Ingredients:

for the turkey breast:

4 1/4 lb bone-in turkey breast
Old Bay

for the injectable marinade:

2 tablespoons Old Bay
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
3 tablespoons olive oil

for the roasted vegetables:

1 medium turnip, small dice
1 large Russet potato, medium dice
1 small onion, thinly sliced
2-3 carrots, cut into chunks
2 sprig’s worth fresh rosemary leaves
1 1/2 tablespoons canola oil
salt
freshly ground black pepper

for the stuffing:

8 slices potato bread, torn into bite-sized chunks
1 small onion, diced
1 stalk celery, diced
1/2 teaspoon crushed sage
1/2 teaspoon crushed rosemary
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1/4 teaspoon celery seed
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup turkey stock

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400. Place the turkey breast on a small rack (I used one OXO silicone roasting rack) on one end of a rimmed baking sheet aka a half sheet jelly roll pan. Sprinkle with Old Bay.

Meanwhile, whisk together the marinade ingredients in a small bowl. Place in the flavor injector using the larger needle. Inject the marinade into several places in the breast. Place in the oven and bake 1 hour.

Meanwhile, toss together the roasted vegetable ingredients in a large bowl. Remove the turkey from the oven and reduce the heat to 350. Arrange the vegetable mixture over 1/2-2/3 of the space remaining on the baking sheet next to the turkey. Return to the oven for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, saute the onions and celery in a skillet until the onion is translucent and soft but not browned, about 10 minutes. Then, in a large bowl, mix together the stuffing ingredients until well combined. Form into 4 stuffing balls. After the 30 minutes, arrange them in the remaining empty spot on the baking sheet.

Bake 30 minutes or until the turkey reaches 165 on a meat thermometer.

Allow to rest 10 minutes prior to serving. Slice and serve.

Yield: 2 meals with leftovers, 4 meals with little to no leftovers

My thoughts:

Over the years I have done so many versions of Thanksgiving meals. I’ve done everything from pomegranate-themed to Hawaiian (complete with Pineapple-infused Turkey and Spam-Hawaiian Bread Stuffing) to Polish (with kielbasa-rye stuffing) to Thanksgivukkah and a ton in between! Normally I have a fauxgiving in October to create recipes to share but this year my husband has been busy with school and being a chair in an charitable organization planning its own Thanksgiving event that I couldn’t carve out a whole day to devote to Thanksgiving.

I finally had the idea to make a dinner for two! After all, we are a family of two and while I have made a big dinner nearly every one of the last 13 years I’ve had this blog, we have only made guests once or twice for fauxgiving and instead concentrated on using the leftovers to create dozens of Thanksgiving leftovers recipes. I just didn’t have that kind of time this year!

I wasn’t sure how to set about doing a Thanksgiving for two but then OXO offered to send me a sheet pan dinner kit and I saw what it included, I knew it was destined to be a sheet pan Thanksgiving. They sent a silicone roasting rack, a meat thermometer (amazingly I didn’t have one that worked and normally just roast until the juices run clear and the leg wiggles which doesn’t work with a turkey breast) a crazy flavor injector with two different sized needles, a rimmed baking sheet aka a half sheet jelly roll pan and an amazing looking gravy separator that I didn’t get to use because the breast was too lean. I’m not being paid by OXO in any way but these items sure did come in handy!

Since I’m a Baltimorean for life, I came up with the idea of doing an Old Bay injected turkey sort of like the Cajun injected turkeys they have in Louisiana but with a Maryland twist. Before my husband moved to Baltimore, he had only used Old Bay on chicken so using it on turkey seemed perfect. It was fun injecting the turkey and the turkey did come out very moist and flavorful so I highly recommend trying it out!

I always make “un-stuffing” for Thanksgiving–my family always put stuffing around the turkey vs in the turkey (we are all very food poisoning-phobic) but never in a separate pan as “dressing”. This way the turkey juices flavor the stuffing but it doesn’t keep the turkey from coming to the correct temperature. Stuffing balls are perfect for a sheet pan dinner.

Finally, I cooked some root vegetables on the pan. You can vary them if you want, but if you want everything to be done at the same time, you need to pick ones that will cook at the same rate so turnips, carrots and potatoes are the perfect choice. I know turnips aren’t too popular here but they should be, they have a nice peppery flavor and high in vitamin C.

This meal easily serves two people with lots of leftovers or four people with little to no leftovers, perfect for a smaller family. Plus it really is done in 2 hours. I did all of the chopping and stuffing making while the turkey was in the oven (though you could cube the vegetables and make the stuffing ahead of time and allow both to come to room temperature before cooking). I did serve it with some cranberry sauce and served it with sauerkraut but that is, of course, up to you.

Check out my Thanksgiving recipes here on Pinterest.