Bring a whole new layer of flavor to your roast turkey with a glaze of melted butter, maple syrup, smoked paprika, and white pepper! It caramelizes into just the right amount of sweet and spicy and as a bonus, goes great on your roasted fall vegetables, too!
Hey, you guys, happy Friday and happy October! My first blogging day of the month is usually a Currently post, but after giving you guys the teaser for this recipe with my roasted root veg on Wednesday, I couldn’t wait to deliver this recipe! It’s all the best of autumn flavors on a plate!
We almost always roast our turkey or turkey breast {most of the time when it’s just the three of us, we’ll roast a turkey breast – no dark meat fans in this house} using my honey glaze, but this time around, I decided to change things up a little with melted butter and maple syrup! Okay, adding maple for me is not changing things up, but it’s changing up my turkey game for sure!
The turkey came out delicious and moist with a delicious bit of caramelization from the syrup that, thanks to the addition of paprika and white pepper, had a nice bit of zip to it, too!
Just how delicious does that look? Not to mention the colors of the roasted root vegetables are giving me all the fall feels all over again. And the roasted root vegetables benefit from a little drizzle of the glaze as well!
This recipe always leaves me with more than enough leftovers to make a couple meal packs for later, but the leftovers are also great chopped up and tossed as a bowl or as sandwiches, and I have plans on making savory breakfast bowls with these as well!
And there you go! Sweet and a little spicy and a lot delicious!
Here’s the recipe card:

Maple Butter Turkey Breast
Ingredients
- 1 boneless turkey breast
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1/3 cup maple syrup
- 2 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp white pepper
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Mix together the melted butter, maple syrup, smoked paprika, and white pepper in a small bowl or cup that’s easy to pour from. Set aside.
- Heat your oven to 325F. Line a roasting pan or stoneware pan with aluminum foil. Nobody likes scraping caramelized maple syrup off a pan.
- Place the turkey breast in the roasting pan and pour over about half of the maple butter glaze. Sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper. Roast 1 hour.
- At one hour, glaze the turkey with more maple butter mixture, heating the butter to melt again if necessary, reserving some for vegetables or for those who want more glaze with their turkey.
- Continue roasting the turkey, and basting whenever you check the temperature, until a meat thermometer reads 165F.
- Remove the turkey from the oven, slice, and serve basted with a couple spoonfuls of the glaze and juices from the pan.
Happy October and happy Friday!