boneless turkey breasts, need temp advice

SmokeyBear · Jan 19, 2007

I have a 4.75 pound Honeysuckle White boneless turkey breast in a salt and brown sugar brine in my fridge. I'm planning to cook it on Friday night. I usually do these on my gasser on the rotisserie, but I want to try this one on my BGE.

I'd appreciate any advice as to cooking temps and as to whether or not I should do any basting. I never had to baste on the rotisserie, but I'm unsure as to whether or not to do so in the BGE.

I plan to coat in in a light veggie oil and pour rub some seasoning on it, possibly course black pepper this time, before it goes in the BGE.

Here is a link to some three

pounders

I did on my rotisserie:

http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=23073

BBQchef33 · Jan 19, 2007

I pull whole Boobs off a little over 155, tent them and let them rest. Even better let it rest in a warm oven to let temps climb a little more.

Alot say 170 is minimum safe, but i find that dries them out.

Pulling at 155 brings it up close to 165 and it still has the juice left in it.

SmokeyBear · Jan 20, 2007

I brined it for two days in a salt and brown sugar solution. Before putting it in the BGE, I coated it in EVOO and sprinkled course ground black pepper on it. Every hour or so, I spritzed it with apple juice/EVOO. I cooked it at 250 and with some hickory chips thrown on the coals.

I put it on at 0630 this morning. At 1100, it was still only at 140 internal. I wrapped in foil, and eventually ran the temp up to 275 little later when it still wasn't getting above 140 internal. Around 1230, it was finally at 160 internal. I pulled it then and let it rest.

The meat had a very, very good taste to it, but most of the skin was quite rubbery. There was no need for gravy.

I think that next run at this will be a higher temp to shorten the time and hopefully crisp up the skin. I'm also going to try it with some boneless/skinless breast cutlets.

tony76248 · Jan 20, 2007

I would imagine that the brine allowed you to maintain moisture and in doing so, you probably could have placed on the grill for a while to establish a crisper skin.

Glad it came out tasting great. What type of wood did you use for the smoke?

SmokeyBear · Jan 20, 2007

tony76248 said:
I would imagine that the brine allowed you to maintain moisture and in doing so, you probably could have placed on the grill for a while to establish a crisper skin.

Glad it came out tasting great. What type of wood did you use for the smoke?

I put some hickory chips on top of the coals. I soaked them in water and a little bit of apple juice for a while prior to putting them on the coals.

I need to pick up some chunks as I think they will give me more smoke flavor.

Should I have put it on direct at the end of the cook to crisp it up some?

qman · Jan 20, 2007

BBQchef33 said:
I pull whole Boobs off a little over 155, tent them and let them rest. Even better let it rest in a warm oven to let temps climb a little more.

Alot say 170 is minimum safe, but i find that dries them out.

Pulling at 155 brings it up close to 165 and it still has the juice left in it.

I am in agreement with our exalted leader on this. Internal temp of no more than 155° internal on whole breasts.

I generally cook most poultry around 275-300° chamber temp.

SmokeyBear · Apr 22, 2007

Thread Resurrection:

I got my camera out to take a pic of today's cook and realized that I had some pics of the smoked turkey breast that I did a while back.

jpw23 · Apr 22, 2007

Now that is pretty!!!!

thirdeye · Apr 22, 2007

BBQchef33 said:
I pull whole Boobs off a little over 155, tent them and let them rest. Even better let it rest in a warm oven to let temps climb a little more. Alot say 170 is minimum safe, but i find that dries them out.Pulling at 155 brings it up close to 165 and it still has the juice left in it.

qman said:
I am in agreement with our exalted leader on this. Internal temp of no more than 155° internal on whole breasts. I generally cook most poultry around 275-300° chamber temp.

Same here. I actually ramp the pit temp down once they pass 140° and sneak up on the 155°. A good rest helps with the juices too. The last change the USDA made was to lower the minimum for all poultry to 165°, which is good because on chicken breasts I still cheat that number a bit.

boneless turkey breasts, need temp advice

SmokeyBear

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