Practice Turkey Breasts...

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darita

is Blowin Smoke!
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To tune up the MAK for the coming company, I've started some practice cooks, one of which is whole turkey breasts, which is basically, a turkey, minus the legs and thighs.
Came out really nice, with juicy meat and crisp skin. Smoked at 380*, after using the boiling water trick. It took 2 hours for center meat to get to 165. So far so good. Next up...a whole turkey. Here it is...
 
Nice! Good that you are dialing it in before the big day. I'm gonna Jason TQ it... just throw it on the cooker and pray i get lucky.

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pjtexas1 said:
Nice! Good that you are dialing it in before the big day. I'm gonna Jason TQ it... just throw it on the cooker and pray i get lucky.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Yep, same here. Years ago, I was taught to never try something new on the big day. Practice at least once. Now the family has kind of come to expect that I'm going to try something new.

Last year a injected and took it for a spin, this year it's going to be dry brined and spatchcocked. Might still inject it, that was pretty damned good last year.
 
Is the red skin colour what your chasing?
Good idea on practice, how many cooks for the day i had wished i had.
 
The only problem I have with "practice cooks" is then I have to eat what I was practicing. I can medal in eating already...I get any "better at it" and my doctor is gonna get pissed off.

On the "big day", I'm just gonna have to wing it, I guess.
 
Titch said:
Is the red skin colour what your chasing?
Good idea on practice, how many cooks for the day i had wished i had.
Click to expand...

No. Although you can't truly go by the color in a pic, a lot has to do with the rub I use. I have one camera that produces very warm, saturated colors, another that produces very cold or blue pics and yet another that shows gray.
This particular bird was very rich brown in reality, which was indicative of the rub. What I'm going for is crisp and bite thru skin. For me, color doesn't matter a whole lot as long as it is pleasing to the eater. Unfortunately, in the past, I've done chicken and turkey cooks that looked wonderful, with skin that was like rubber. That is no longer an issue.
 
darita said:
Unfortunately, in the past, I've done chicken and turkey cooks that looked wonderful, with skin that was like rubber. That is no longer an issue.
Click to expand...

With sale prices on turkeys making them cheap, I can't wait to get one and see how the boiling water trick works out for me! :clap2:
 
sleebus.jones said:
With sale prices on turkeys making them cheap, I can't wait to get one and see how the boiling water trick works out for me! :clap2:
Click to expand...

When you pour the boiling water over the skin, it's such an odd thing to watch the skin tighten up and go translucent. Just a few seconds and it's done. Reapply the rub on the skin and you're off to the smoker. With a little spray oil and a high temp, you'll be good.
Let us know how it goes.
 
I've informed the immediate family that if I'm on "turkey duty", I'm doing bone in breasts only. I will smoke as many as I'm presented with but no whole gobblers. I've done quite a few whole birds in the smoker but I've never hit the breast to 155, the dark to 175 with any great success. So- I'm simplifying - breasts only.

If my youngest batted her eyes with a "please, daddy?" I would do the whole bird- but that sucker would be in pieces that I could remove "when they hit done"
 
Here's my practice run. I was pretty pleased. Hung it on the WSM over some lump and cherry chunks.
 
Last edited:
Lloyd, nice job! Nice color. I think if I still had my WSM, I'd be doing that way as well. Super nice looking bird. How's the skin when you cook that way?
 
darita said:
Lloyd, nice job! Nice color. I think if I still had my WSM, I'd be doing that way as well. Super nice looking bird. How's the skin when you cook that way?
Click to expand...

Not bite through, but I rarely eat the skin anyway. I wet brined it from 7:00 AM until I put it on at 4:00, and I got some good flavor throughout. Rinsed, patted dry, rubbed it with oil and hit it with some Heath Riles' Cherry Rub. I will put a little more smoke on the next one, but again, I was pleased with this one.
 
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