The honey smoked turkey breast project: Pron inside

I was at the grocery store with the wifey, and wondered aloud if it would just be better to smoke my own turkey breasts and freeze the meat for sammiches instead of buying the usual crap. So Operation HSTBS (Honey Smoked Turkey Breast for Sammiches) was hatched. I've only smoked whole turkeys on my stick burner, so this will all be new for me on the WSM.


Mission: Turn these two dry, frozen hunks of turkey breasts that have probably been sitting in the freezer section for six months into moist, sweet, smokey turkey meat.




The Brine: I usually go with 1 cup brown sugar and 1 cup kosher salt per gallon for whole turkeys. For this mission I decided to drop the salt to 3/4 cup kosher salt, and use 1 cup of honey instead of brown sugar per gallon. I have never used honey in a brine, and luckily I googled a bit and discovered that you aren't supposed to heat honey over 160 degrees or it breaks down. I only heated my starter water to 150 degrees, then added the salt and honey (on a side note, honey is sold by weight, not by volume, so you need to buy 24 oz of honey for 2 cups, not 16 oz). Added this to the rest of the water for a total of 2 gallons and stored it in the fridge to bring the temp down before I added the breasts later that night. I didn't add any other flavorings because like most crap frozen turkeys, this has been injected with more crap, and I don't know how it will interact with any more flavorings.




The Soak: Removed the skin from the breasts and added the breasts to the brine the night before the smoke. I'm not going to bother raising the heat for a crispy skin during the smoke, so I just removed the skin to take it out of the equation. I'm going for sammich meat here. Total soak time around 12 hours.




The Rub: Used my every day rub that I put on pretty much anything. I call this my "Kitchen Sink" rub because it has everything in it. It's a slight deviation from Paul Kirk's "Master Class BBQ Rub": 1 cup sugar, 1/4 cup seasoned salt, 1/4 cup garlic salt, 1/4 cup celery salt, 1/4 cup onion salt, 1/2 cup paprika, 1/4 cup chili powder, 2 TBSP black pepper, 1 TBSP lemon pepper, 2 tsp rubbed sage, 1 tsp dry mustard, 1 tsp thyme, 1 tsp cayenne. I mix it all in a gallon freezer bag and store it in the freezer when not in use. Brushed the breasts with a little EVOO before applying the rub.




The WSM Fuel: Using Publix Greenwise lump charcoal for fuel, and Texas Smoke apple chunks for smoke. Publix is a grocery brand based out of Florida so you mainly see them in the Southeast. I've used their lump charcoal once before and it runs a little hot, but is clean. Using standard Minion method. The heavy white smoke was replaced by perty blue smoke soon after everything was loaded up and locked down.




My Fuel: Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Barleywine Ale, 12 ounces of pure 9.6% alcohol goodness!



Perty blue smoke. Kept temps around 240 to 250 on the top grate since the bottom grate runs a little cooler.




About 90 min in, internal temp around 130. Spritzed with a little EVOO. Next time I know when I do two breasts is that I should offset them a bit on the grate. The top turkey is dripping on the bottom turkey and smearing the rub. Maverick Redi-check wireless temperature monitor in use on top grate and in the breast.





Pulled at 160 degrees and resting for 30 minutes.




The final bounty. Wifey keeps grabbing bites every time she walks by, so I know she likes it. I can taste the sweetness from the honey, plus the salt from the brine. Nice smokey flavor. Better than anything I've bought at the store.




Bonus shot number 1: Azaleas are in bloom in the backyard, must be time for the Masters golf
tournament soon!




Bonus shot number 2: More azaleas.



OK I'm done, I swear.

willkat98 said:

Mark, you have hit on one of my specialties.
Next to the pork loin, the whole turkey breast is my go to meat!!

Have you seen the Food TV methods of cutting the breast off whole (slice along the cage, then the ends) and then slice crosswise into 1" chunks?
Looking good

Click to expand...

Yeah, I cut the breast-halves off whole and sliced them crosswise instead of lengthwise. I call this the "Bobby Flay" method because I learned it from him on one of his Food Network shows. If you look at the image of the sliced turkey you can see that they are sliced crosswise after pullling from the center bone. I REALLY like your idea of freezing these breast-half sections whole instead of slicing them, I will do that next time.

Couple of other final thoughts:

I like the ratio of 3/4 cup of kosher salt per gallon for the brine much better than the old ratio I used of 1 cup per gallon. I found myself chugging down water (or beer) from salt overload with the old ratio. I also like the addition of honey instead of brown sugar. It's a little more expensive, but I think it added a layer of flavor that wasn't there before.

Is it just me, or does lump charcoal and wood chunks give a much stronger smoke flavor than burning pre-heated sticks? Don't get me wrong, there is no such thing to me as too much smoke, and the wifey can probably do liquid smoke shooters with a smile. But it seems that I am getting a stronger smokey flavor then I was on the Dera with pre-heated sticks. Maybe I should switch to regular charcoal and compare, dunno.

thirdeye said:

And speaking of honey, I'm in the final stages of refining a pastramied turkey breast that uses an injectable turkey brine to match up with pastrami seasonings that go under the skin, (I peel it back, season the meat and replace it, holding with toothpicks). This brine uses honey, canning salt (it dissolves easier, stays in suspension better, and works better in an injection) and some other seasonings.

Would either or both of you guys be willing to try it out and let me know what you think?

Click to expand...

I'm game. I love anything even remotely pastrami-like.