Thanksgiving Turkey Biscuits and Gravy

This post is sponsored by Jennie-O. As always, all opinions and recipe are my own.

Wow guests by taking traditional Thanksgiving offerings and making them unique during Thanksgiving Brunch. These Thanksgiving Turkey Biscuits and Gravy make the perfect centerpiece. You start with fluffy, buttery biscuits, speckled with Jennie-O Oven Ready Boneless Turkey Breast. Cut them in half and add a slice of turkey with homemade vanilla cranberry sauce before covering and drizzling on the gravy. The perfect entree for any festive brunch! 

Be sure to scroll all the way down to watch a VIDEO showing how to make this recipe.

turkey biscuits and gravy on a white plate with a fork taking a bite

It’s November 1, and y’all know what that means: THANKSGIVING FOOD TIME!

🎉🎉🎉

And this year, we’re doing something a little bit different at The Speckled Palate. Instead of a regular Thanksgiving feast, we’re serving up several Thanksgiving BRUNCH recipes.

You’re welcome, world.

thanksgiving turkey biscuits on a platter with gravy

When Winston and I were in Lake Tahoe, we spent one morning by the pool. We enjoyed the cool(ish) weather and hid beneath tents reading our books, sipping on water and relaxing.

Before long, we hopped into the water and began discussing recipes—as we do from time to time.

It was Winston who made the marvelous suggestion of biscuits and gravy for Thanksgiving brunch.

And that started the whole thing.

close up of thanksgiving biscuits

As y’all should know by now, I’m a Southern girl. While it’s debatable whether or not I sound it, I’m one to the core, and I love, love, LOVE biscuits. And if you give ‘em to me with gravy, I’m happy as a clam.

So when I discovered that this month’s Jennie-O featured product was their Oven Ready Boneless Turkey Breast, I knew exactly how to utilize the product into a Thanksgiving brunch centerpiece.

(Hint: These delightful Chili Cheese Biscuits served as inspiration for my Thanksgiving Turkey Biscuits and Gravy.)

hand grabbing a turkey biscuit from a white plate

The beautiful thing about the Jennie-O Oven Ready Boneless Turkey Breast is it requires no thawing. It goes into the oven frozen and comes out an hour and 40 minutes later (give or take a few minutes) fully cooked and perfect for any Thanksgiving meal. (It also makes a fabulous weeknight meal, too.)

The turkey flavor is absolutely delicious, and your guests will never know you didn’t spend the entire day fretting over this piece of poultry as it roasted. (Seriously. Best thing ever, right?)

And it is the rightful centerpiece of this biscuits and gravy dish because what’s Thanksgiving without some turkey?

hands holding turkey over a plate

In addition to the turkey—featured diced inside the biscuits, as well as sliced on top of the biscuits—I made some Vanilla Cranberry Sauce to pair with them. Because cranberries plus turkey is one of my favorite combinations, and I could not in good conscience serve y’all a Thanksgiving brunch without some sort of cranberry dish.

The sweet-savory combination is simply fabulous.

The only downside is these Thanksgiving Turkey Biscuits and Gravy require a bit of time and planning.

That said, it’s doable, and several elements of the dish can be made a day or two in advance. (More on this in the recipe notes below.)

pouring gravy on biscuits

When all is said and done, the biscuits are fluffy, buttery and wonderfully light. (They’re especially delightful straight out of the oven, so plan your meal around serving ‘em warm.)

And when paired with the tart vanilla cranberry sauce, additional turkey and turkey gravy?

Out of this world, y’all.

Scroll on down to learn how to make ‘em yourself. And watch the video below to see how I made them!

 

Silver Fork in Thanksgiving Biscuit with Gravy on white plate
hand grabbing a turkey biscuit from a white plate
Yield: 12 biscuits

Thanksgiving Turkey Biscuits and Gravy

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 2 hours
Total Time: 2 hours 15 minutes

Wow guests by taking traditional Thanksgiving offerings and making them unique during Thanksgiving Brunch. These Thanksgiving Turkey Biscuits and Gravy make the perfect centerpiece. You start with fluffy, buttery biscuits, speckled with Jennie-O Oven Ready Boneless Turkey Breast. Cut them in half and add a slice of turkey with homemade vanilla cranberry sauce before covering and drizzling on the gravy. The perfect entree for any festive brunch! 

Ingredients

  • 1 Jennie-O Oven Ready Boneless Turkey Breast
  • 1 packet Jennie-O Gravy Mix

Vanilla Cranberry Sauce

  • 12 oz. fresh cranberries
  • 1 cup apple cider
  • ¾ cup maple syrup
  • ½ cup apple cider vinegar
  • 2 vanilla beans, split
  • ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ¼ teaspoon ground allspice
  • ¼ teaspoon ground ginger

Turkey Biscuits

  • 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, frozen
  • 1 cup Jennie-O Oven Ready Boneless Turkey Breast, diced
  • ¾ cup milk (whole, 2% and nonfat are all OK)
  • ¼ cup turkey cooking juices, reserved from the turkey cooking process

