Boneless Turkey breast

KGilma2018 · November 2018

My mother gave me a whole purdue 10lbs boneless breast. It's white and dark meat with skin. She said its what county school system uses when they do their turkey dinners in the cafeteria. My plan is to smoke it Saturday for my wifes "Friendsgiving" party. Currently it is thawing in the fridge. I plan on doing a simple brine Thursday night or Friday morning. I have a cajun injector creole butter in the closet too. Should I brine and inject or just brine it and season it? 350 for a few hours, until 160*?

okie · November 2018

I just did a 9 pounder yesterday. I simply dry brined it overnight, and then a light coat of olive oil and seasoned it. Everyone said it was great. Cooked at 230-250 and it took about 4 hours or so-about 30 minutes a pound. I spent very little time or effort preparing it.

chrisc133 · November 2018

I did a small boneless all white meat turkey breast roast on Thanksgiving. It was a ButterBall and was injected full of the salt solution. I just gave it some dry rub right before throwing it on the egg...came out perfectly juicy and no risk of over salting it with the brine.

Foghorn · November 2018

It it's "pre-brined" as most are - water and salt added - then you definitely don't need to brine.

As for injecting, that's a different issue. If you want to add some particular flavor to the meat (melted butter steeped in fresh herbs with some rub added is one I saw recently for a great turkey recipe) then do it. If not, then don't.

When I cook ribs, I ask "who am I cooking for?". One of my rib recipes is based on a competition recipe that involves margarine, brown sugar, and other steps. They come out tasting great - but not really like classic pork rib meat... more fancy and sweet. Some times I just want some dry rubbed ribs.

So, try it one way this time. Do it another way the next.

I will warn you that once you get your audience used to a fancier recipe it can be difficult to go back to just throwing on some rub and throwing it on the grill.

KGilma2018 · November 2018

Ok, Guess I need to read the label and see if its "pre-brined". That would definetly save me some time.

jtcBoynton · November 2018

Don't think it will take hours at 350º. A breast with both dark and white meat? How do they do that? Might be worth carefully checking what you actually have. I think its their food service product which is breast meat with a solution of salt and sugar already injected. Don't think you want to brine or inject with a sugar based injection.

Teefus · November 2018

If it’s fresh do a simple salt and brown sugar brine. If it’s processed (pre brined) do nothing but cook it.

KGilma2018 · November 2018

jtcBoynton said:

Don't think it will take hours at 350º. A breast with both dark and white meat? How do they do that? Might be worth carefully checking what you actually have. I think its their food service product which is breast meat with a solution of salt and sugar already injected. Don't think you want to brine or inject with and sugar based injection.

Its the food service product from GFS.