Buttermilk Brined Turkey

[dad of four]

I decided to give Jeff's recipie from a current newsletter a try.

http://www.smoking-meat.com/november-10-2011-smoked-buttermilk-brined-turkey.html

My family likes white meat,so I opted for a Turkey Breast as opposed to a whole bird

1. 3 day defrost in the fridge

2. Brining in a 2-1/2 gallon bag inside a 10 qt Stockpot, see you in 11 hours

3. Out of the brine, rinsed off, stuffed Butter-mixture under the skin

4. Into the smoker 240 degrees.  It only took 4 hours to come up to temp of 165 IT

5. Wrapped in in foil for 30 minutes, then under the broiler for 4 minutes

6. Forgot photo of final product :-(

Conclusion: Wifey liked it well enough.  It was tender, juicy, and had a nice smoke taste all the way to the bone.

I used my standard Rib-rub in both the Brine & onto the bird skin.  She thought it might taste better with something a little less sweet

Turkey-Buttermilk Brined Turkey.JPG

• dad of four
• Nov 3, 2012

Turkey in Oven.JPG

• dad of four
• Nov 3, 2012

 

[daveomak]

Dad, I'm in and waiting.....   

 

[obrionusa]

I'm going to brine mine tonight (in buttermilk) to fix tomorrow. I wanted to try it before serving it for thanksgiving. I'm using a turkey breast and cooking it in my green egg.

Anybody use dollar store seasoning to make jeff's secret recipe?

 

[cooknhogz]

Interesting brine recipe. Looking forward to hear how it turns out.

 

[austinl]

I recently tried a buttermilk brine on a whole chicken and couldn't notice any different flavor.  I will follow this to see if others notice any with theirs.

 

[dad of four]

I did not detect any buttermilk taste, but then it's been nearly a year since I had whole turkey, so I may not remember what un-brined turkey taste like.

 

[blodzoo]

Old thread revival!

I made this two years ago and it was a huge hit.  I smoked a bird last year using a different recipe and it worked well but didn't blow minds the way this recipe did.  So this year I did this buttermilk recipe again and it absolutely killed.  I highly recommend this recipe.

 

[joe black]

I used Jeffs buttermilk for the first time yesterday along with the butter, garlic, chives and some jeffs rub under the skin and on top when the skin was finishing. Everyone of my folks (18) said it was the best ever. It was a 16# bird, spatchcocked and smoked on apple and cherry for 3 hours at 325*.

Thanks again to Jeff for the great recipes, Joe.

 

[blodzoo]

I used the buttermilk and the herbed butter with garlic and chives with some jeff's rub that I had left over from something, But I aggressively rubbed the bird with the snake-bitten chicken recipe, which I love,  the night before smoking (http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/77908/by-request-snake-bitten-chicken) then smoked with hickory.

It's definitely not a traditional thanksgiving bird and I might be hesitant to do it for the holiday except that we had 3 birds (one fried, one roasted and my smoked bird, each 11-12 pounds) so I felt like I had the freedom to go nuts.  

Smoked was definitely my favorite, but I know I'm biased.  This was my first time trying a fried bird and I honestly wasn't impressed.  It seems like a quick easy way to to get a decent bird but it wasn't really anything special.