Turkey breast

smokeisgood

is one Smokin' Farker
Joined
Mar 19, 2012
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Louisvil...
I've smoked turkey before, but I've always sliced it. Having a party with pulled pork and usually do pulled chicken for those who don't eat pork. Can you pull smoked turkey? I've never tried...
 
I smoke the turkey split breasts skinless with pepper and rub, and slice them. Thighs (and legs) I leave the skin on and do a butter bath finish, then discard the skin. This meat is pullable and very moist. I do inject white and dark meat.

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Although I have not done this with turkey, I use this method for cooking pulled whole chickens. It should work for a whole turkey. When I cook ten pounds of leg/thigh quarters for pulled chicken I also cook one 5-6lb whole chicken to the mix. I remove the thigh/leg sections from the chicken carcass as they will be cooked separately from the breast section. I leave the skin on both the hind section and the breast as they will be used for making stock. I leave the breast section whole except for removing the wings from the carcass. They will cook quicker than the bigger pieces. Once the thigh quarters, wings and whole breast are done and cool enough for pulling, I remove the skins and pull the dark meat first. I then filet out the breasts from the carcass and set them aside to pull the remaining meat off the carcass.



You will have several options on how to cut up the filleted breasts. You can cube it, slice it and then cut it into smaller pieces or pull the meat. If you pull the meat, cut the breast in half width-wise so the pulled strands are not the full length of the breast. I have found that with cooking poultry in this fashion that the yield from a 15 pound bird is usually five pounds or 33% of its original weight. And this is cooking a turkey with the dark meat pulled and the filleted breast sliced, not pulled.
 
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