difference between turkey breast cook & whole turkey

[Jim H.]

I was looking at cooking topics for turkey on TVWB, and noticed a little discrepancy between cooking a whole turkey and a bone-in turkey breast in the WSM. Not a huge difference, but since I am cooking a couple of turkeys for others, I wanted to make sure I have a good grasp on cooking them. Both were methods for cooking pre-basted turkeys.

In the bone-in breast article, it says to use two full lit chimneys of Kingsford blue.

Bone-in breast

In the whole turkey article, it says to use a full lit chimney and half unlit, then wait for all coals to be ashed over.
Whole self-basted turkey

I would think that the smaller breast only bird would need less heat, and therefore fewer coals to cook as opposed to more charcoal than a whole turkey. I know in the big scheme of things, half a chimmey of unlit vs. a whole chimney of lit might not make a huge difference, and if it is cold out, I would go ahead with two full lit chimneys to keep my temps up in the WSM.

Any thoughts on this?

 

[James H]

Hi Jim,

It just depaends on what temp you want to smoke at. If you want a high temp 350 use two full lit chimneys. I prefer this for turkey as the skin gets crispier and turkey does not need low and slow give that it is very lean already and does not need the fat to break down. You are mostly looking for the smoke flavor. If you want more smokiness cook at the lower 225 temp with one chimney lit and one unlit.