Sam's Club Seared Turkey Breast: A Review

Christmas is a special time. Even though it's only my wife and I, we try to do something extra special for our Christmas Eve dinner. As we usually are working part of the day, we look for specialty items that don't require a lot of fussing about for this early evening meal.

With a gift card we received from Thanksgiving in hand, we headed to Sam's Club to choose something really special for our annual little celebration. Many pre-made packaged dishes looked appetizing, but as we had missed out on our traditional Thanksgiving turkey this year our decision was made when we found the Members Mark Seared Turkey Breast.

It looked perfect, a special cranberry stuffing placed inside a juicy turkey breast. Seasoned to perfection it was all fully cooked and only required reheating for about 30 minutes to be ready to serve. All we needed was to add a few easy to prepare side items and we would have a beautiful turkey dinner without all the fuss. Or so we thought.

The package instructed us to thaw the turkey in the refrigerator overnight. So a day and a half ahead of time I took it from the freezer and placed it in the refrigerator. When it came time to cook our meal the breast was still partially frozen so I placed it in a sink filled with cool water. The meat was sealed in a plastic food bag, so water never came in contact with the product.

As directed I placed the turkey breast on a baking sheet and put it in a preheated 375 degree oven. As it was advertised to take 30-35 minutes to bake, after about 15 minutes I started preparing potatoes, vegetables, and a container of packaged turkey gravy. At the thirty five minute mark I checked the internal temperature with a meat thermometer only to find it was barely above room temperature.

After doubling the baking time and then some, finally the meat was warm enough to be considered safe to eat. By this time our side dishes looked a bit the worse for wear as I had planned on serving at least a half hour earlier.

I sliced into the breast and was greeted with a brown soupy ooze that was suppose to be the cranberry dressing. The bird had plenty of time to bake, and was completely thawed before it was placed in the oven. All instructions had been followed closely, and it looked awful.

We had our meal, but the dressing and the flavor it deposited on much of the meat made the experience down right distasteful. To say our meal was less then satisfying is being extremely polite. In reality it's pure luck that we were not poisoned or made sick as there was mushrooms involved and who knows what else in this terrible product.

Some of the meat was salvaged for a decent stir fry meal the net day, but the hoped for special Christmas Eve celebration dinner was ruined by the foul taste caused by this concoction they referred to as stuffing.

We were rather questioning of this Stuffed Turkey Breast for our meal choice as at just under $20 for 2 lbs of meat, it was rather extravagant for us in the first place. With the feeling of what the heck, it's Christmas, we went ahead expecting a sensational meal.

What we ended up with was a spoiled meal that bordered on being uneatable, and possibly even unhealthy to eat. This is one product I can say you should avoid at all costs. Sam's Club, you truly let us down on this one.