Butterball Boneless Turkey Roast Advice/Experience?

[nptwnsmkr]

I was asked yesterday to smoke several Butterball Boneless Turkey Roast for Thanksgiving this year and am looking for any advice or past experience any of you might have. Up until I was asked I had never heard of them (never looked for them either) but am up to the challenge. These are, from best I can tell, a combination of white and dark meat "mashed" together in a netting weighing approximately 3lbs each. I looked in the search engine and found only a few post from several years ago that didn't have that much info. My plan is to treat the prep as I would a whole turkey, season with rub and possibly inject with creole, garlic butter or something similar. My plan on the smoke is a combination of a little hickory and cherry chunks with KBB at 225-250 until it hits 160-165 on a 18.5 WSM. Once it hits the desired IT double wrap with foil, wrap with a towel and hold in a cooler as you would shoulder or brisket- I need it to hold for 2-3hrs and that's why I might pull at 160ish. So here's were I need some help/advice...approximately how long do these take? My initial thought is they would cook more like a pork loin regarding time, around 2-3hrs. I realize it's a different animal, birds and pigs cook differently but don't know what else to compare it to. Is that temp too low? I usually do whole birds around 275 and take 4-6hrs depending on size. Will it dry out with higher temps considering there is no skin? Some of what I could find said leaving the netting on could be a PITA to remove once smoked. Some suggested wrapping with bacon but I think this will hinder any smoke penetration, trying to smoke the turkey not bacon. One thought I have is to remove the netting and insert wood skewers to hold it together. I wanted to do a test run this weekend but it is supposed to be rainy tomorrow and windy Sunday with highs in the 40's, I am also limited with time. Any advice or past experiences with these is greatly appreciated!!

 

[drewed]

Checking the Butterball website, they recommend using a crock pot and cooking it for like 9 hours!  It should cook like a very dense roast, so I would go on the lighter side of smoke, if you are going to run smoke the full time.  I'd head for more cherry and pecan over the hickory as that much hick could be too much.  However hickory is my favorite smoking wood, so I would toss in a chuck or two....

I wouldn't remove the net pre-smoke, you will end up with a plate full of meat chunks, like a lot of chunks.

 

[nptwnsmkr]

 
Checking the Butterball website, they recommend using a crock pot and cooking it for like 9 hours!  It should cook like a very dense roast, so I would go on the lighter side of smoke, if you are going to run smoke the full time.  I'd head for more cherry and pecan over the hickory as that much hick could be too much.  However hickory is my favorite smoking wood, so I would toss in a chuck or two....

I wouldn't remove the net pre-smoke, you will end up with a plate full of meat chunks, like a lot of chunks.

I checked the website as well, they also suggest an IT of 180 I believe. I agree with the hickory, always throw a small chunk maybe two mixed with the cherry when doing a bird since its usually not a very long smoke and poultry takes smoke well.

 

[nptwnsmkr]

I had every intent to take photos of this smoke rub to plate but I only managed to get one of them rubbed and ready to go in.

image.jpeg

• nptwnsmkr
• Nov 25, 2016

Here's my experience with these.
3-Butterball white and dark meat mix 3lbs each
3- Private Select all white meat 2.5lbs each
All rubbed with Jeffs rub around 9am. Set up the WSM and fired up about 15 kbb's in the chimney using the center out minion method. Smoker set in at 250 with TBS and put the roast in at 10:45. The smoker ran between 250-270 for 5hrs. The Butterball roast hit 165 in this time but the PS sat at 145 for almost 2hrs. We were supposed to be at my cousins by 4pm to eat by 5. I wrapped all the roast in foil and placed them in the cooler with towels. We finished the PS roast in the oven when we arrived, we didn't have to drive far. The verdict- everyone loved them and said it was the moistest, flavorful turkey they've had in a long time. I was surprised they took so long being a small 2.5-3lb roast. I thought they'd take a max 4hrs and was worried they would be done in under 3hrs. As you can see I was in a pinch for time and didn't get to take any other photos. I will probably do these again if I see them on sale, thinking more slicing for lunch meat unless I'm asked to do for next years Thanksgiving. Hope my experience with these helps anyone else considering giving them a try.

 

[donegotfat]

I too was surprised at how long my boneless breast took. I picked up a Butterball that was exactly as those looked.

I was shocked mine took 5 hours to cook when comparing it to the size of a pork butt that was larger and done in similar time frame.

They sound like they turned out great. Looks like you had a very busy day yesterday, welcome to today

 

[thom emery]

I am going to do 24 of em on Thanksgiving
5 hours wow didn’t expect that
Tomorrow I’ll do a test cook at 300 degrees just to get a feel for it