turkey breasts

[bossdogg]

I have recently put myself on a diet. fortunately I have been doing fine. I was standing at the deli counter the other day ordering a half lb of turkey breast and got to thinking about myself man this is stupid you could be smoking your own turkey breast and make it taste good. now I have done a few things so far but never poultry on a smoker. we did do two turkeys over a spit on an open campfire at campouts and we used this recipe http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/turkey6.html here are my thoughts. since PA is getting dumped on with snow I figured saturday will probably be spent inside the house doing absolutely nothing but watching tv playing on the net. I was going to go to the cabin but theres no way I can make it up there.

so I figured what better way to make a day go faster then to cook. I was thinking about making a brine that is in the above link. soak the breasts and then smoke till done. problem is I do not know what done is with a turkey. we always cooked till the leg bone was twisting out of the joint with the whole bird. so what temp should I run these turkey breasts to before it is finished. would a rub be in place here also? what wood will work for turkey?

 

[mr mac]

If you smoke at about 240-250* then you can be safe pulling it out of the smoker at 165* internal and allow to rest and maybe even cool before slicing.

 

[bossdogg]

what would be the general amount of time it might take till it is done. I have plenty of time in the world just wondering time frame. might end up getting the quad out and playing this weekend a bit at a buddys house.

 

[nwdave]

I went to your link by virtualweber. Down at the bottom is a link about boneless, skinless turkey breasts. You might find your answers there. Very interesting btw.

 

[bossdogg]

doh to me. I jumped the gun. one more question. I got to looking at different woods for smoking. I live in the country and have a black cherry tree that will probably get hacked down this year that will be used for smoking but I was looking at a thread that said grapevines work well. I can go to the mountian ground I hunt and get all the grapevines I want. is there something I am looking for with them as to how dry they need to be? has anyone used grapevine?

 

[mr mac]

Many moons ago when I lived in the San Joaquin Valley of California we had a smoke that used old vines. As memory serves me it was pretty darned good. A fairly mild flavor. Should work well for you along with your cherry.

 

[tom in nc]

I followed that recipe on virtualweberbullet for bonless skinless turkey breasts last fall and it turned out ok. I used hickory instead of apple or cherry as like the recipe says and I used to many chunks of wood. All I tasted was hickory smoke - it was too much. My bad...

I'm going to give it another try this weekend with cherry wood and I'm only going to use a two chunks max. Hopefully I'll be able to taste some turkey with my smoke.

 

[cheech]

Sorry to hijack but I also "Many moons ago when I lived in the San Joaquin Valley of California" I grew up in Ripon. Did you grow up near by?