Boneless Skinless Breasts, Heavy Q View

I am always trying to find new ways to smoke boneless skinless breasts without drying them out.  I had a family pack sitting in the fridge and was inspired by a post from SmokinVegasBaby last night.  First, I removed all the tenders and butterflied three of them.  The other two I filleted in half to be used for the grill.  I then put them in a brine of 1/2 gallon of cranberry juice cocktail and 1/2 cup kosher salt and let it sit in the fridge for about 3 hours.  Two of the butterflied breasts I opened up and spread butter all over the inside (thanks Smokinvegasbaby).  I then rubbed the outside with evoo and jerk seasoning.

Now this is where I got creative and ended up scoring big.  I sautéed mushrooms in butter, basil, and garlic and let them cool.  I took the third butterflied breast and pounded it flat inside of a ziplock bag.  I then filled the breast with Cento tomato sauce, taco cheese, the mushrooms, another layer of sauce and another layer of cheese.  I then rolled it up jelly roll style and pinned it together with toothpicks.  Prior to placing it in the smoker, I flash fried it on the stove in some oil to slightly harden them chicken.  My thinking was it may prevent a blow out.  Don't know till you try.

While this was going on, I got my Weber Kettle set with charcoal and Hickory and settled the heat to 250°.  I then put the jerk chicken and the stuffed chicken on.

 

First problem, the digital thermometer I was using for the stuffed chicken took a dump on me, so I just estimated the time.  Once the jerk chicken was at 140°, I removed the stuffed chicken and let it cool.  While it was cooling, I set my oven to 400° and prepared some pastry dough by rolling it flat and brushing it with egg yolk.  I then wrapped the stuffed chicken with the pastry dough, put three slits on the top, brushed again with egg yolk and popped it in the oven.

20 Minutes later, it was done and resting on my counter.

I let that cool off for a little bit and fried up the tenders on the stove in a tomato, mushroom sauce.  At the same time I placed the other breasts on the grill.  While checking on the jerk chicken and the tenders, I totally forgot about the grilled chicken and ended up with 4 pieces of chicken charcoal, oh well.  The trash can ate them.  After about three hours, I pulled the jerk chicken at 162° and let them rest under foil.

And now for the money shots.

The jerk chicken was very juicy and tender.  The brine and the butter helped immensely.  As for the stuffed breast with the pastry dough, it was definitely the hit of the night.  It disappeared as fast as I cut it and I already have several requests to make it again.  It is definitely my favorite way of smoking boneless skinless breasts so far.  Thanks for reading.

 

Thank you S2K9K!