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Butterballed Turkey Breast With Drunken Cranberries & Crunchy Skin

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    Butterballed Turkey Breast With Drunken Cranberries & Crunchy Skin

    Butterballed Turkey Breast With Drunken Cranberries

    Click image for larger version  Name:	turkey-final-small.jpg Views:	0 Size:	627.9 KB ID:	1304279

    Let’s start by defining some terms. Technically a turkey breast is a whole breast section with two pear-shaped lobes separated by the breastbone also known as the keelbone. You can buy it bone in with both lobes, but more frequently you can find a single boneless lobe. That’s what we’re cooking here but you can easily adapt this for a whole bone-in breast section.

    The problem with turkey breasts Is that they have very little fat and so they get really dry when cooked to a safe temp of 160°F. So we solve the problem three ways. We remove the skin, which, although it contains fat, the fat cannot penetrate the meat. For Thanksgiving, in order to crisp the skin for easy slicing and better texture, we usually cook turkey at 325°F or more, but that can dry out the meat. With the skin out of the way we can smoke low and slow at 225°F. But don’t worry, we won’t waste that tasty skin. We’re going to make cracklins from it and sprinkle them on top when we serve it.

    Then we pound the meat flat. We do this because turkey (and chicken) breasts are much thicker at one end and as a result the thin ends way overcook and get dry and hard. Pounding them flat makes them cook more evenly.
    Then we dry brine hours in advance. As you know, the salt helps retain moisture.

    And finally, we inject with butter! Can you see Julia smiling?

    Makes. 6 to 8 servings
    Takes. 15 minutes prep and 1 hour to cook
    Special equipment. A meat injector

    1 (3 pound) boneless lobe of a turkey breast
    1 teaspoon Morton Coarse Kosher Salt
    4 ounces dried cranberries
    3/4 cup inexpensive American port wine
    4 ounces unsalted butter
    1 tablespoon poultry seasoning (try our commercial rub https://amazingribs.com/flavor or our recipe for Simon & Garfunkel https://amazingribs.com/tested-recip...hicken-recipe/)

    1| Pound. 4 to 6 hours before serving, remove the tender (the small loose muscle on the side with no skin) and set it aside for another meal. Remove the skin and save it for later. Trim any excess fat from the meat. Put the meat in a 1 gallon zipper bag, squeeze out the air, zip it, and with a frying pan, pound that sucka until it is pretty much an even thickness, about 1-inch thick.

    2| Dry brine. Now sprinkle the salt all over the meat and let it take it’s time penetrating. Try to give it 2 to 4 hours. Sprinkle the poultry seasoning on now, too.

    3| Rehydrate. Take the cranberries and the port wine and put them in a sauce pan on low for 10 minutes. This will allow the berries to soak up the wine and rehydrate. Turn the heat off and let them sit.

    4| Butterball. When you are ready to cook, melt the butter in a tall narrow glass. This allows you to suck more into the injector than a short fat glass. Fill the injector and start pumping it into the meat through the sides at intervals about 3/4-inch apart.

    5| Fire up your grill and stretch the skins over the grates on the direct heat side. Sprinkle them with salt. Keep the lid open and stand right there and watch. As soon as the skin starts to turn golden, flip it. Remove it when it gets stiff and crackly like a potato chip. When it cools, chop it into 1/2-inch chunks. Set aside.

    6| Smoke. Get your grill or smoker to 225°F in the indirect zone and get some smoke rolling. Put the meat on the smoker and start checking its temp after about 30 minutes. It is done at 160°F, after about an hour.

    7| Serve. Put the breast on a cutting board with the skinny edge facing you. Slice it across the grain and plate. Spoon some cranberries on top and sprinkle with some chopped cracklins. Or make a sandwich. I made a sandwich with caramelized onions and it was awesome.
    ​

    #2
    Are the dried cranberries in the ingredients sweetened ones like Craisins or unsweetened? Thanks for the recipe. Looks great!

    Comment


    • Meathead
      Meathead commented
      Editing a comment
      I used sweetened cranberries.

    • smabrito
      smabrito commented
      Editing a comment
      Thanks, Meathead. Most of the turkey breasts I find already contain salt & broth. If using one of these breasts can this recipe be followed without ending up with a beautifully smoked but too salty bird?

    #3
    I made this today on my Hasty-Bake and it was delicious. I had a Butterball brand turkey breast roast, so I skipped the butter injections. I could have probably also skipped the dry brining. The Hasty-Bake was well suited to searing the skin and then converting over to smoking the breast.

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