An Alternative to the Usual Approach to Turkey (SV with Egg finish)

JohnInCarolina

A few years ago we had a large group over (like 25+) to our house for Thanksgiving, and we were worried with the bird that we'd have enough turkey.  So the wife procured some skin-on, boneless breasts, and because my BGE was largely occupied, I chose to do them SV.

There are many SV approaches out there for turkey, but I followed this one and I like the way it turns out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFziRPPnWdI

The guy in the video is kind of goofy, so if you don't want to bother watching the basic approach is to treat the breasts with S&P, drop them in the bag with a couple pads of butter and some aromatics (thyme and a little sage), and SV them at 145 for 3 hours.  I've never tried the cranberry sauce he makes on the side but that looks pretty good too.  

After the SV I flash cool them, and about an hour before meal time I'll get the BGE fired up and finish them hot and fast (direct) on the BGE just to get some color on the outside.  They take at most an hour - I don't heat them to temp (they're already cooked) so I'm just going by color and appearance.  

These turn out surprisingly well.  To my embarrassment when we first did them, the SV'd breast was miles better than what came off the whole bird on the BGE.  That was likely user error but the nice part about the SV approach is that you really can't screw it up.  The turkey comes out incredibly moist and you do still get some smoke flavor.   I'll be doing this tomorrow as we only have four adults and we just didn't feel like bothering with the whole bird.  

The Cen-Tex Smoker

We are doing SV roulade breast this year. We love it.

Sheldon_Nigel

We are having about 65 people over this year, downsized due to COVID.  Planing Turkey and ham, but might add this to have more turkey available.  Thank you for sharing.

JohnInCarolina

Sheldon_Nigel said:

We are having about 65 people over this year, downsized due to COVID.  Planing Turkey and ham, but might add this to have more turkey available.  Thank you for sharing.

Whoa!  That's a huge group.  What would it be during regular times?

Sheldon_Nigel

JohnInCarolina said:

Sheldon_Nigel said:

We are having about 65 people over this year, downsized due to COVID.  Planing Turkey and ham, but might add this to have more turkey available.  Thank you for sharing.

Whoa!  That's a huge group.  What would it be during regular times?

Probably 67 or 68.



I jest, I jest.  Just 10 people total this year.  All people we are around daily.  No family unfortunately, but I would prefer to have my grandmother around for years to come.

JohnInCarolina

Sheldon_Nigel said:

JohnInCarolina said:

Sheldon_Nigel said:

We are having about 65 people over this year, downsized due to COVID.  Planing Turkey and ham, but might add this to have more turkey available.  Thank you for sharing.

Whoa!  That's a huge group.  What would it be during regular times?

Probably 67 or 68.



I jest, I jest.  Just 10 people total this year.  All people we are around daily.  No family unfortunately, but I would prefer to have my grandmother around for years to come.

That's a relief.   

thetrim

@Sheldon_Nigel hope you‘re not in CA, NY, or IL.  You‘ll be going to jail for that many people.  

Canugghead

My favourite, done it few times https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/crown-and-roulade-the-chefsteps-turkey