Rubber turkey breast?

[jr.s]

Got a new pellet smoker, upgrading from my MES. Tried a couple of skinless turkey breasts today, something I've made DOZENS of in my MES and they turn out awesome. In the pellet smoker at 250-275 degrees for 3 hours up to 165 internal. Light smoke ring, with almost no smoke flavor. I think I can fix that with an A-maz-n item. Juicy, which was nice. The problem? I could have used the outside of both breasts for a spare tire on my Jeep! The outside was almost too rubbery to eat. Any ideas why? I noticed a couple hours in, that they looked that way and tried spraying with some chicken broth, but it didn't help. Why am I seeing this with the pellet smoker, when I never see with the MES?

 

[fivetricks]

For lack of a better term, your MES was an oven, whereas your new pellet grill is a convection oven.

The rule of thumb when comparing the two is that you're supposed to subtract 25 degrees when using convection or subtract 25 % of the cook time. Don't quote on that second one, but it's close.

 

[jr.s]

For lack of a better term, your MES was an oven, whereas your new pellet grill is a convection oven.

The rule of thumb when comparing the two is that you're supposed to subtract 25 degrees when using convection or subtract 25 % of the cook time. Don't quote on that second one, but it's close.

So I should cook at a lower temp in the pellet smoker? Dang, I was going to go higher to finish quicker. As far as time, I don't pay much attention to that....just get the internal to 165.

 

[bregent]

Skinless poultry does not work too well in a pellet grill (or a convection oven). The high airflow tends to dry out the surface of the meat. Fatty cuts don't suffer much, but lean poultry does. Cook all poultry skin on and remove after cooking if you don't want to eat it. Or, try coating the surface with melted butter or other fat and baste a few times during the cook.

 

[sandyut]

what bregent said. wrap them, in bacon next time :)

 

[jcam222]

I second the bacon :) all’s better with bacon