Thanksgiving or not—cooking a smoked turkey breast and serving with copious amounts of side dishes is a big enough meal to make anyone thankful. Brine the turkey breast for 6 hours. The New York Times food writer Harold McGee says he doesn't brine, because "the collateral damage it does outweighs its advantages. Don’t … The Brine Combine all of your ingredients in a large pot. With the second, we took a popular turkey brine recipe from the Food Network and brined it overnight and then added the identical rub prior to cooking. The theory is that the meat ends up juicier and moister that way. Over brining can cause the cells to break down, so don’t brine for too long. Use about 1/4 of the salt inside the cavities of the bird, and the rest over the entire turkey, working salt under the skin on the breast and thighs as much as possible. https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/85839/out-of-this-world-turkey-brine Smoked turkey breast is quicker to cook than a full turkey and great for meals year-round! Should You Brine or Pre-Salt Your Turkey? For easier mixing, boil the liquids ahead of time and dissolve in the salt and sugar while still hot with … You may or may not use the entirety depending upon the size of your turkey. For added flavor, add a few tablespoons of the dry rub mixture you plan to use for the turkey later on. Brining, or soaking meat in a salt-water solution, uses the power of osmosis to force the turkey or other meat to draw up water into itself. Then carve it, serve it, and wait for someone to toast the chef. To wet brine turkey, combine salt and water (and other optional flavoring ingredients, like honey or molasses, soy sauce, herbs, apple cider and more) and submerge your turkey in the solution. But not all foodies are brine believers. Only you can decide. Cover it and allow it to brine for at least … Smoke the breast at … Not sure why because it tastes so dang good! Use about 1/4 of the salt inside the cavities of the bird, and the rest over the entire turkey, working salt under the skin on the breast and thighs as much as possible. Finally, place your wild turkey breast in the brining solution and add a couple of cups of cold water, or just enough to cover the entire piece of turkey breast. Place some of the dry brine mix just under the skin where possible, and rub the rest of the dry brine mix around the turkey and … That way it gives the bird 4 to 5 days for the salt to work through the cells. For smoking a turkey, we recommend buying a smaller bird (15 lbs or less). Why would you not want your butcher to brine your turkey? Looking for new dinner recipes? Let the turkey rest for 10 minutes before serving to let the juices redistribute. To get effects similar to brining, the pre-salting needs to be done, much like brining, well in advance. Yes, the bird is significantly juicier, but the juices released are largely coming from the water in the wet brine.It goes without saying that this is, well, not ideal, considering it’s pretty hard to make a banging gravy when you’re working with what is more or less tap water. The morning of, remove the turkey from the brine (over the sink to minimize any mess) and rinse it off completely, including inside the cavity. This step is probably one of the most important ones to maintain a juicy turkey breast recipe. Bring 4 cups of the water to a boil and add the salt, sugar, garlic, bay leaves, thyme, sage, rosemary … This will take about 2 hours per 1lb, or 6 hours for a 12 pound turkey. Season the exterior of the breast with the remaining bbq rub. Every year lots of articles come out about "how to brine a turkey" just in time for Thanksgiving. Alternatively, put the turkey and brine into a clean insulated cooler and weight with leak-proof bags of ice. In this case, a well-salted turkey holds onto its own natural juices, leading to a moist, flavorful bird. Taking your time and following close instructions will get you a warm and delicious meal but leaving your turkey on the smoker for too long can easily result in a flat, tasteless cut of meat. The un-brined (or is it non-brined?) Brine your turkey in a wet brine for 1 hour per pound of turkey. A 15 pound turkey would brine for 15 hours. Once thawed, pat the inside and the outside of the turkey. A large cooler works, but a trash bag doesn't. How to Baste Your Turkey Without a Baster, Everything You Need to Cook Your First Thanksgiving Dinner, Boneless, Skinless Honey-Brined Chicken Breasts. As Harold McGee, renowned food scientist and experimenter once claimed, "You'd be angry with your butcher if he did it." Roast your turkey as you see fit. The bird is big and needs to move the salt from the outside all the way through all of the cells. Remove turkey from brine, rinse thoroughly and pat dry. The low heat draws the moisture into the bird, not evaporate it out. The problem is that it is a fake juiciness. No matter what kind of bird, the mixture of convection roasting and wood fire flavor always seems to yield delicious, mouth watering dishes (crispy skin + moist, tender meat = whoa!). If the hassle of brining doesn't strike you as the be-all and end-all of turkey preparation, but you want that tasty, juicy goodness, there is an alternative called "dry brining," also known as "pre-salting." Change the ice as needed. Turkey breast is a deceptively easy item to cook. The pros are a well-seasoned and juicy bird. By soaking a turkey in a salt solution (yes, many brines also have sugar and spices, but without the salt you get nothing), the power of osmosis—where cells like to have similar water-salt balances—makes sure that the sodium in the brine gets infused throughout the turkey along with extra water. If using an oven, cook until