Turkey breast

API-1966

I am a new BGE owner (4 mos) absolutley love it! I have been cooking on it 2 to 3 times a week...my wife says I am addicted! I want to cook a turkey breast today to kinda have a trial run before I attempt the Thankgivig turkey. Does anyone have suggestions on cooking time, temp, and pros & cons of injectable seasonings? This would be my first poultry dish; so I am entering uncharted waters.

Richard Fl

I like this recipe. I do not brine 'cause most have been injected with something.

Turkey, Breast, Richard Fl


INGREDIENTS:
1 6 1/2 Lbs Turkey Breast, Bone In
Seasoning/Rub
2 Tbs Lawry's Chicken & Poultry Seasoning
2 Tbs Paprika, Spanish
2 Tbs Tone's Garlic & Herb Seasoning
Basting
3 Tbs Crushed Garlic
3-4 Ozs Butter




Preparation
1 Sprinkled the rub over and inside the skin and let set for 30 minutes
Cooking
1 Placed in large BGE, 350°F W/Plate Setter inverted, drip pan with 1 quart water, "V" rack. Placed bird in BGE W/aluminum foil to protect breast. Removed the foil last hour.
2 Allowed temperature to drop to 300°F and left alone for an hour. Basted after first hour W/Butter/ garlic mixture, continued to baste each half hour for a total cook time of 3 hours. The temperature varied from 275°F-300°F. Pulled @ 168°F internal. Total cooking time 3 hours.
3 Allowed to sit 45 minutes wrapped in foil. EGGcelent. Leftovers are going to become Eggchiladas W/red sauce.


Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 3 hours
Ready in: 4 hours

Recipe Type
Main Dish, Poultry

Recipe Source
Source: BGE Forum, Richard Fl, 2007/04/15

05/22/07-Did another tonight- Only took 2 hours between 275F & 325F. Basted W/Italian Salad Dressing after the first hour. Temp for meat got to 170F and pulled after 2 hours. Used pecan chips for smoke, not soaked. covered with foil whole cook so as not to burn skin. Left the drip pan out of this cook, perhaps that is the reason for the shorter cook time.

thirdeye

I'm a briner, but you don't have time to work with that idea.....Injections are a great way to get flavors deeper, be sure and mix the solution you use very well and inject evenly and in several places. I have had some "streaking" issues with some injections. This does not affect the flavor, only the appearance.

Something else you may want to explore is seasoning under the skin. Just be careful pulling it back, then use a dry rub, and or herbs, maybe some garlic butter, etc. Replace the skin and pin it in place with a couple of toothpicks. then season the outside.

I coook the breast until it just passes 158° and remove it for resting. Within 10 minutes it will rise to the recommended internal temp of 165°. I allow 2-1/2 or 3 hours. Just watch the internal and adjust the pit temp to match your sit down time. If you get too much color on the skin, just use a foil tent.

Rick's Tropical Delight

i recommend carving the breast like this:









*no brine, no inject, no pulling back the skin, nuthin but turkey... old skool turkey *

thirdeye

I saw that one commin'...... Are you ready for Eggor's Turkey? I think it's close enough to Thanksgiving to show it..... (or them).

Rick's Tropical Delight

:P

EggZona

Maybe this is off topic since this thread is talking about "Thanksgiving" turkey which to most people tends to be a visualizaton of a pale white turkey.

To tell you the truth, I really don't like Turkey. My wife and kids eat it like it is going out of style. Daily school lunches of Turkey sandwitches prepared with turkey sliced from the Deli.

I have spent 10 years prepareing T-Day Turkey on my Weber Kettle outfitted with the Rotiserie attachment. It is good. It is the best that I know of. As a result, Thanksgiving has been at my house for 7 years and includes some 30 attendes. My Father-in-Law named them "Turkeys from Heaven" I have had to expand to 2 Webers to keep up.

