Looking for ideas for boneless/skinless turkey breasts

NDKoze

NDKoze

Moderator
I only see two threads on this, so I thought I would start a new thread to get some ideas.

I have a bag of frozen boneless/skinless turkey breast that my brother-in-law bought from some local Hutterites unthawing in the fridge. I'm not even sure how many there are. I'm guessing 4-5 based on the size of the package.

I'm going to smoke 1 all the way for me and my family, but only smoke the rest for a couple of hours and then vacuum seal and give them back to my BIL where he can finish in the oven for their fmily.

I know I would rather have skin and bone on, but this is how they came.

I'm definitely planning on brining, but looking for ideas on how to prevent drying them out during the smoking process. I see the other posts mentioned wrapping in bacon which I am not opposed to.

Smoke to 160 or 165?

So, let the ideas start flowing in please.
 
You can Grind them with some garlic, fresh basil and a little fat-back, stuff in a 42-44 and fire up the grill. Sorry if that doesn't help, I'm just not a fan of white meat poultry.
 
Pork Belly said:
You can Grind them with some garlic, fresh basil and a little fat-back, stuff in a 42-44 and fire up the grill. Sorry if that doesn't help, I'm just not a fan of white meat poultry.
Click to expand...

I'm not a fan of white meat poultry either. Wild turkey and goose are a lot more my style.

Turkey sausage is a thought, but I'm gonna take the challenge and try to smoke these bad boys.
 
Greg, I would pull the breasts you do for your BIL at 140 so it takes all the smoke and then have him cook to 165. You will have to be careful to make sure that you don't grow anything undesired since you are not cooking right away so definitely go from smoker to fridge on those.

For yours, I would wrap in bacon or something else, caul fat (?), to keep moisture in. You are already brining them so that is good. Bacon is a good alternative too. The Simon and Garfunkel rub that i had on an earlier turkey post might make a good rub and I think the oil helps hold the moisture in.

Let us know how it turns out.
 
After considering this a little more....

How about a 2 day swim in your bacon brine then a long slow heavy smoke. Fully coll then slice on the slicer. That should be pretty decent deli meat.
 
I like Brian's idea about the deli meat method, if you're looking for sliced smoked sandwich turkey (I may give this one a try).

If you want breasts just to eat whole, give them a 3-4 hour brine, coat in olive oil and seasoning rub of your choice, wrap in thin-sliced bacon and smoke @ 225 until 165 IT. 
 
Pork Belly said:
After considering this a little more....

How about a 2 day swim in your bacon brine then a long slow heavy smoke. Fully coll then slice on the slicer. That should be pretty decent deli meat.
Click to expand...

This sounds like an interesting idea.

What kind of time, temp, ounces of wood would you go with?
 
Weather permitting you should be able to cold smoke 100 or below pretty easily. I would think three hours cold then bumped up to 175 to finish at IT of 160. That should take another couple of hours. Cool them down and chill thoroughly for a day before attempting to slice. I would go with at least 4 oz. possibly 2 oz chips to start then a 2 oz block that should start up when you bump the temp. Load the chips in the back of the box and the block more towards the middle.
 
Brian, I know we commonly low-temp smoke cured pork like you suggest.  Cold smoking uncured poultry for 3 hours at 100º seems a little scary, to me.  Do you think there would be a food-safety issue leaving uncured poultry sitting at 100º for 3 hours?  Seems like it would be a prime place for salmonella to grow, but I could be wrong.  What do you think?
 
Wouldn't the bacon brine have cured the turkey.

FYI, I finally got the breasts unthawed all the way last night and to my dismay, they had cut the breasts all up into large chicken breast sizes.

I'm kind of thinking of using the Canadian Bacon brine. It would then be Canadian Turkey Bacon. ;)

What do you guys think of that?
 
Gregg, I think if your brine includes pink salt, you'll be OK on the low heat smoke.  I just wasn't sure what you were going for.  I bet the CB brine, on turkey, might be pretty tasty! 8)
 
Bacon Brine would include pick curing salt so no problem on the low temp. You can still proceed with he smaller chunks,  you will just have better smoke penetration. A sweet smoky chunk of turkey on a soft pretzel roll would make a good sandwich. Look at it this way you wont have to dirty the slicer.
 
Yeah, I like this idea.

These smaller chunks will be easy to slice with a carving knife. I didn't have time to put them in the brine tonight. But they will start their swim tomorrow night.

I'll start a new thread for this in the Bacon section tomorrow to document how this goes.
 
I am not sure of the thickness, likely 6 to 8 hours to get the cure all the way in? I did a whole turkey including curing salt for 12 hours. I would cut back on the salt so it tastes like seawater then add your curing salt. That way you get the necessary nitrates but not a huge blast of sodium.
 
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