Last updated on March 29th, 2018 at 02:07 pm
These Maple Mustard Roasted Turkey Thighs are super juicy, delicious and a great alternative for roasting a whole turkey.
Are you a dark meat or a white meat lover when it comes to your Thanksgiving turkey? I, personally, love my dark meat, whether it’s turkey or chicken. While I still like breast, I love a nice juicy turkey thigh. Since it’s just me and my husband, unless we’re hosting Thanksgiving at our house, I hardly ever make a whole turkey. I prefer just roasting a couple thighs, drumsticks or just the breast. Hubs is the breast fan when it comes to his poultry but this time I won and made some turkey thighs.
Turkey thighs really are a great alternative to having to cook a whole turkey, especially when there aren’t a lot of people you’re planning on feeding. My thighs here were quite big, so they generously fed 4 people, but you could always cook more if preferred. You could even mix it up and buy the drumsticks as well, or a breast.
But these turkey thighs here are all about that maple mustard glaze which is really simple to make and so good, plus they give your turkey thighs a nice sheen and color.
I added a bunch of celery, onions and carrots to the roasting pan so as it cooks, you baste your turkey with all those great flavors, making your turkey thighs nice and juicy and super flavorful.
In the end we actually ended up eating the carrots because we love roasted carrots, plus we strained all the liquid through a sieve and drizzled it over the turkey thighs. You could also make some gravy with it, but I found it wasn’t necessary to add flour to it and butter, it was just as great as it was.
I served this with the harvest rice I shared the other day.
Check out the video!
If you try this recipe, please let us know! Leave a comment, rate it and tag a photo #jocooks on Instagram so we can see it. I always love to see what you guys come up with!
These Maple Mustard Roasted Turkey Thighs are super juicy, delicious and a great alternative for roasting a whole turkey.
- 1/2 cup butter unsalted
- 1 tsp rosemary fresh, chopped
- 1 tsp thyme fresh, chopped
- 1 tbsp smoked paprika
- 2 tbsp dijon mustard
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
- 2 turkey thighs bone in w/ skin, washed and dried (about 2-3 lb)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1 cup water
- 1 large onion chopped
- 5 stalks celery chopped
- 5 carrots chopped
- 4 sprigs rosemary
- 2 sprigs thyme
Preheat your oven to 350F.
In a small sauce pan add the butter and melt over medium high heat. Add the rosemary, thyme, smoked paprika, dijon mustard, maple syrup and stir. Bring to a boil then remove from heat.
Score the skin of the turkey thighs. Season your turkey thighs with salt and pepper. Pour about 3/4 of the maple/mustard mixture over the thighs and toss.
Add the water to a roasting pan, then add the onion, celery, carrots, rosemary, and thyme. Place a roasting rack in the pan.
Place the turkey thighs, skin side up, on the rack and brush with remaining maple/mustard glaze.
Roast for 2 hours or until the internal temperature reads 175-180F, basting every 30 minutes with the juices from the pan.
Remove from the oven and cover the thighs with aluminum foil. Let them rest for 10 minutes before slicing them.
My turkey thighs were quite big, so one was big enough to feed 2 people. If thighs are smaller then check the internal temperature after about 1.5 hours.
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You can always cook more turkey thighs if looking to serve more people.Â
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You can strain the remaining liquid through a sieve and drizzle it over the turkey, or use it to make a gravy with it.
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Please keep in mind that nutritional information is a rough estimate and can vary greatly based on products used.
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What a wonderful recipe!! Turned out great. I played around with it a little bit, to suit my own taste — a little on the sweet side, so I added a bit of red wine. Also, the thighs were smaller, so I made about half the marinade amount, and that was plenty. The direction to check for doneness earlier if the thighs are smaller was right on target. Thanks again.
Adapted this to the crockpot (set the thighs on top of the uncut veggies) and turned out well. However it was a little sweet for my liking (especially the gravy). Next time I’ll experiment with using less maple syrup (and probably try using less butter as well). Thanks for the recipe!
Enjoyed very much, I will keep and make again
Tried the thighs they were off the chain, my family young and older loved the honey mustard taste.
Made this last night with the last root vegetables (had no celery) of last fall–carrots, parsnips and beets, and some manoomin (wild rice from White Earth reservation in Minnesota). The two large turkey thighs (1.5 lbs each) were done in about an hour and 45 minutes, probably a bit sooner than that. Perfect for a snowy Wisconsin night in April and not difficult at all.
Happy you enjoyed this!
Made this recipe tonight and didn’t change a thing. It was delicious!!! Will make again and again. I had 1 thigh that was 2.5 lbs and 2 thighs that together equaled 1.5 lbs. After 1 hour – smaller thighs were done. The larger thigh was done after 1.5 hours. But easy to figure with an instant read thermometer. With the glaze dripping into the pan along with the meat drippings, the liquid in the pan has a nice consistency, No need to thicken. Can’t wait for leftovers tomorrow 🙂
So happy you liked this!
Amazing!
Turkey is my favorite meat, really love its taste, but never mix Turkey with anything else.
Thanks for sharing this, and I will give it a try with my own twist!
Has anyone tried this with a whole turkey? Thinking of getting a small one for Thanksgiving and using this recipe on it!
I used the glaze with chicken thighs, it’s delicious!
We are more into Thanksgiving side-dishes than turkey itself. This will be perfect, but…..where on earth did you find such huge turkey thighs? The ones I saw at our local supermarket yesterday were tiny (half pound each, if that!), I’d have to buy one per person to make it worthwhile! Thanks.
I found them at Sobeys!
Super juicy, delicious!
Looks Yummy! But, where is anyone finding turkey right now? I never see turkey aside from Thanksgiving season.
We just celebrated Thanksgiving in Canada yesterday, so definitely Thanksgiving season here, but sometimes you can still find turkey breast or turkey legs in the poultry section of your grocery store.
Why such high sodium ?
This recipe looks delicious! This is perfect for my friendsgiving, as I have zero desire to make an entire turkey. Thank you!
My pleasure!