What kind of turkey breast do I want?

[burly]

I have a couple questions for you guys about turkey breasts. I have been wanting to smoke smoke one for thanksgiving for a couple year and have been looking for boneless fresh breasts but can't seem to find them at the local stores in the past. Is this even necessary? Or can I buy either a whole turkey or turkey that comes without the legs and wings and either cut the breasts off and smoke them or smoke the whole thing? Or am I making it to complicated and just buy a Butterball turkey roast or loaf and smoke that?

Also, from what I gather most of you guys brine a turkey even if it comes already pre brined in a solution?

Thanks for the help

 

[tallbm]

I have a couple questions for you guys about turkey breasts. I have been wanting to smoke smoke one for thanksgiving for a couple year and have been looking for boneless fresh breasts but can't seem to find them at the local stores in the past. Is this even necessary? Or can I buy either a whole turkey or turkey that comes without the legs and wings and either cut the breasts off and smoke them or smoke the whole thing? Or am I making it to complicated and just buy a Butterball turkey roast or loaf and smoke that?

Also, from what I gather most of you guys brine a turkey even if it comes already pre brined in a solution?

Thanks for the help

Hi there and welcome!

You can buy a whole turkey and basically cut off the bottom quaterters and wings. That's what the frozen bone in breast is at the store. You can buy that bone in breast version too and save the time of having to cut a bird in half and remove the wings.

If you are going to be cutting a turkey up I would just go ahead and debone the breast since you are already like halfway there.

Finally, I am one of those that brines no matter what BUT I do an Equilibrium brine so it basically nails it each time. I also inject that brine all over so it soaks it all up super fast rather than waiting many days
I would recommend adding Cure#1 if you are going to brine and want something new. The flavor is out of this world good and I always cure#1 + brine my turkeys now.

One plus of curing while you brine is that if you also do the drums and thighs you get that state fair/Disney flavor smoked drums and thighs. Hard to beat those.

You have all the options you want and can go any which way you like. I hope this info helps :)

 

[bauchjw]

I think it’s hard to beat that advice. I guess one of the factors would also be how many are you feeding? If it’s just you or you and one other that may change if it’s worth to do a whole bird broken down.

 

[Bigtank]

Check out wildforkfoods.com I get the boneless skin on netted breast and inject with Kosmos Q Chicken injection

 

[noboundaries]

I love to brine turkey, especially the white meat. And I always add a touch of cure #1. Not enough to cure the bird, just 1/2 to 1 tsp to a gallon of water. The slight hammy flavor drives people crazy. I'll be brining a bone-in turkey breast this TG.

Parting a turkey is easy if you learn on a chicken with a VERY sharp boning knife. Then you could have your boneless breast, if desired, and other parts to roast or smoke or soup when needed.

 

[DougE]

What kind of turkey breast do I want?​

Big honking ones, and I know that wasn't overly helpful. I usually do a whole spatchcock turkey and a boneless breast or two for the extra white meat.

 

[chopsaw]

I have a couple questions

Here's a thread on how I do mine . Might be something in there to answer a question or two .

Smoked Turkey breast

This came up in another thread about BBQ chains stores . I mentioned that a local place had great Turkey and it made me rethink the process . @SmokinVOLfan asked about it , so I figured I would write it out . Here's a thread on how I was doing them before I had the Turkey from Sugar fire BBQ ...

www.smokingmeatforums.com

 

[JLeonard]

Check out wildforkfoods.com I get the boneless skin on netted breast and inject with Kosmos Q Chicken injection

Do you smoke it in the net?
Jim

 

[burly]

Ok, thanks guys

 

[DougE]

Do you smoke it in the net?
Jim

For netted boneless turkey breasts, I smoke them netted. If you try to remove the netting prior to cooking, you end up with a mess.

 

[JckDanls 07]

boneless fresh breasts

I doubt you will find fresh breast... But there should be both (bone in and boneless) in the freezer section....

 

[negolien]

Yeah I usually go with bone in turkey breats myself because they are more forgiving to cook. I put bone side down and cook the shit outta it and flip towards the end to crisp up the skin. I got both the netted skin on turkey roast and a couple bone in turkey breasts from wildfork myself. You can usually find some jennie-o breasts in the frozen section. just take em out of the oven bags and grill em.

 

[sandyut]

By fresh do you mean like not frozen I assume. I feel that is a lost cause that costs a fortune with no gains.

I buy frozen whole breasts brine and splatcock them.

If you are concerned about prebasted, salt solutions, etc. forget all that. Any bird can be brined and will work just fine. Jeff's thanksgiving guild and anyone who has brined and smoked a "processed" turkey will agree. it wont oversalt - its not chemically possible.

 

[normanaj]

We're very lucky where I live as we have a turkey ranch right down the road so for me its a no-brainer for me as to where to get my turkey and parts.

Our local grocery stores always both bone in and boneless breasts this time of year.Mostly frozen but you'll find the occasional bin of fresh ones.

 

[burly]

I love to brine turkey, especially the white meat. And I always add a touch of cure #1. Not enough to cure the bird, just 1/2 to 1 tsp to a gallon of water. The slight hammy flavor drives people crazy. I'll be brining a bone-in turkey breast this TG.

Parting a turkey is easy if you learn on a chicken with a VERY sharp boning knife. Then you could have your boneless breast, if desired, and other parts to roast or smoke or soup when needed.

I'm planning on using Kosmos brine. I can add just a touch of Cure #1 to that as well?

 

[Bigtank]

Do you smoke it in the net?
Jim

Yes, I let them rest 15 min or more then I cut the net peel it off and then slice it.

 

[DougE]

Do you smoke it in the net?
Jim

For netted turkey breast, or other meats that come netted, yeah, I smoke them netted and remove it after the smoke.

 

[noboundaries]

I'm planning on using Kosmos brine. I can add just a touch of Cure #1 to that as well?

I have no experience with Kosmos brine, but I looked up the ingredients and it should be fine to add 1/2 tsp cure #1 to the gallon of water.

 

[Smoke-Chem BBQ]

Jeff's thanksgiving guild and anyone who has brined and smoked a "processed" turkey will agree. it wont oversalt - its not chemically possible.

It's very possible to use a commercial rub and injection on a 'processed' turkey and end up with a very over salted turkey. I posted about it here somewhere. In that case, I was concerned about the salt and skipped the brine step entirely, but it was still far too salty.

 

[tallbm]

It's very possible to use a commercial rub and injection on a 'processed' turkey and end up with a very over salted turkey. I posted about it here somewhere. In that case, I was concerned about the salt and skipped the brine step entirely, but it was still far too salty.

Yeah injection is a crap shoot until you figure out how much for what sized birds.

I always rock a 1.65% Salt equilibrium brine with cure#1 and inject the liquid all over into the bird.
This always comes out perfect, no matter if it sits for 24 hours or 5 days. It can never get too salty due to the calculated 1.65% across the meat + water weight :)

Takes all the guesswork out and makes it dead on repeatable and possible to nail no matter the size of the bird or the amount of water needed :)