haltz wrote:One of the biggest problems here is that turkey [expletive] sucks and there is only so much you can do to make that big stupid bird taste like anything.
I've had great success smoking turkey breasts.
Smoking turkey is the way to go.....WAAAAYYY better flavor. I agree, an oven cooked bird is pretty bland.
With the absolute crap weather they're predicting in the STL area on Thursday I might have to resort to oven cooking unfortunately and since that might be the case I'm going to try an injection.
33anda3rd wrote:I always pull off the skin before I smoke turkey. I'd rather get the rub on the meat that people are going to eat, let it season the meat and also let the black pepper grab on to the smoke.
You can lift the skin and put your rub on the meat sealing the rub in...but doesn't pulling the skin completely off turn the outside turkey meat into leather?
It never has for me. It turns into a nice black bark*, like with a brisket. So you have the juicy white meat with a ring of black smoky bark on the outside.
*Edit to add/elaborate: I use a LOT of rub, and it's a real simple one: 2 parts coarsely ground black pepper to 1 part kosher salt. I just kind of keep that around for smoking in general and use it on everything. I get a big tupperware, put it on a digital scale, pour in the pepper, pour in the salt. I just eyeball it when I'm rubbing, I don't do like X grams of rub per Y pounds of meat. When it looks right, I stop adding it, and "looks right" for me is usually "is freaking covered in salt and pepper." I rub the heck out of the breasts and thighs, after spatchcocking the bird (removing the backbone and flattening it), then go a little easier on the legs so that there's not too much pepper-to-meat. It's the only way I end up eating a turkey where I prefer the white meat, because a good quarter-inch thick slice of the breast with a thick bark is pretty great.
haltz wrote:One of the biggest problems here is that turkey [expletive] sucks and there is only so much you can do to make that big stupid bird taste like anything.
I've had great success smoking turkey breasts.
Smoking turkey is the way to go.....WAAAAYYY better flavor. I agree, an oven cooked bird is pretty bland.
With the absolute crap weather they're predicting in the STL area on Thursday I might have to resort to oven cooking unfortunately and since that might be the case I'm going to try an injection.
Well, thankfully the weather cooperated and I was able to smoke my turkey breast after all!
I didn't do an overnight brine like I typically do but it didn't seem to make a huge difference which was nice. Did a couple hour brine first thing in the morning, stuffed the cavity w/ some apples, and smoked the bird w/ a combo of apple/cherry wood for about 4 1/2 hours (temp hovered between 200-250 do to the wind) and it turned out FANTASTIC!! Might have been the best flavored one I've made so far.
