Take away the dry turkey panic and make an instant pot turkey crown. This moist, juicy, turkey crown is so delicious and perfect for Christmas.
Even better, we will show you how to make a delicious creamy turkey gravy to serve alongside your crown as well as plenty of each kitchen gadget side dish ideas.
We originally shared with you how to cook instant pot turkey crown back in 2018 and we are updating it today with more tips and tricks and better turkey side ideas.
Table of Contents
Turkey Crown Recipe
Wow where did those four years go. I am sharing with you today an update of our turkey crown recipe in the instant pot, exactly four years to the day or its original publish date on Recipe This.
Not many people have an amazing husband like mine that can cook a whole turkey in the oven, and have it perfectly cooked effortlessly without ever worrying that the turkey will be dry.
As a chef, he just does it on autopilot and I always love his amazing turkeys.
BUT there are so many of us out there, that are totally freaked out when it comes to Christmas (or Thanksgiving) know that they need to produce a great turkey, but dread how its going to turn out.
That is why I originally shared my instant pot turkey crown recipe with you back in 2018. Because turkey crown in the instant pot doesn’t go dry, you can just load it up, it saves on energy bills, you’re also cooking your turkey gravy at the same time and you can then focus on your side dishes and take the stress out of the situation.
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Best Way To Cook A Turkey Crown
Because turkey is so easy for it to dry out and need an excessive amount of gravy to make it taste good, there are two best ways to cook a turkey crown.
One is our slow cooker turkey crown and the other is our instant pot turkey crown.
Then if I had to choose the best way out of these two for cooking a turkey crown it would instant pot turkey crown because it’s the fastest of the two.
What Is A Turkey Crown?
A turkey crown is a turkey minus its legs. So, imagine a turkey breast plus its bones. In the US they call a turkey crown a bone in turkey breast, and I must admit this does describe it much better.
A turkey crown is also called this because it’s the best bit of the turkey i.e. the crown.
Does A Turkey Crown Have Bones?
Yes, a turkey crown does have bones. A turkey crown, also known as bone in turkey breast, is the breast plus the bones surrounding it.
But of course, the bones help keep the turkey crown together and make it much easier to prep and cook in your instant pot.
How Big Is A Turkey Crown?
A turkey crown can very much vary in size. I notice most are looking to cook either a 2kg (4.4lbs) or a 3kg (6.6lbs) turkey crown. Though I have seen bigger ones than these before.
The turkey crown we are cooking today in the instant pot is 2.6kg which is the equivalent of 5.7lbs turkey.
Can You Cook A Turkey Crown From Frozen?
Yes, you can cook a turkey crown from frozen and its easy to do. Though if you would rather follow step by step instructions from frozen, then check out our instant pot frozen turkey breast recipe instead, which works in a similar way to todays recipe.
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Christmas Turkey Crown Recipe Ingredients
Turkey – You will need your turkey crown. As mentioned, ours is a large 2.6kg turkey but anything similar will be fine.
Liquid – You need some liquid to take the instant pot to pressure, plus you also need liquid to deglaze the instant pot and flavour the instant pot. We went with a mixture of white wine for the initial deglaze of the instant pot as well as turkey stock.
Veggies – We also recommend a mix of veggies to be able to create a flavoursome turkey gravy with. We went with potatoes, carrots and onion and celery.
Seasoning – You can keep it simple with your turkey crown and still have a great flavour to it. We used salt, pepper, and thyme.
Then for the kitchen gadgets that we have used in this easy turkey crown recipe it has just been our Instant Pot. We have this one and it’s my favourite and great for a lot of different instant pot quick recipes.
Plus, we recommend you head over to our instant pot recipes category as we have many electric pressure cooker recipes and have been using instant pots for 5 years.
How To Cook A Turkey Crown In Instant Pot?
- Sauté. Warm up your instant pot and add some extra virgin olive oil. Then season your turkey skin and then sauté on each side. Put the turkey to one side.
- Prep. Peel and dice celery, onion, and carrots and load into the instant pot, add in some more extra virgin olive oil if it needs it. Then add in salt, pepper, and thyme. Sauté until the onion has started to soften then press cancel.
- Deglaze. Then deglaze your instant pot with white wine and stir in your turkey stock.
- Position. Then place your turkey crown in the instant pot, breast side up and then place the lid on the instant pot.
