Smoked Turkey Breast and Legs

NautiRogue

Just decided to make something up this afternoon. We bought a 7.5 pound bone-in turkey breast and a couple of legs at Earth Fair. I've cleaned the meat and trimmed some of the extra fat. 

For the breast, I've separated the skin from the breast and coated it liberally with squeezable margarine. I mixed some fresh rosemary, sage, and thyme and very roughly chopped the spices, Quartered an orange, and diced an onion. I squeezed the oranges into the spice and added a couple cups of apple juice. Mixed it all thoroughly, and shoved the moist aromatics under the skin.  The remaining liquid will be used in the drip pan.  Drizzled the breast with olive oil and rubbed it with Dizzy Pig Shakin' the Tree lemon pepper rub. 

The breast is going in the V rack in a drip pan with the apple juice and some beer.  (Red Stripe is all i had on hand!). This will go on the EGG configured for indirect heat (plate setter, legs up) at 300 degrees with maple wood for smoke. 

In the meantime, I'm brining the legs in a Kosher salt, sugar, water, and apple juice solution. 

The plan is to monitor the breast with the CyberQ. As the breast reaches about 100 degrees, the legs will go girectly on the grid (covered in tin foil) and will be mopped regularly with Hot Bone Suckin' Sauce. Hopefully, both meats will reach 165 close to the same time!

We're serving the turkey with garlic bread and corn on the cob.

I'll let you know how it turns out!

NautiRogue

Here's the breast before it went on the grill. 

EagleIII

@NautiRogue - Man, that breast looks awesome. Two Weeks ago I did just about the same thing...SWMBO had a special request for smoked turkey breast so she could slice it for lunch meat...what was I to do but oblige her!
Nice looking cook...

NautiRogue

Breast done. It's going inside to rest while the legs finish up.

I ended up rubbing both legs with Dizzy Pig Swamp Venom, but mopping one (mine) with the Hot Bone Suckin' Sauce and the other with Sweet Baby Ray's. it might have a bite from the swamp venom, but our 8 year old should be able to handle it since it was diluted with the sweet sauce.

henapple

Nice...

NautiRogue

Legs are done! The moment of truth is upon us!

Mattman3969

Job well done.

NautiRogue

HUGE FAIL. 

Not because of the recipe, but the meat was just not done.  I had probes in all three pieces of meat, but the CyberQ was reading things completely strangely.  The breast went from 111 degrees to 170 and higher in 3 minutes. I reset the placement of the probe probably 10 times over the next 30 to 45 minutes and it continued to read from a reasonable temp to overdone.  I decided to leave the breast on until the legs were reading almost done...  But the legs started displaying the same wild temps.

You see the pics. They look done.  I decided to err on the side of caution.  

I chose poorly.

Has anyone else had these kind of wild temperature readings from a temperature controller?  What was I doing wrong?  I just thought that I had the probe against a bone or just poorly placed, so I kept moving the probes, but I kept getting similar results.  The controller was telling me that the meat was done. I decided to trust it. Why was I/it wrong?

NautiRogue

And while most of our clan thought the meat was an utter failure, our youngest turned into a little caveman and loved every bite!

 

 

rholt

Nice that the little guy liked them. I use a maverick and a thermapen to double check just those types of situations.

CoolBees

I have experienced same problem with digital temperature probes, notably the Green Egg "Maverick" dual unit.  Turns out the leads on TC are not rated to handle the high temperature range on the Egg and wil show erroneous readings when damaged. Couple of suggestions from others - only use for low temperature cooks , wrap the section of TC wire lead inside the Egg with foil and position over one of the placesetter legs so it is not exposed to direct or radaint heat. 

Ragtop99

sorry to hear to about the results.  I use my Thermapen to confirm the readings from my maverick and to test several spots before I pull it from the grill.

Skiddymarker

Ragtop99 said:

sorry to hear to about the results.  I use my Thermapen to confirm the readings from my maverick and to test several spots before I pull it from the grill.

The only sure way. I find the Mav food probe is pretty good for a butt, loin roast, rib roast etc... some chunk of meat that is large enough to bury most of the the probe in. For turkey and chicken breasts, the readings are not so accurate, the Thermapen is always used for confirmation. 

NautiRogue

Yep.  Good advice.  The Thermapen is already on order!