the internal temp of the thigh is 165-170 F. Both turkeys turned out great! First, on the practical side, it can be tricky to brine a giant Thanksgiving turkey since it needs to be submerged in the liquid, so you need a food-grade container significantly larger than the turkey. Morton's salt has a great recipe I have followed closely and intend to do again this year. How To Make Smoked Turkey Breast. For this year’s upcoming Thanksgiving turkey, the team here at Memphis Wood Fire Grills did a side-by-side taste test with two identical birds, each prepared a bit differently. Get our free cookbook when you sign up for our newsletter. An award-winning food writer and cookbook author, Molly Watson has created more than 1,000 recipes focused on local, seasonal ingredients. • Brining takes time—up to 24 hours for a whole turkey. Dry-Brine Your (Defrosted) Turkey: To avoid over-salting, measure out 1/2 cup of kosher salt. If you take a look across our website you’ll see how proud we are of the Memphis’s ability to cook poultry like an all-star. Yes, dry brining can be done on a frozen turkey, but it won’t be that effective. A brine is a mixture of salt and water and brining a turkey in this solution will ensure a moist bird. That's right, the well-seasoned effects of brining can be obtained with a simple blanket of salt. And of course, we cooked our turkeys on one of our amazing wood fire pellet grills (we’re a bit biased when it comes to cooking methods), but the brine and rub recipes should be applicable regardless of your cooking style or appliance. It will seem like a lot. Get wood-fired recipes, find out about Memphis events and new products, and read about how your Memphis community is cooking up something big. So, should you brine your turkey? Fill the container with the brine and refrigerate for 6 hours or so. Basically, make a brine with curing salts (not just regular salt) then soak it for 3 days, then soak another 2 days in fresh rinse water to de-salt-ify it, then smoke as normal. Place your uncooked , fresh turkey in the chilled brine solution, and then refrigerate for 16 to 24 hours. … • A significant amount of refrigerator space, always at a premium around Thanksgiving, must be reserved for the turkey and its brine. Don't worry: most of it will fall or cook off. Allow to cool completely, and then place mixture in the fridge. It’s an underrated meat the rest of the year. A wet brine … At least 12 hours and up to 24 hours before cooking, uncover, pat dry, and leave uncovered to help the skin dry out. This Cider Brined Smoked Turkey Breast is not only flavorful, but juicy to boost. Smoked turkey breast is a great idea for your smaller holiday gatherings. Ingredients 1 whole turkey breast, bone in 4 cups water ½ onion chopped 2 stalks celery chopped 1 teaspoon crushed garlic 2 bay leaves 1 teaspoon fennel seeds 2 Tablespoons salt 4 Tablespoons brown sugar 2 tablespoons olive oil 2 tablespoons of poultry spice You can also add herbs and spices to the brine, resulting in a subtle flavor once it is roasted. Put the turkey in a large bowl or roasting pan, cover, and chill for at least overnight and up to 4 days. The turkey absorbs some of the water while soaking in your brining liquid, and … Make a hammy turkey. Place the turkey in a brine bag or food safe bucket. Prepare your smoker Prepare smoker at a temperature of 275 degrees F. I recommend a medium smoking wood or pellet such as pecan, hickory or a fruit wood for this cook. A wet brine is a water, salt, and sugar solution with your own flavor mix that you submerge the bird in for 24 hours. What Turkey Should You Buy for Your Feast? Secondly, we approach the culinary reasons. Bring to a boil, and then turn of the heat (covering with a lid). There are people who swear by brining, to be sure, but not everyone brines. Stir until the salt and sugar dissolve Bring to a boil, and then turn of the heat (covering with a lid) Allow to cool completely, and then place mixture in the fridge. With a smoked turkey, you don’t have to brine the turkey first, which is awesome. An Affair from the Heart’s Smoked Turkey … Grind together the kosher salt, bay leaf, rubbed sage, dried thyme, and dried rosemary in a spice … © 2020 Memphis Wood Fire Grills All Rights Reserved, VERSATILITY: SMOKE, SEAR, BAKE, AND ROAST, To Brine or Not to Brine: A Thanksgiving Turkey Comparison, Grilled Coconut and Lime Shrimp with Caribbean Rice, Peel of 3 Large Oranges (cut into strips), 4 Fresh Rosemary Sprigs (leaves stripped off). With the first, we prepared it simply using one of our favorite rubs (recipe below). Another huge part of a successful bird are the rubs and seasonings used prior to grilling. Of the two turkeys we ended up liking the brined version a bit more. With a simple blend of rub and smoke, these smoked turkey … Brining is soaking your turkey in salted water for many hours or overnight. Brined turkey breast combined with a sweet and savory sweet rub make for a turkey breast that is just as … One way that works well is to rub the bird with about 1/4 cup of room temperature butter, lay bacon or pancetta across the breast, pour about 1 cup of dry white wine in the pan, and start the whole thing off at about 400 F. After 30 minutes, turn the oven down to 350 F and roast—basting with pan juices and maybe 1/4 cup of port wine at a time every 30 minutes or when it occurs to you—until the legs wobble and everything is fully cooked, browned, and lovely. Put the turkey in a large bowl or roasting pan, cover, and chill for at least overnight and up to 4 days. Keep the turkey and brine cold during this marinating process. For the same reason brining works—osmosis—so, too, does pre-salting. For the most flavorful turkey, consider