Anyone who’s ever cooked any sort of turkey, wild or domesticated, knows that the breast meat can get dry in a hurry. Smoked boneless turkey breast chief among them.
That’s because a boneless turkey breast doesn’t have the breastbone to protect it from drying out. Fear not, however, I’ll show you how to go about it.
The end goal is that tender, juicy turkey breast, smoky, maybe a touch sweet, but you don’t want it dry as the Sahara, or with the thinner, tail end of the breast turned into jerky.
I do this with two techniques: First, slice off the triangular tail end, and use that for another recipe, like maybe turkey parmesan, and just smoke the thick part. Here’s how you cut it:
The second technique is to brine or salt cure the meat: That’s the secret to fantastic smoked boneless turkey breast.
And while you can get away with not brining a store-bought turkey, smoking a wild turkey breast requires a salt brine. Period. If you are not familiar with what brining does, it uses the power of salt and osmosis to slightly denature the proteins in the meat, swelling them with salty moisture and trapping more liquid in the meat than it would otherwise be able to contain.
So when you cook it, and you get the inevitable moisture loss that heat causes, there was already so much moisture in the brined meat to begin with that it remains juicy.
I use what is called an equalization cure for my “brine,” which is not really a brine. It’s dry salting. You do this by weighing the turkey breast in grams — yes, you need a scale
— and then weighing out 1.5 percent of that weight in kosher or sea salt. Add to this some brown sugar (that weight need not be exact) mix and massage into the turkey breast.
Ideally you’d vacuum seal it and set it in the fridge for at least 3 days, and really up to a week or more — this cure will not make the turkey breast too salty, unlike other ways of brining or salt curing.
Once you have that set, you need to dry the turkey breast to form what’s called a pellicle on the surface of the meat. A pellicle is a thin sheen or skin of denatured proteins that, when it dries out a bit, becomes tacky. This allows smoke to adhere to the meat far better then if you put wet meat into a smoker. This is an important step in smoking ignored by a lot of amateurs. Don’t be that guy.
I like smoking over fruit woods (cherry in this case), but you can use whatever. Oak, hickory, walnut, beech, alder, mesquite… Whatever you want will be fine, only no conifers! Pine pitch and turpentine are not good eats.
To give the turkey one last punch, I paint it with something sweet. I used honey here, but maple syrup, birch syrup, agave nectar, a fruit syrup or even molasses would work. Why do this? Um… is there a person on earth who doesn’t like the combination of sweet-salty-smoky-meaty?
I didn’t think so.
I generally use a smoked boneless turkey breast as lunch meat, for sandwiches. But if that’s not your thing, make a meal out of it and serve your smoked turkey warm. Maybe with a gravy. You can also slice, then roughly chop, your smoked turkey for the meat in turkey tacos.
Once made, this will keep about a week in the fridge, and it freezes well.
Smoked Wild Turkey Breast
Ingredients
- 1 skinless turkey breast, trimmed (see note above)
- kosher salt (see note above)
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/3 cup honey, maple syrup or other syrup
Instructions
- Mix together the salt and sugar. Massage the mixture into the meat and, ideally, vacuum seal it. If not, put the salted turkey into a freezer bag. Set in the fridge for at least 3 days to cure.
- Remove the turkey breast from the bag and set it in the fridge, uncovered, for an hour or three to form the pellicle, a sheen that allows the turkey to take on smoke better. Turn the turkey over a few times while you do this. Don't skip this step!
- Smoke the turkey slowly at about 200ºF until it reaches an internal temperature of about 160ºF -- this takes about 4 hours with my smoker. Let the turkey smoke undisturbed for an hour, then paint it with honey every 45 minutes or so until it's done. When the turkey is ready, take it out of the smoker and set it on a rack. Paint it one more time with the honey and serve any way you like it: Warm for dinner, or cold for sandwiches.
Would this work for whole turkey and bone-in whole turkey breasts?
Thanks for your help.
Gib: Definitely not a whole turkey. It will work with bone-in breasts, though. It might need an extra hour to smoke, and an extra day to brine.
Hank, I made this recipe with a whole turkey breast that I brined for 4 days. I didn’t cut off the end or the tenderloin because the shape was pretty uniform. It was excellent- I smoked it in a little charcoal grill. I’m new to smoking and I put the turkey directly over the coals at first- one side came out totally charred but it was still delicious. Sliced thin its like the best turkey from a deli ever. My whole family ate it up. Thanks!
Hello, I’m trying this recipe, smoking next weekend and have a quick question. After sitting in the salt mixture for a week, and before I let it sit to create the pellicle, do I rinse the salt mixture off the turkey breast?
Starr: Yes, you do.
What’s up man. Just finished mine today and unfortunately it was extremely salted (like the salt was still in the meat). Any chance you know where I went wrong or how to fix for a future turkey??
Craig: Not sure on this one because that equalization cure is the foolproof way to cure meat without it getting too salty. Are you sure you measured the weight of the meat, then 1.5% of that weight in salt? If so, then the only possibility is that you are very sensitive to salt, so I’d go 1% salt by weight next time.
I know exactly what went wrong. After reading your comment I realized I used 15% and not 1.5%. That explains it ? thanks again. Smoking another one this weekend and looking forward to doing it right this time.
Hey Hank, I have a homegrown turkey in the fridge and it is big. Comically big. I’m thinking I’ll add the appropriate amount of cure #1 to the brine due to long, low temp smoke time, do you see any possible issues with that?
Thanks, Jeff.
Jeff: Nope you should be fine. You might get hints of a pink hammy flavor though…
The flavor and moisture content we’re on point but for whatever reason the exterior of the turkey was extremely tough. I followed the recipe exactly with the exception of using hot hone. I will try to tweak it next time and hopefully get a better result.
Hay I’m doing turkey breast, do you rinse. The turkey before you smoke it?
Barb: Yes, briefly.
Can you smoke it in a Traegger?
JP: Yes, that’s what I do.
Hank,
Love this recipe. I made it for my boys last year with a turkey I harvested and they ate it all up. They have been asking me all year when I will make some more. I just harvested a turkey last weekend and I am smoking two breasts as we speak. Highly recommended! Thanks!