Thawing/Brine Question

Was planning to smoke a bone-in turkey breast for Thanksgiving. Due to circumstance, I had to buy a frozen one and just got it today. It's 8lbs. I was planning to brine it overnight on Wednesday, air-dry in the fridge for a few hours and put it on the smoker about noon on Thanksgiving around 12 or 1. I will try to thaw it in the fridge but I know it won't get totally thawed in time. Should I finish the thaw doing a cold-water bath, or could I just put it in the brine when I pull it out of the fridge and let the thawing continue in the brine? I read that you're supposed to cook the bird immediately if you do a cold water thaw, so I didn't know if it should go in the brine in the fridge after that. Seems like the smart thing to do would be to finish the thaw in the brine because it would be in the fridge and then safer for the meat. Anyone know or run into this issue?

First off I would get out of the original package which probably includes ice and maybe a giblet or gravy pack, that could help. I know I will get blasted but you could leave at room temperature for a couple hours to help the defrost. I mean it's frozen solid but do so at your own risk.

Thaw it in the brine! I've thought about this for the past few years, but never tried it. I was sure that it would somehow end badly. However, if thawing in the brine is AB (Alton Brown) approved, that's good enough for me.

My bird had been in the outdoor fridge since Friday, so the first few mm of the surface had thawed, but it's still pretty much a giant ball of ice. Last night, I shoved it into a big drink cooler with the brine (actually, inside of two plastic trash bags, then inside the cooler, to ease clean-up) along with a brine that's somewhere between AB's traditional brine and the one used in the "Apple brined turkey with big time gravy" recipe. I'm hoping it'll be thawed and brined in time to air-dry in the fridge overnight Wednesday so I can get it in the smoker by around 10 AM Thursday.

Thaw it in the brine!

That's what I do. I cook a trash can turkey every year for a camping trip and all that's available is frozen birds. You usually can't get the giblet package out before it's thawed but that doesn't hurt anything.

FWIW, I just checked the temp of the brine and it's actually gone down 1 degree (from 37 to 36 degrees) since I put it in there last night. Prodding the bag, it feels like the thighs and legs are getting there. The breast is on the bottom, so I can't reach it to check.

I've thawed a bird in brine. It works great and still gave me time to dry the skin overnight in the fridge.

Actually, I was wrong...I had the breast-side-up, so what I was poking at was the breast & wings. I just flipped it over to give the white meat equal time in the briny deep.

Awesome, thanks everyone. I'm going to finish the thaw in the brine tonight. I'll let you know how it goes. Hope everyone's birds turn out great.