Turkey Breast - Skin or no skin?

[Guest]

Looing for some suggestions and comments as to what will give me the best results. I read Chris's recap of the boneless breast pieces in the Cooking section, but curious what the majority thinks, if skinning a full 5.5 lb breast is the way to go?

 

[Kevin Taylor]

Jon....

I like to keep the skin on until it is finished cooking. This will keep moisture on the meat.

Be sure to lift that skin and season underneath! Simply separate it from the meat, sprinkle with seasoning and then place it back on top. If you plan on throwing the skin away, don't bother seasoning the skin...it will not penetrate that fat layer.

 

[Dwain Gleason]

If you're careful, you don't actually have to remove the skin from the breast to rub underneath it - just cut the fascia connecting the skin to the muscle at the bottom of the breast, then use your fingers to separate the skin from the meat while trying not to break through the sides by sliding your hand over the breast under the skin. The skin will form a "tent" over the meat, and you can take small handfuls of rub and spread it over the meat under the skin. It's a little more intimate, but it works great - the skin will help keep the meat from drying out at the surface.

And finally - I strongly recommend brining that bird, it does wonders for moisture and can also improve flavor a little if you put some spices in your brine.

 

[Guest]

I have smoked about a two dozen breast now and I prefer to smoke with the skin off. I have smoke 6 or so with the skin on it always seemed to leave some sort of aftertaste that I didnt like. I usually try to remove any large areas of fascia too. You don't save much time leaving the skin on as you still need to "lift" it up to apply your rub and removing the skin after was less than pleasant. I also did not notice any improved moisture in the turkey with the skin on. Brining can help but most the turkey breast I buy already have been "enhanced" and definatly don't need any more salt. .

 

[Guest]

Thanks all for the suggestions.

Last Wednesday night I smoked the breast, after brining for about 10 hours. Applied the rub beneath the skin, and smoked to 163, right at 4 hours. Refrigerated till sliced on Friday morning for a work pitch in.

A moist breast with sufficient smoke flavor, I seemed to notice something of an odd aftertase as Jeff suggested. Thought it might be just me. Not that anoyne said anything....just me.

Thanks again, and we'll keep experimenting....

Jon

 

[Doug D]

Maybe the off-taste is too much smoke? When I do turkey in the WSM, I only use one or two small chunks of smokewood, usually something mild like pecan and/or apple. Poultry is easy to oversmoke using the quanitities of wood typically used on large pork and beef cuts.

 

[Guest]

Jeffrey, would you mind expounding on your skin-free cooking method? Time, temp etc.?

 

[Guest]

Doug, good point. I recall using two chunks of mesquite, but maybe it was three. I'll keep that in mind next time.

Also, not so sure that just "cooking" the breast, as opposed to smoking it might yield decent results as well. Recall our hanksgiving turkey was done that way, at 300, no water pan, and it was great.

As before, there's always time to experiment

Jon

 

[Russ Hazzon]

I smoked a 6+ pound breast (with bone) the other day. Brined (1 gal water, 1 cup kosher salt and 1 cup honey - heated to 155 degrees then cooled) for almost 24 hours. Smoked it at around 325-375* with several chunks of cherry. Done in 2 hours flat (thought it was kinda quick, but I checked in several places with a thermo). It came out very moist but didn't have the amount of smoke flavor I would have expected. I left the skin on and did not use any rub or spices at all.

I must say that I am not impressed with any of the birds I've smoked. Not sure what I'm doing wrong with the foul, but I just can't seem to get it right. Any suggestions would be appreciated.