Are you a meal prepper? I like to pretend that I am. I plan out a week worth of meals and then make three of them...on a good week. One of my favorite weeks is the one after Thanksgiving because it means as little meal prep as imaginable without using ingredients that are completely undesirable. Unfortunately, it's April and while I'm dreaming of the gorgeous, golden bird that graces this palate once a year, I'm left craving it's juicy goodness all year long. And then to my glutinous surprise, my husband brought home a turkey breast. Yeah!!! So it's been sandwiches and cruchwraps and salads and enchiladas all week. Meal prep is so easy when there is leftover meat in my life. And a super handsome stud to smoke all of it.
Ingredients
The Brine
5 cups Water
1/3 cup Kosher Salt
1/4 cup Sugar
1/4 cup Rudy's Turkey Rub
1 Bay Leaf
Ice
Turkey Breast
5 to 6 Lbs. Bone in Turkey Breast (raw)
Rudy's Turkey Rub
1 stick unsalted Butter
Cooking spray
Directions
The Brine
(20 to 24 hours)
-Place the water in a large pot on the stove and heat on high.
-Add the salt, sugar, Rudy's Rub and bay leaf.
-Stir until the salt and sugar are devolved. Do not boil.
-In a 5 gallon water cooler or other size cooler, place the frozen turkey inside.
-Pour the brine solution over the turkey.
-Add 2 Lbs of ice and add water until the turkey floats.
-Place the lid on the cooler and let the turkey brine for 20 to 24 hours.
-Check the solution every four hours and add ice as needed.
The Turkey
(2 to 2 1/2 hours)
-After brining the turkey breast for 20 to 24 hours, remove the breast from the brine and rise with cool water.
-Preheat your pellet grill to 300 degrees. We like to use applewood or another fruit wood for this cook.
-While your grill is heating, use kitchen shears or a very sharp knife and spatchcock the breast by removing the backbone. This is accomplished by cutting the bones that run along the sides of the backbone.
-Once the backbone is removed position the turkey with the breast meat up. Press directly down on the breast to flatten it out. You will hear and feel bones breaking, this is OK.
-Using paper towels, dry the whole outside of the turkey. Remove as much liquid as possible.
-Soften the butter and add 1/2 Tbsp of Rudy's Rub and mix with the butter.
-Separate the skin from one side breast by entering in through the neck and using your hands shove your fingers between the skin and breast meat. Do not separate all the way through the bottom of the skin or on the sides. We want to maintain a pocket for the butter mixture to go in.
-Repeat on the opposite breast.
-Place half of the butter on one breast and the other half on the opposite breast.
-Spray the outside skin with cooking spray and season with an even layer of rub. Do not over season, coat with just enough to cover the skin.
-When the grill has heated, place the turkey breast on the grill and cook until the deepest part of the breast reaches 160 degrees (2 to 2 1/2 hours).
-When the breast reads 160 degrees, remove from the grill and cover with aluminum foil and let rest for 20 minutes.
-Slice the breast meat away from the breast bone by cutting along the bone keeping a nice solid piece of meat intact. Slice the meat against the grain.
Pull any remaining meat off the bone with your hands and enjoy.
The Shiggin'
Removing the breast from the grill at 160 degrees and resting for 20 minutes will do two things. One, it will let the breast temperature continue to rise to 165 degrees and secondly, it will let the juice reabsorb into the meat as it relaxes. Do these two steps and you will have the best results.
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