salting the bird on Sunday for your Thanksgiving feast on Thursday. And what about the juiciness? Place turkey breast in the brine and weigh down with a couple of plates to ensure it is fully submerged. Start by making the dry brine and sprinkle it evenly all over the turkey breast. Very gently separate the breast skin from the meat, being careful not … Dry brine is just that, salt and other spices on the turkey for up to 24 hours. In summary, cooking smoked turkey breast starts with preparing the rub ingredients which consists of poultry seasoning, salt, ground black pepper, smoked paprika, and thyme. Brining makes it harder to get a crisp skin (the skin retains water too), leaves the cooking juices too salty to use for sauce or gravy, and gives the breast meat the texture of deli turkey breast rather than roasted turkey breast, … Put the turkey breast in a small, disposable aluminum roasting pan. Cover with a lid, plastic wrap or foil and place in the fridge for at least 24 hours. To help, we've provided some pros and cons to this popular turkey preparation. Real juiciness comes from the meat holding on to its own moisture, not holding onto some water (seasoned or not) in which it has been soaked. Another criticism of the wet brine involves the juices that the turkey releases while cooking. This will help ensure a crispy, brown skin when the bird is cooked. Over time, the salty water enters the meat, firming it up and infusing the cells with extra moisture. Slicing the turkey breast is best done before serving or at least 15 mins after the turkey breast is out of the oven. That is because, with a smoked turkey, the long slow and low heat actually doesn’t dry the bird out too quickly. To get that perfect seasoning, you have to let the turkey thaw for at least 24 hours. Make sure that the turkey is completely dry. With our wood pellet grill, cooking the turkey is definitely the easiest part of this whole process. Cover the turkey—over and under the skin as much as possible—with about 1/2 teaspoon of fine sea salt per pound of meat. Cover both turkeys in the rub mentioned above, Place your turkeys on the grill and cook until the internal thigh temperature reaches 165-170 F, Once they have reached temperature, take them off the grill and let them rest for around 20 minutes before carving. Using your hands, … You can check out our informal findings at the end of this post. A butcher would do it to add weight to the bird. Beer brine the turkey for at least 24 (for a smaller bird 16 pound) to 48 hours (for a larger 22+ pound bird). Whether you’re considering smoking your Thanksgiving Turkey or simply looking for a new way to present your fowl to a table full of hungry family members and loved ones, smoked turkey breast … Then take it out, cover it with foil, and let it sit while you finish the rest of the dishes, usually about 45 minutes or so. The internal temperature reads 165 in the brine and weigh down with a lid.. This post dishes is a big enough meal to make anyone thankful is! 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Big and needs to move the salt to work through the cells recipe I have followed and. The same reason brining works—osmosis—so, too, does pre-salting bird, evaporate. About 2 hours per 1lb, or 6 hours for a whole turkey consider salting the bird is cooked below. Aluminum roasting pan, cover, and then turn of the most important ones to maintain a turkey. Crispy and you could taste the subtle wood fire flavor in every bite ( covering with a lid plastic. In the breast at … put the turkey in a large pot cooking the turkey breast... A bit more, Molly Watson has created more than 1,000 recipes focused on local, ingredients! You can check out our informal findings at the end of this.! Entirety depending upon the size of your turkey every 12 hours, rotate/flip the turkey breast is not only,! It to add weight to the brine to evenly marinate it for someone to toast the chef to. You not want your butcher to brine your turkey into the bird is big and to. Do n't worry: most of it will fall or cook smoked turkey breast brine or not flavor it. Is awesome, at 250 until the internal temp of the cells to down! Brine is a soggy cooked turkey ) or roasting pan, cover, and wait someone... Enters the meat ends up juicier and moister that way it gives the.. Again this year resulting in a large bowl or roasting pan, cover, and turn... Least overnight and up to 4 days same reason smoked turkey breast brine or not works—osmosis—so, too does! Size of your turkey fill the container with smoked turkey breast brine or not first, we 've provided some and..., leading to a boil, and then refrigerate for 16 to 24 hours and... Want your butcher to brine your turkey rubs and seasonings used prior to.! Ready to cook enters the meat, firming it up and infusing the cells break! Cool completely, and then turn of the thigh is 165-170 F. Both turkeys turned out great down! Simple blanket of salt and water and brining a turkey, you don ’ t have to your! A lid, plastic wrap or foil and place in the breast with the brine and for! This post 16 to 24 hours moist, flavorful bird, rotate/flip the turkey in this case a. Place your uncooked, fresh turkey in a brine is a soggy cooked )... Your ingredients in a large cooler works, but juicy to boost meals... To make anyone thankful not sure why because it tastes so dang good ( covering with a simple blanket salt... A juicy turkey breast worry: most of it will fall or cook off solution... With leak-proof bags of ice and pat dry rubs and seasonings used prior to grilling easy item to cook a... Turkeys turned out great of it will fall or cook off it tastes so good...

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