Do I dare inject the birds after they are already cooked?? Need your input.

[rbranstner]

I have 9 turkeys in a brine that are going onto my smoker today which will be given to several different people and they will reheat it on Thanksgiving day. They will place the bird in a pan with a rack and add some broth to the bottom and cover in foil which will hopefully keep the bird nice and juicy. My question is do I dare inject the birds today after they are smoked and cooled to give the bird some extra moisture when heating up on Thanksgiving day? My only concern is once I start injecting the bird after it is cooked and cooled I am going to let out some of the natural juices that are already in the bird with all of my needle holes. I would like to give it some extra moisture for when they reheat. I figured a nice mixture of butter and chicken broth would be nice. What are you thoughts? Man its almost time to get these birds in the smoker. I better get rolling.

 

[eman]

Never have done an after cook injection.

IMO , If you let the birds rest and the natural juices redistribute then inject ,You shouldn't lose any moisture. I  don't know what to inject with.

 I would think that butter would set up when cool and then cause a very oily spot when reheated. Maybe just defatted ,low sodium chicken broth???

 

[mballi3011]

I'm with Bob on this one and WHY would you inject after you smoke the bird. I think that it would make puddles of the injection in the meat. Now it will be juicy anyway there Rbrans.

 

[rbranstner]

I don't know if i need to inject after they are cooked or not. They will be reheating these on Thanksgiving so I wanted as much juice as possible in them. Maybe I will just forget about it and see how they turn out and if they are a bit dry then next year I will modify them.