Interesting is that for about the first 3 years is that someone would still prepare an oven Turkey just in case I screwed it up some how. Which I never did. The oven Turkey would sit along side my Roteserie Turkey with only a few cuts on it while my Roeserie would be picked to the bone. Leftovers for guests to take home were from the oven turkey as there was nothing left of mine. They contine to do this to this day. However, it's purpose is only for the gravy. (This year I will be doing 4 Turkeys- 2 Rotiserie, 2 BGE style, 1 as listed here, and 1 Mad Max Style) My Rotiserie Turkey tends to get a lot of lump in the drip pan along with the apples, celery and wine that I use which created a strong and wild flavor that just didn't work in the gravy.

I think that part of the the magic of this was the fact that I use Mesquite on these cooks. I would use the Weber indirect method and charcoal briquettes but with lump Mesquite mixed in. While I brined it one year and injected it every year, I think it is the Mesquite that made the difference. Last year I did the same, injected a Butterball turkey with Cajun Injectors Butter Garlic and treated the outside with John Henrys Mohave Garlic seasoning. Again, it was very good. People rave about it. I liked it too and in my books it was a Turkey better than all others. However, it was still not quite there.

Enter the BGE! Last weekend were were having a garage sale and I wanted to see if I could save the family some $$$ by making our own "Deli Style" Turkey lunch meat.

I purchased a 7# Jennie-0 Double Basted Turkey Breast. Not boneless, with the Ribs. I simply rinsed it, patted it dry, and applied Chef Paul Prudhomes's "Fajita Magic" Seasoning Blend which came from my local grocery store in an attempt to duplicate the flavor of Boar's Head "Mesquite Turkey" from the Deli.

I used a plate setter leg's up, put the breast on a V-Rack, fired the BGE with lump Mesquite and stabalized the BGE at about 325. Right before I put on the Breast I threw in some soaked Mesquite chunks. It was done in about 2 hours. Matter of fact, I went out to check it and it was 185. It was done much faster then I eggpected. (I better check the dome thermometer) I was not prepared as the yard sale was still going so I put it in the oven to rest for about and hour. I assumed that I had ruined it anyway.

Breast was still very warm when I got to it and I had to let it rest on the counter for another 15 minutes or so so that I could handle it. I sliced it as thin as I could by hand for the sandwiches.

Now I like Turkey! It was the most moist Turkey I had ever prepared. My daughters were going nuts over it and I ended up thick slicing some of it and we had Turkey for dinner!

One of the things that I do different with my Chickens, and with this Turkey, is to not use a drip pan. I have not seen many people mention this. I let the juices fall directly on the plate setter. The plate setter is very hot and you can hear the constant sizzle of the dripping landing on it. It makes a mess but it just scrapes right off with my Ash tool if you clean it while it is still warm.

I don't know if anyone uses this non-drip pan method but I am prone to thinking that it contibutes significantly to the moisture content of the cook. It is not as pure as say using a BDS and letting the juices drip into the coals but it is somewhere inbetween. As a result, there is a thick layer of fat residue in and outside my daisy wheel. After cool down the wheel is stuck and you can't easily slide it open.

My point here is that if you and your guests can handle it, think "outside" the box about your Thanksgiving turkey just as much as you would on creating Ribs. It is so much better than that pale white, mildly seasoned Turkey! If you can't bring yourself to do it on T-day, then at least prepare your turkey this way on non-T-day cooks. Or cook 2!

Geez, with posts as long as this one, I will never make it to be a platinum egger! Maybe I should get a blog?

thirdeye

Weber kettles are one of the best chicken cookers there are. I bet those rotisserie turkeys are great.

API-1966

Thanks for all the help from everyone who relpied...I am putting the breast on and will let you know how it comes out. Here is my plan: lightly covered with vegetable oil, sprinkled a little Tony's C's Creole seasoning on it and will lightly inject it with the same, will cook at 275 to 300 degrees until reaches internal temp. of 170. I kinda like a "classic bird" but my wife and kids want a little kick! I tried to get my wife to let me do a "sexy bird" but that got vetoed! Here goes nothing!

Rick's Tropical Delight

i pull breasts at 160, or even 157