An Easter Turkey

Okay, it was a Turkey Breast, not a whole Turkey.  About a month ago, my local HyVee had Turkey Breast on sale for 99 cents per lb.  I picked up a 7 lb one and decided I would smoke it for Easter.

For smoked Turkey, I'm not necessarily looking for a BBQ flavor.  I've done BBQ turkey legs before, but for this turkey breast, I was looking for more of a traditional turkey flavor.  So that's what I went for, and I think it turned out very well.

The first step in all poultry in a brine.  If I could do a Public Service Announcement, it would be to let people know that they should always brine poultry.  It keeps the poultry moist and adds flavor.  And as an aside on a brine, I think simple is just fine.  A very simple brine is 1 gallon cold water, 1 cup kosher salt and 1/2 cup brown sugar.  Mix to dissolve the salt and sugar and you're done.  That's the brine I used for this Turkey Breast.  You can add all kinds of other seasonings to your brine, but I don't really see that you get the additional flavor for the hassle.  If you add other seasonings, you really have to heat the water to open up the flavor of the seasonings.  I've found this is really only valuable if you're making corned beef...otherwise I think a simple salt and sugar brine is plenty good.

Alright, so I've got the brine.  I took the turkey out and washed it off, and then submerged it in the brine overnight (about 12 hours).  In the morning, I took the turkey out of the brine and rinsed it off, then patted it dry.  You need to always rinse off a brine, or your exterior of your meat will be too salty.

The next step was to make the rub.  My rub was pretty simple and I recommend you use it, but any good poultry rub will do.  I'll share the rub recipe here though if you want to make your own.

Ingredients:
1 TBSP Onion Powder
1/2 TBSP Paprika
1 tsp Garlic Powder
1 tsp Kosher Salt
1 tsp White Pepper
1/2 tsp Ground Ginger
1/4 tsp Ground Sage

I mixed that all together and then dusted the cavity of the turkey breast with the rub.  Then I rubbed the outside of the turkey with olive oil and sprinkled the rub on liberally.  Finally, I lifted the skin as best as I could and put some rub under the skin.  I also put some softened butter under the skin to aid in moisture.  Then I let the turkey rest for 3 hours.

After resting, I heated the GMG Pellet Smoker to 225 degrees and put the Turkey Breast on the heat, in a foil pan so I could capture the juices to make gravy.  My turkey breast took 5 and a half hours to cook to an internal temperature of 165 degrees.  I basted it with butter and it's own juices 3 or 4 times during the cook.

This Turkey was awesome!  It was so flavorful and moist.  The smoke adds a really nice, complimentary flavor, without overwhelming the meat.  I can't wait to have leftover turkey sandwiches this week.  The rest of the family really liked this turkey a lot too.  I served with mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, dinner rolls and apple slices.  I'm quite full right now, but I'll be having pie for dessert later.