- Cook. Set the valve to sealing and pressure cook for 35 minutes followed by a 15 minute natural pressure release.
- Gravy. After releasing pressure put your cooked turkey crown to one side and then into a blender add the turkey gravy ingredients. Blend until smooth.
- Serve. Then serve your turkey breast with your turkey gravy and your favourite sides.
And I am sure you can see now how simple and easy it is to cook turkey crown in instant pot and why you should be doing the same.
How Long To Cook A Turkey Crown?
The cooking time for turkey crown can vary depending on the size of your turkey crown. For example, our turkey crown was 2.6kg and took 35 minutes followed by a 15 minute natural pressure release.
The way you figure out how long to cook your turkey crown is to do some quick maths. It is 6 minutes cook time per pound of turkey crown + a 15 minute natural pressure release.
So, let’s say you want to know how long to cook a 3kg turkey crown? Then you know to do 3*2.2=6.6 to change 3 kilos into pounds which makes 6.6lbs. Then you would do 6.6*6=39.6 and round it off so it takes 40 minutes to cook a 3 kilo turkey.
Turkey Crown Internal Temperature
To double check that your turkey crown is fully cooked, you can take an internal temperature.
You are looking for a minimum of 70 or as chef’s say 70+ in Celsius and that is 158f.
More Instant Pot Turkey Recipes
I love instant pot veggies and there are so many different ways to you can put veggies on the dinner table. Here are a few more ideas:
- Instant Pot Carrots
- Instant Pot Cabbage
- Instant Pot Beets
- Instant Pot Cauliflower
- Instant Pot Broccoli
- Instant Pot Frozen Broccoli
What To Serve With Your Turkey Crown?
As you can see below, we have served our turkey crown with air fryer baby potatoes and air fryer baby carrots. But there are plenty of other options too such as:
- Air Fryer Stuffing Balls
- Air Fryer Duck Fat Roast Potatoes
- Air Fryer Frozen Brussel Sprouts
- Instant Pot Cranberry Sauce
- Ninja Foodi Swede & Carrot Mash
- Slow Cooker Stuffing For Turkey
Your best turkey crown recipe is below, note you can print it out with or without photos, adjust servings, or click between metric and imperial depending on where you are in the world.
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Instant Pot Turkey Crown
Ingredients
- 1 Large Turkey Crown
- 1 Medium Brown Onion
- 3 Carrots
- 2 Celery Sticks
- 4 Small White Potatoes
- 2 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 480 ml Turkey Stock
- 240 ml White Wine
- 2 Tbsp Thyme
- 2 Tsp Mustard
- Salt & Pepper
Kitchen Gadgets
Instructions
- Put your instant pot on sauté and warm it up. Add half of the extra virgin olive oil. Once warm, season your turkey breast skin with salt, pepper and half the thyme. Sauté the turkey until it has got a little colour but not overly brown. Remove the turkey and put to one side.
- Next clean and dice the celery, and then peel and dice the potatoes, carrots, and onion. Load into the instant pot, add the rest of the extra virgin olive oil and sauté for 3 minutes or until the onion has started to soften. Cancel the sauté and deglaze the instant pot with the white wine and the turkey stock. Give it a really good stir.
- Place the turkey crown back into the instant pot, breast side up and place the lid on the instant pot, set the valve to sealing and pressure cook for 35 minutes followed by a 15 minute natural pressure release. Remove the lid after your natural pressure release, remove the turkey and put to one side to cool.
- Then slice two slices from your turkey and load into the blender along with 240ml/1 cup of the stock, mustard, plus 3tbsp of potatoes and carrots from the instant pot. Blend until you have a creamy turkey gravy.
- Then once the turkey has rested serve it with your favourite sides and your turkey gravy.
Notes
Nutrition
Can’t make it now? Then save it for later!
Question. I have never come across a turkey crown, so would that be a special order/request from mkt. or butcher? Now would just a turkey breast done the same way work the same? Thank you. & Merry Xmas & Happy New Year..
Hi Nydia,
A turkey crown is what Europeans call bone in turkey breast. So just ask your butchers for a turkey breast with bone in if they can do it but if not normal turkey breast with no bones should be fine 🙂
Merry Christmas and a happy new year to you!
I call it turkey breast but still a great recipe.