A bone-in turkey breast, oven-braised in chicken stock with aromatics, in a covered pot and pictured here with a baked sweet potato and my Super Creamy Macaroni and Cheese.

Braised Turkey Breast

It's rare that I will cook a turkey or chicken without brining it first. Although I use an in oven thermometer {affil link} these days, there has been many a time that I thought I had that timing down perfect, only to result in an overcooked, tasteless and dry bird. It's not hard to do given how poultry is bred today. Those thermometers are a godsend, especially with roasting any meat.

A brine gives a little extra insurance against that, whether you're using a thermometer or not, as well as infusing some salty goodness into the meat. That said, since this turkey breast was going to be cooked with a braising method, I decided to give it a try without either. The braising process does wonders to meat and I was delighted with the result!

A faster no knead bread made in a Dutch oven, that's simply delicious!

Easy and Faster No Knead Bread Recipe in a Dutch Oven

No Knead Bread really doesn't take less time to make than good ole hand kneaded loaf bread - kneading bread is not that difficult and certainly a cinch with a Kitchen Aid. No knead bread just became sort of a novelty ever since the recipe from Jim Lahey, for his New York Sullivan Street Bakery, made an appearance on the circuits back in 2006. For awhile there, everybody was talking about it, and, making it.

His takes more than 18 hours to make. Mine doesn't.

And yes... I know that there is certainly something to be said about allowing yeast to ferment over a long time to produce a flavorful bread. This method is just a shorter way to get a wonderful loaf of no knead bread, faster. And trust me. Even if you don't consider yourself to be a bread maker, you can do this - and you don't have to have a fancy pot for it either. It's nice if you have one, but in truth, you can use a plain ole cast iron Dutch oven, or enameled cast iron Dutch oven, or one of those high dollar, fancy French ovens. Any one of those will work.  I used a vintage Corning Ware Visions Dutch oven my grandma gave me this time.