Fresh turkey breast

[Starsky]

So this weekend I decided to smoke a small fresh turkey breast. Brined it for several hours and put it in the smoker at approx. 250 degrees. Had the Smoke alarm set for 159 degrees. Once the alarm went off I verified with the Thermo Pop. The opposite breast read only 156 degrees so I turned it around and decided to give it a few more minutes. The temp on the Smoke dropped to 156 degrees and stayed there. I figured it was a stall so I waited, and waited, and waited. Finally said the hell with and brought it in the house because guests were arriving. I let it rest for a while before carving it and found that there was very little pink to the meat and it was sort of dry. So it never hit the finish temp but was over cooked? Strange

[efincoop]

Every now and then I run into the opposite issue using my Thermopen. It temps at the target temp and I pull whatever it is I'm cooking, only to find it is undercooked. I chalk it up to me probing either too deep, or not deep enough.

What would you say the probe placement was in your cook? Do you think it was too close to the breast bone?

[Starsky]

I don't think it was placement. I used the Thermo pop to probe several locations

[rickgregory]

As efincoop notes, it could be probe placement. Also, don't obsess over perfect temps. There's no effective safety difference between 156 and 159 nor will it make any detectable difference from a culinary point of view. As for the pink, there shouldn't be any doneness related pink in a meat over 150F. If you mean smoke ring, I've rarely seen much of one on turkey.