkey off the bone. Remove skin now or (easier) after cooking. Rinse the turkey in cold water. Cut chops 1 inch thick. (Or, cut the breast into pieces 1/2 pound each, to be halved after cooking.)

Place turkey pieces in the casserole. Add wine and olive oil. Add rosemary, garlic, salt and pepper.

To braise, 30 minutes

Bring wine rapidly to simmer. Cover and simmer gently until done, about 20 to 30 minutes. Be sure that simmer is gentle.

Move turkey pieces about at the start to keep from sticking. They will brown slightly in the wine. Turn every 5 minutes or so. Check liquid, and add water if pan should appear to be running dry.

Turkey is done when pieces on a white plate drain yellow juices with no trace of rose. Instant dial thermometer will read [.. 170?.. ] degrees F.

Deoil if desired. There should be very little oil. Remove skin if not removed before.

To finish, 10 minutes

10 minutes before serving, if turkey has cooled, cover and simmer gently a few minutes to reheat. Lift the cooked turkey onto a serving platter.

Add lemon juice and lemon zest to the pan. (Earlier addition of zest will result in drying out.) Raise heat to medium. Scrape loose bits and pieces left from the cooking, and cook 2 minutes. Pour pan juices over the turkey and serve.

This again is based on a braised chicken recipe with similar ingredients.

Serves 4

Preliminaries, 10 minutes

Heat butter in pan. Add onions and simmer gently until transparent, about 5 minutes.

Rinse turkey chops or pieces in cold water. Place them in the pan. Pour on dry white wine. Season with salt, pepper, and thyme.

To Braise, 30 minutes

Bring wine rapidly to simmer. Cover and simmer gently until done, about 20 to 30 minutes.

Turkey is done when pieces on a white plate drain yellow juices with no trace of rose. Instant dial thermometer will read [.. 170?.. ] degrees F.

To cook the mushrooms

While the turkey is cooking, make the mushroom and cream sauce.

Pour Port into the pan and add mushrooms. Sprinkle with thyme.

Cover and heat rapidly, then simmer gently until mushrooms are soft, about 5 minutes. Stir from time to time to coat mushrooms with port. Take pan off heat, uncover, and let mushrooms steep, turning from time to time, until needed.

To make the white sauce

Place cornstarch in a small bowl. Add a little cream and stir to make a paste. Stir in a little more to make a thin paste, then stir in all the cream. This may be done ahead and set in refrigerator until needed.

To finish

When the turkey has cooked, deoil pan juices, if desired. Remove skin if not removed before. The turkey may rest in the pan until ready to serve.

(May be made ahead to this point.)

10 minutes before serving, briefly reheat turkey if it has cooled too much. Place the warm pieces or chops on a serving platter.

If more than 2 or 3 tablespoons of juice remain in the pan, boil down, or drain and reserve excess. 

Remove pan from the heat. Add mushrooms. Let pan cool a minute, then pour cream-cornstarch mixture into the pan. Heat, stirring, until the cream simmers and thickens. If sauce is too thick, thin with reserved juices or cream.

Place pieces on the serving platter. Pour cream sauce and mushrooms over turkey, decorate with parsley, and serve.

Dishes such as this justify the continued, lingering existence of bechamel sauce. A white sauce can make dry leftover meat - an occasional presence in real-time home kitchens, if not (hopefully) in restaurants - truly delicious. With optional egg and Sherry enrichment, it is sumptuous indeed, providing a dish equal to the original roast bird itself.

Serve over rice.

Serves 4

To make a bechamel sauce, melt butter in saucepan. Stir in flour and cook 2 minutes so that flour will lose its raw taste.

Take pan off heat and let cool a minute or two. Return to low heat and gradually add milk, whisking constantly. When mixture has thickened, stir in cream. Heat, stirring, until sauce is just below boiling point.

Stir in turkey and all seasonings. When turkey is well-heated, serve over rice.

Variation
Egg and sherry enrichment: Beat an egg lightly in a bowl. Boil ¼ cup Sherry to drive off alcohol to avoid curdling. Add egg and Sherry to cooked bechamel sauce, before adding turkey.

Bread Accompaniment

Serve turkey In Memoriam with Parker House or other degenerate, sweetish rolls, perhaps reminiscent of the Pump Room and Chicago Era, when French and Italian breads were unknown on these shores. 

Various Notes

TURKEY DARK MEAT

Thigh

A thigh alone may be moist baked, same as chicken thighs or hind quarters. See Moist-Baked Chicken, Chicken with Orange-Walnut Glaze, etc., in chicken section.

Thigh with Leg Attached

A dark turkey quarter is too large for moist-baking, and should be roasted like a chicken.

CUT-UP TURKEY

Turkey breast seems unduly expensive, and thighs appear only sporadically. One way out is to buy a whole turkey and have it cut up for freezing. Many butchers will do this for you, especially in poultry specialty shops.

To cut up: Have each half breast boned and kept whole, removing wings. Keep the thigh attached to the leg. Discard the carcass, or use it for stock.

To Cook a Cut-up Turkey

Kept whole, the half breast may be roasted or braised. Or it may be cut into chops, then cooked like veal or pork chops.

The thigh with leg attached may be roasted whole like a chicken. Separately, drumstick and thigh may be cooked like large chicken pieces (see moist-baked chicken).

The wing, either whole or cut in two, may be treated like chicken pieces (see moist-baked chicken).

MINI-TURKEY BREAST

These have appeared in some grocery stores: 4 ½ pound whole breast, with bone in.

This I think should be braised whole.
I tried it moist-baked, with half the breast. This appeared as a little bit of meat up high on the bone, not the way to go.
I then tried orange-walnut glaze with the whole breast, which turned out pretty well. Liquid must be flavored with Madeira, which also provides color. 
I started at 350 degrees, but turned down to 325 at 45 minutes. This is a small bit of meat.

I concluded that there is a lot to be said for boning the piece prior to cooking.