Instructions

Bake the Jennie-O Oven Ready Boneless Turkey Breast

  1. Preheat the oven to 375°F.
  2. Remove the frozen turkey breast from the outer package. (Do not remove from the cooking back.)
  3. Place the frozen turkey breast in a roasting pan (or a large baking dish) with at least 2” high sides.
  4. Cut three ½” slits in the top of the cooking bag.
  5. Place the turkey in the oven, giving the bag room to expand without touching other oven racks. (I removed the top rack from my oven to give it ample space.)
  6. Roast the turkey breast until the internal temperature reads 165°F. (This took about 2 hours in my old oven. The Jennie-O cooking instructions say that a 2-3 lb. turkey breast should roast for an hour and 40 minutes in a 375°F oven.)
  7. Once cooked through, remove from the oven. Let the turkey breast rest for 10 minutes before cutting open the oven bag. Be careful, as the steam and juices will still be hot!
  8. Let the turkey continue to cool, and reserve the juices for later. (They will be used in the biscuit dough!)
  9. Once cool, slice the turkey into slices. Dice 1 cup of the turkey to be added to the biscuit dough. Leave the rest in full slices to be enjoyed!

Make the Vanilla Cranberry Sauce

  1. In a large sauté pan over high heat, pour in the apple cider, maple syrup and apple cider vinegar.
  2. Add the vanilla beans, ground cinnamon, ground allspice and ground ginger. Stir with a wooden spoon or a rubber spatula.
  3. Pour in the cranberries.
  4. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring occasionally. The cranberries will burst and the sauce will thicken as it cooks. (This should take 10-20 minutes, depending on how powerful your stovetop is.)
  5. Once the mixture is correct consistency (no longer watery, but the cranberries still have their form), remove from the heat.
  6. Transfer to a serving dish, and bring to room temperature. (Or refrigerate until time to serve.)

Make the Biscuits

  1. Preheat the oven to 450°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking sheet, and set aside.
  2. Grate the 6 tablespoons of FROZEN butter using a cheese grater, and transfer back to the freezer until it’s time to use.
  3. In a chilled bowl, combine the dry ingredients—the flour, sugar and baking powder. Whisk or stir until combined.
  4. Add the chilled butter and diced Jennie-O Oven Ready Boneless Turkey Breast. Using a plastic spatula, stir the ingredients until combined.
  5. Pour in the turkey cooking liquid and milk. Stir using the spatula.
  6. Turn the biscuit batter out onto a floured surface, and knead until just combined. Unlike bread, you don’t want to knead this for a long time. Simply press the dough together until no scraps remain, moving quickly so the ingredients don’t get warm, and shape into a 1” tall rectangle.
  7. Using a biscuit cutter, cut the biscuits.
  8. Place the biscuits onto the prepared baking sheet. When the rectangle is just scraps, reshape the dough into another rectangle and cut more. Repeat until all the dough has been cut and placed on the baking sheet.
  9. Brush the tops of the biscuits with butter.
  10. Transfer the pan to the oven and bake 10-12 minutes, or until the biscuits have risen and are golden brown.
  11. Let the biscuits cool before preparing them for the brunch table!

Make the Jennie-O Turkey Gravy Packet

  1. In the same package as the Jennie-O Oven Ready Boneless Turkey Breast, there is a turkey gravy packet.
  2. Empty the frozen contents of the packet into a saucepan.
  3. Add ¾ cup water.
  4. Over medium-high heat, cook the gravy until thick and bubbly.
  5. Remove from the heat and pour into a gravy boat for serving.

Prepare the Biscuit Sandwiches

  1. Cut the biscuits in half.
  2. Add a good dollop of the Vanilla Cranberry Sauce.
  3. Add a slice of Jennie-O Oven Ready Boneless Turkey Breast.
  4. Close the biscuit, and place on a plate.
  5. Pour Jennie-O Turkey Gravy on top of the biscuit.
  6. Enjoy immediately!

Notes

Recipe adapted from my Chili Cheese Biscuits.

Please note that the turkey cooks for 1 hour and 40 minutes, while the biscuits only cook for 10-12 minutes

Easy Entertaining Suggestions

  • Bake the Jennie-O Oven Ready Boneless Turkey Breast the night before. (Keep the gravy packet in the freezer until the day-of.) When cooked through, let cool. Reserve the cooking liquid for the biscuits, then slice and store in a container overnight in the refrigerator. The day of, heat through before serving.
  • Make the Vanilla Cranberry Sauce up to three days in advance. Store in the refrigerator.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

12

Serving Size:

1 biscuit

Amount Per Serving: Calories: 284Total Fat: 8gSaturated Fat: 4gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 3gCholesterol: 45mgSodium: 262mgCarbohydrates: 42gFiber: 2gSugar: 19gProtein: 12g

Nutrition facts are an estimate and not guaranteed to be accurate.

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13 Comments

  1. Oooh gosh the hubs looooves biscuits and gravy! I should give this a try for him 🙂 Never made biscuits before!

  2. You’ve done it again, my friend. This combination looks to die for. I may be drooling over here. I loooove biscuits and gravy and thing this turkey version needs to happen ASAP.

  3. Biscuits are my JAM! No pun intended… I am just loving all these Thanksgiving flavors together. A brunch for Thanksgiving just sounds perfect to me. What a fun twist!

  4. My family would flip out — in the best way possible — if I turned our Thanksgiving day fixings into this breakfast. YUM!

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