Spice-Rubbed Turkey Breast with Cranberry Sauce

In preparation for Thanksgiving, I decided to cook up some turkey breasts for dinner tonight. I found a lovely spice rub via my Better Homes & Garden's Holiday magazine, and the cranberry sauce is a traditional sauce using cranberries, orange juice and sugar. Just the taste of these two together is causing me to eagerly look forward to Thanksgiving next week! We are heading over to some dear friends' house, where our hostess will provide the bulk of the heavy lifting when it comes to cooking, but I will be bringing a few dishes to add to the fare.

Here they are, in no particular order:
AB’s Green Bean Casserole (no cream of mushroom soup!!)
Chorizo and Cornbread Stuffing
Sweet Onion Tartlets
Overnight Refrigerator Rolls
Chocolate Cream Pie (for my weirdo boys, who don't like fruit desserts or pumpkin pie)
Sweet Potato Casserole (aka, Andy's Sweet Potatoes)
Pear Crisp

All but one of these are new recipes, and I'm thrilled to get to try them out with my family and our friends who are very adventurous food eaters (thank goodness)! I will post the results of all of these dishes, good or bad, and let you know how hard or easy they were. Because I'm running a Turkey Trot with Andy on Thanksgiving morning, I'm hoping to do most of this menu the day before Thanksgiving, while just wrapping up the last minute details the day of.

Back to the aforementioned turkey breast...this spice rub would work well on chicken as well. Now to the details:

Spice-Rubbed Turkey Breast
Ingredients:
2 3- to 3-1/2-lb. fresh or frozen bone-in turkey breast halves (I used boneless)
Nonstick cooking spray
2 Tbsp. packed dark brown sugar
2 tsp. paprika
2 tsp. garlic powder
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. chili powder
3/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Coat a large shallow roasting pan and rack with cooking spray. In small bowl combine brown sugar, paprika, garlic powder, salt, cumin, chili powder, and pepper. Place turkey breast halves, bone side down, on roasting rack in prepared pan. Set aside.

2. Starting at breast bone, slip fingers between skin and meat to loosen skin, leaving skin attached at top. Lift skin and spread spice mixture evenly under skin over breast meat. Insert oven-going meat thermometer into thickest part of breast, without touching bone. (My turkey breasts were skinless and I massaged the rub all over the meat.)

3. Roast, uncovered for 10 minutes. Turn temperature down to 350 and roast until internal temperature reaches 160 degrees. Remove from oven and let rest.

Cranberry Sauce
Ingredients:
1 package fresh cranberries (usually 12-16 ounces)
1 cup sugar
1 cup freshly squeezed OJ

1. Combine in a pot over medium-high heat. Cook until sugar has dissolved and the cranberries start to pop.

2. Turn the heat down to a simmer and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and pour into a serving dish. The sauce will thicken as it cools.