Garlic Butter Baked Turkey Tenderloin and Sweet Potatoes
Nov 04, 2021, Updated Mar 23, 2024
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Garlic butter baked turkey tenderloin and sweet potatoes – a one pot sheetpan dinner that is bursting with flavor in just 40 minutes!
Perfect, juicy, tender slices of turkey breast tenderloin alongside buttery garlic sweet potatoes and caramelized onions for a one pot dinner that is great for a simple, easy Thanksgiving, or an easy weeknight meal the whole family will love!
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Baked Turkey Tenderloin and Sweet Potatoes
One pot dinners are a great way to feed your family fast – they are simple to prepare, loaded with flavor, and require very little cleanup.
This turkey tenderloin recipe cooks our main dish and side dish together, in an amazingly rich and delicious garlic butter sauce, just like our Garlic Butter Pork Tenderloin.
This recipe is delicious for a busy weeknight, Sunday supper, or even a low key Thanksgiving.
This recipe is super simple – you don’t need to have advanced cooking skills or a ton of knowledge to make it. You’re going to need a frying pan, sheet pan, oven mitt, and a reliable meat thermometer.
In this recipe, I’m going to show you:
- How to bake turkey tenderloin
- How to tell when turkey is done
- How to tell when sweet potatoes are done
- Other vegetables you can use
- What to serve with turkey tenderloin
We hope you love this recipe as much as we do!
How to Bake Turkey Tenderloin
Turkey tenderloin is a lot like pork tenderloin – it is light and delicious, and can dry out when not prepared properly.
This recipe involves just a few steps – season, brown, and roast – but we don’t recommend skipping the browning.
Browning meat before you cook it gives you the best flavor, texture, and appearance!
You can use other vegetables, herbs, or seasonings.
Always be sure to use a digital meat thermometer, instead of going by looks, to gauge when your turkey is done. Turkey can sometimes give a pink appearance, and cooking until it is purely white (even though fully cooked with a slight pink hue) will just mean dry, tough turkey.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Season turkey with 1 teaspoon salt and pepper.
- In a large, heavy pan, heat olive oil until light and shimmery.
- Sear until brown on all sides, about 2-3 minutes per side.
- While turkey is searing, add sweet potatoes and onions to baking sheet.
- When turkey has browned on all sides (but not cooked through), place on baking sheet in the middle of onions and potatoes.
- In a small bowl, mix butter and Italian herbs with remaining salt and pepper. Pour over turkey, sweet potatoes, and onions.
- Roast in oven for 35-40 minutes, until turkey reaches 165 degrees internal temperature.
- Remove from oven and let rest at least 10 minutes before slicing turkey to let the meat rest and give the juices time to redistribute.
- Serve and enjoy!
Tips to Perfect Turkey Tenderloin & FAQs
Turkey tenderloin is incredibly simple to prepare, but there are a couple of tips we like to stick to for perfect, juicy, and tender turkey meat.
Don’t skip the sear. We find it is best to quickly sear the turkey before baking. While this might seem like an extra step – and it is – searing meat before baking gives it a great color, caramelized flavor, and crunchy texture to the outside.
Cut sweet potatoes to small bites. This recipe cooks fairly quickly – and sweet potatoes often need time. Cutting small cubes will help them cook faster, so they can cook at the same time the pork is done.
Add other vegetables. Looking for more vegetable flavor? Add in shaved Brussels sprouts, sliced mushrooms, diced beets, diced turnips, diced parsnips, cauliflower, or green beans.
Serve with cranberry! Turkey is amazing with cranberry sauce, cranberry fluff salad, or even Sparkling Cranberry Punch! Turkey and cranberry go together year round – not just on Thanksgiving!
FAQs
Turkey tenderloin is done cooking at 165 degrees Fahrenheit.
Turkey tenderloin is a cut of boneless, skinless turkey breast. Technically a turkey breast refers to the skin-on, bone-in portion of the turkey breast, and the tenderloin is the boneless, skinless version.
Some turkey can appear to have a pink hue – even when fully cooked. Since the color of the meat is not a reliable indication of doneness for turkey, we always recommend using a food thermometer to gauge the doneness for all meat, but especially poultry.
Turkey tenderloin can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to four days, or frozen for up to four months.
What to Serve with Turkey Tenderloin and Sweet Potatoes
While this dinner is truly a one pot meal, we have lots of delicious side dishes that pair perfectly with turkey tenderloin!
We love to serve this dinner with soft dinner rolls, air fryer brussels sprouts, Apple Arugula Almond Salad with Orange Dressing,Burrata Farro Salad, The Best Easy Oven Roasted Asparagus, Apple Cider Gin and Tonic, and Easy Caramel Apple Spice Cake !
Find some of our favorite Thanksgiving inspired dishes here:
And for our complete Thanksgiving dinner archives (since they go so fabulously with turkey and sweet potatoes, though they are all delicious year round!), click here.
Garlic Butter Baked Turkey Tenderloin and Sweet Potatoes Recipe
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Garlic Butter Baked Turkey Tenderloin and Sweet Potatoes
Ingredients
- 1 lb turkey breast tenderloins weight will vary by packaging, up to 2 pounds
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 teaspoons freshed cracked pepper divided
- 2 teaspoons celtic sea salt divided
- 1 yellow onion diced
- 2 medium sweet potatoes diced into 1″ cubes (about 2 cups)
- 4 oz butter melted
- ¼ cup minced garlic
- 1 tablespoon Italian herbs seasoning blend
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Season turkey with 1 teaspoon salt and pepper.
- In a large, heavy pan, heat olive oil until light and shimmery.
- Sear until brown on all sides, about 2-3 minutes per side.
- While turkey is searing, add sweet potatoes and onions to baking sheet.
- When turkey has browned on all sides (but not cooked through), place on baking sheet in the middle of onions and potatoes.
- In a small bowl, mix butter, garlic, and Italian herbs with remaining salt and pepper. Pour over turkey, sweet potatoes, and onions.
- Roast in oven for 35-40 minutes, until turkey reaches 165 degrees internal temperature.
- Remove from oven and let rest at least 10 minutes before slicing turkey to let the meat rest and give the juices time to redistribute.
- Serve and enjoy!
Nutrition
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Home run! My family continually returns to this recipe for a quick, but delicious, weeknight meal. Often times, I add broccoli to the sheet pan making it a complete meal.
I love the idea of adding broccoli! Thank you for the wonderful comment!