Cooking a turkey breast is a great alternative to smoking a turkey for your Holiday meal. It's great when you are only feeding a couple people or just want some white meat. In this recipe we smoke a bone-in turkey breast on a beer can chicken holder for great presentation. We are also going to deviate from our typical BBQ seasonings and highlight one of our popular gourmet seasonings.
Meat Church How To YouTube Video: https://youtu.be/Rsud_N5ftP4
Turkey Combo (Brine + Garlic & Herb): https://www.meatchurch.com/collections/injections/products/turkey-combo-brine-garlic-herb
Ingredients
- 1 bone-in turkey breast, typically 3-6 lbs
- Meat Church Gourmet Garlic & Herb Seasoning
- 1/2 gallon water
- 1 C of Meat Church Bird Bath Poultry Brine
Tools
- Instant Read Thermometer
- Poultry throne (AKA beer can chicken holder)
Brine
Thoroughly mix 1 contents of the package with 1/2 gallon of water in a pot over medium heat to completely dissolve the contents. Be sure to allow the mixture to cool before proceeding to the next step.
Place the turkey breast in a brine bag or food safe bucket. Fill the container with the brine and refrigerate for 45 minutes per lb. Remove the turkey breast from brine, rinse thoroughly and pat dry.
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. In the video above we used the Limited Edition Meat Church pellets.
Prepare the turkey breast
Season the turkey breast all over with Meat Church Garlic & Herb. This is a delicate seasoning and it usually takes a liberal application.
Smoke the turkey at 275 degrees.
Baste with butter periodically with melted butter. We melted butter in a Lodge cast iron pot in this video and loaded it with various herbs such as rosemary, thyme, parsley, basil and tons of garlic.
This cook will take approximately 2 hours depending on the size of the breast.
Using an instant read thermometer, the turkey will be done when the internal temperature reaches at least 165 in the thickest part of the breast. The dark meat will be a higher temperature and that is ok. We typically pull our turkey at 160 in the breast as it will carry over cook a few degrees.
Let the turkey breast rest ~15 minutes. Carve and enjoy!
