jdbower Posted February 2, 2009 Report Share Posted February 2, 2009 Experimenting with a quick reference scorecard for the cook: Meat: Turkey Breast Brine: Salt, sugar, apple cider vinegar for ~24 hours Fuel: KK Extruded Coconut Smoke: Applewood Smoke Pellets Method: Indirect, Main Grill, with basting Rotisserie: No Pit Temp: 325 Final Temp: 160 Time: About 3 hours Draft Control: Stoker I've always been curious about the "turkey breast" in the meat section, but I've never had to opportunity to actually try it. My wife and I are a good match, she likes dark meat and I like white meat but this has always made getting a breast of turkey a difficult thing. I decided to throw caution to the wind and get one because a whole turkey is a bit hard for the two of us to finish. I brined it in a stockpot in the fridge with salt, a little sugar, and some apple cider vinegar for about 24 hours. I then made some of LarryR's Roadside baste (although it makes it sound like I found the turkey on the side of the road with tire marks down the middle...). Last time I substituted the white vinegar for balsamic which was not bad substitution (although it does change the flavor a lot). This time I decided on an apple cider vinegar to complement the smoke. I also experimented with a flavor injector a few places in the breast because the recipe makes just a little more than my old soy sauce bottle can hold. Since the last cook I did manage to attach the wheels on my home-made (or at least home-modified) cart a bit better, a hole saw, a 2x4, and a 3lb sledge did the trick. I basted with the roadside sauce every 20-30 minutes or so but didn't bother to turn the turkey. I was a bit worried about the results since not only would this need to sell the wife on KK-style white meat, but it was also competing against the rotisserie style chicken I did last time. The results were highly successful. The apple cider vinegar gave it a much different flavor than the balsamic I used last time, a bit more subtle which let the natural turkey flavors out more. The breast was very juicy, even to my wife's standards. While it was definitely sufficiently moist and tender for her, she still misses the "greasiness" of the dark meat which is something (thankfully!) the KK can't really help with. I guess we'll have to alternate between turkey breast and whole chicken - compromising doesn't seem like much of a compromise to me I'm not sure about the flavor injector. I may need to experiment a bit more with technique, but other than a few dark streaks I didn't notice much. I'll have to practice with my technique with a syringe I guess. Granted this baste was designed for external use only, but I like vinegar enough I put the last of the bottle over the carved leftovers. One thing that's hard to get used to is seeing pinkness in my poultry. There's the initial shock of seeing bright pink after the first slice and wondering what went wrong and how you're going to keep the juices in while it finishes cooking. And then you realize that the pink is on the OUTSIDE of the meat which means it's a smoke ring and not underdone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conodo12 Posted February 2, 2009 Report Share Posted February 2, 2009 I like your format Jeff: Meat: Turkey Breast Brine: Salt, sugar, apple cider vinegar for ~24 hours Fuel: KK Extruded Coconut Smoke: Applewood Smoke Pellets Method: Indirect, Main Grill, with basting Rotisserie: No Pit Temp: 325 Final Temp: 160 Time: About 3 hours Draft Control: Stoker My only suggestion would be to change "Final Temp" to "Pull Temp" or maybe "Final Cook Temp". Not sure... have to think on it... The turkey looked great! And although you might have leftovers, you could always purchase the turkey breast for you and a turkey leg or two for the wife - Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LarryR Posted February 3, 2009 Report Share Posted February 3, 2009 Interesting, never thought to roadside a Turkey. Will have to give that a shot! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adventureman82 Posted November 19, 2020 Report Share Posted November 19, 2020 This sounds really awesome. I am looking to take a step forward from my previous smoked turkey using the Aaron Franklyn Method. What were your measurements for the brine? How much sugar, salt and apple cider vinegar with how much water? How large was your bird? Thanks in advance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tony b Posted November 19, 2020 Report Share Posted November 19, 2020 5 hours ago, Adventureman82 said: This sounds really awesome. I am looking to take a step forward from my previous smoked turkey using the Aaron Franklyn Method. What were your measurements for the brine? How much sugar, salt and apple cider vinegar with how much water? How large was your bird? Thanks in advance. Dude, this post is over 10 years old. Hence, the reason that you can't see any of the pictures, it was the old Forum format. None of these folks are on the Forum anymore. Sorry! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mguerra Posted November 21, 2020 Report Share Posted November 21, 2020 (edited) Still, we had some excellent threads it wouldn’t hurt to resurrect! And Roadside Chicken is one. Edited November 21, 2020 by mguerra 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
