Herb-Glazed Turkey Slices — The Sunday After the Second Arrest

I am going to tell this short and straight because there is no other way to tell it.

Cody was arrested Wednesday afternoon. The phone call came to Mama’s landline at four-thirty PM Central Time while Mama was at the kitchen sink and I was at the kitchen table with the magazine draft open in front of me. Cody had been at the Tulsa restaurant on his Wednesday curbside-lunch shift when an old friend — an old friend from the years before the unit, a friend Cody had thought he’d cut contact with completely after the original arrest in 2017 — had come in for a curbside pickup at the side door with a request that Cody help him move some boxes from his car to a storage unit after the lunch service closed at two. Cody had said yes because the friend had said his back was hurting. Cody had been in the passenger seat of the friend’s car when the traffic stop happened on Lewis Avenue. The boxes in the trunk contained a small quantity of pills the friend was selling on the side. The arrest was made under the conspiracy-to-distribute statute. Bond was set at fifty thousand dollars at the Wednesday-evening arraignment.

Mama and I drove to Tulsa Wednesday night at six PM in the truck. We sat in the parking lot of the courthouse complex for two hours. We could not see Cody Wednesday night because intake was closed by the time we got there. We went to a Holiday Inn near the courthouse. Mama did not sleep. I did not sleep. Aunt Linda drove down from her house and met us at the Holiday Inn at nine PM with a thermos of coffee and a small loan in cash from her and Roy’s emergency savings.

Thursday morning at eight AM, with money from my Vanderbilt college-fund pocket combined with the loan from Aunt Linda, we posted the fifty-thousand-dollar bond at the bondsman’s office across the street from the courthouse. Cody came home Thursday afternoon at four PM with a court date in three weeks for the preliminary hearing. He walked into the kitchen, sat down at the table, did not take his coat off. Mama did not ask any questions. I did not ask any questions. He sat at the kitchen table for an hour without speaking.

He has not spoken much since Wednesday. He has eaten. He has slept. He has answered Mama’s direct questions with single-word answers. He has not gone back to the Tulsa restaurant; the owners called Friday morning to tell him not to come in until the legal situation resolves. The owners did not fire him outright but they did not say he could come back, either.

Sunday I made herb-glazed turkey slices because Mama asked me directly Saturday afternoon to make something simple, traditional, and Sunday-dinner-shaped — she said the household needed Sunday to look like Sunday even though nothing else looks like itself right now. The shape of Sunday dinner is its own load-bearing structure when other structures have collapsed. Roast a turkey breast. Slice it. Glaze it. Mashed potatoes. Gravy. Green beans. Rolls. Three plates at the table. The shape is the shape.

The technique: a three-pound boneless turkey breast (the IGA had them on sale, eleven dollars), patted bone-dry, salted heavily on every surface, set on a roasting rack inside a sheet pan. A glaze of half a stick of melted butter, a quarter-cup of chicken broth, the juice of one lemon, four cloves of garlic minced, two tablespoons of fresh thyme leaves, two tablespoons of fresh rosemary chopped, two tablespoons of fresh sage chopped, salt, pepper. Brushed generously over the breast.

Roasted at three-seventy-five for an hour and twenty minutes until the breast hits one-sixty-five at the meat thermometer in the deepest part. Basted with the pan drippings every twenty minutes. Rested fifteen minutes under foil before carving. Sliced into half-inch slices.

The mashed potatoes were the standard recipe. The gravy was a roux-thickened pan-jus from the turkey drippings with a splash of cream. The green beans were the simple butter-and-bacon version Mama loves. The rolls were Pillsbury crescent rolls because I was not making rolls from scratch this Sunday and Mama did not expect me to.

The dinner was quiet. Cody ate his portion. Mama ate her portion. I ate mine. We did not talk about Wednesday at the table. We did not discuss the court date. We did not speculate about the charge. The kitchen held what we couldn’t say. The Sunday dinner held the shape of a Sunday dinner. We finished. The dishes got done. Cody went to bed at nine PM. Mama and I sat in the living room for an hour with the TV off and didn’t talk much. The kitchen had done its work for the day.

Herb glaze, three-seventy-five for an hour and twenty, baste every twenty. Slice thin against the grain. Here’s the build.

Herb-Glazed Turkey Slices

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 20 min | Total Time: 35 min | Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 2 lbs turkey breast, sliced about 1/2 inch thick
• 3 tablespoons butter, divided
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 cup chicken broth

Instructions

1. Season the turkey. Pat turkey slices dry with paper towels. Season both sides evenly with salt and pepper and let rest at room temperature for 10 minutes.
2. Make the herb glaze. In a small bowl, whisk together honey, Dijon mustard, soy sauce, rosemary, thyme, and minced garlic until well combined. Set aside.
3. Sear the slices. Heat 1 tablespoon butter and the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Working in batches if needed, add turkey slices in a single layer and sear 3—4 minutes per side until golden brown and cooked through (internal temperature 165°F). Transfer to a plate.
4. Build the pan sauce. Reduce heat to medium. Add remaining 2 tablespoons butter to the skillet. Once melted, pour in the chicken broth and scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan.
5. Add the glaze. Pour the herb-honey glaze into the skillet and stir to combine with the pan drippings. Simmer 2—3 minutes until the sauce thickens slightly and coats the back of a spoon.
6. Finish and serve. Return turkey slices to the skillet and spoon the glaze over each piece. Cook 1—2 minutes more until the turkey is well coated and heated through. Serve immediately with extra glaze spooned over the top.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 290 | Protein: 38g | Fat: 12g | Carbs: 7g | Fiber: 0g | Sodium: 420mg