Split turkey breast bone-in advice

[xboxremote]

Hey team,

I’m new here but I’ve come across this forum many many times over the years since I started smoking. So thank you for the great resources in the past.

I’m struggling a bit today and wanted to get some advice if possible. Last year I smoked a bone in turkey breast (about 7 lbs) for my wife and I, and it turned out pretty good on flavor, though a little strong (I used hickory), and a little dry. So I figured this year I’d brine it longer (longer than the 4ish hours I did last time), and pull it off at 160 and let it sit longer.

This year I’m working with a split breast that’s about 4 lbs. I started brining it around midnight last night. I’m curious about a couple of things:

1 - Am I risking over-brining here? Should I (and can I) pull it from the brine this morning and just leave it on a plate in the fridge until later?

2 - Am I still looking at 30-45 min per pound? Last year it took somewhere around 5 hours, so I’m thinking 1.5-2 hours for a 4 lb guy.

3 (bonus question) - I’m using a Masterbuilt electric smoker, so I can’t get the temp too high. But should I crank it as high as it’ll go, and then put it on the grill or oven at like 400 to crisp it?

Thanks so much everyone!
Nick

 

[xboxremote]

For the record, this is the brine recipe I used: http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/smoked-turkey-breast

 

[motocrash]

Hey team,

I’m new here but I’ve come across this forum many many times over the years since I started smoking. So thank you for the great resources in the past.

I’m struggling a bit today and wanted to get some advice if possible. Last year I smoked a bone in turkey breast (about 7 lbs) for my wife and I, and it turned out pretty good on flavor, though a little strong (I used hickory), and a little dry. So I figured this year I’d brine it longer (longer than the 4ish hours I did last time), and pull it off at 160 and let it sit longer.

This year I’m working with a split breast that’s about 4 lbs. I started brining it around midnight last night. I’m curious about a couple of things:

1 - Am I risking over-brining here? Should I (and can I) pull it from the brine this morning and just leave it on a plate in the fridge until later? I brine for 24hrs then pat dry and put in fridge for a couple 3hrs to form a good pellicle

2 - Am I still looking at 30-45 min per pound? Last year it took somewhere around 5 hours, so I’m thinking 1.5-2 hours for a 4 lb guy. Depends on your cook temp but somewhere in there

3 (bonus question) - I’m using a Masterbuilt electric smoker, so I can’t get the temp too high. But should I crank it as high as it’ll go, and then put it on the grill or oven at like 400 to crisp it? Smoke a little shy ~5-10* of your target IT and crisp skin either way you said until desired IT is reached.

You can't rig your xbox controller to your smoker and take care of this? :D

Bill
Thanks so much everyone!
Nick

 

[xboxremote]

Thank you Bill - Much appreciated.

Not a bad idea with the Xbox controller, I’ll have to look into that haha :)

So it sounds like even though it’s a split breast, you wouldn’t be worried that I’m over brining?