Perfectly Smoked Turkey Breasts in Your Smoker
Best Smoked Turkey Breast Recipe
Want to try smoking turkey breasts in your smoker, but unsure where to start? We have a smoker and have smoked turkey breast in it making a delicious turkey dinner that was worth the effort. We’ll share with you our tips and tricks to a no fail turkey dinner.
This works great for when you want a little turkey, and don’t want to cook an entire turkey. Or maybe you want to smoke an entire turkey, you can follow this recipe, but spatchcock (cut your turkey in half) your turkey.
What Ingredients Are Needed?
thawed turkey breasts (we used boneless turkey breast)
salt
pepper
garlic powder
- we used this seasoning mix of the above
We do not use skinless turkey breast. We allow the skin to protect the turkey breast from becoming dry, and allow the juices to enhance the flavor of the turkey breast.
Do I Use Bone In Turkey Breast or Boneless?
Four our turkey breast recipe we used boneless turkey breast, but you can use bone in turkey breast. The boneless breast are wrapped in mesh and the bone in will likely not be.
How Do I Smoke a Turkey Breast?
You will need to have a smoker or something that puts smoke into your grill, to smoke a turkey. Turkey is not getting direct high heat, but a low temp heat that allows the smoke to penetrate into the turkey breast and give it a delicious smoky flavor while giving you juicy turkey breast.
Should I Brine the Turkey before Smoking the Breast Meat?
You can if you want, but it is not needed. The turkey will be cooked at a lower temperature. And if you are monitoring with a meat thermometer, there is less chance of over cooking the turkey. The internal temperature needs to reach 165F to be done.
What Type of Wood is Best for Smoked Turkey Breast?
We used an apple wood wood chips when smoking our turkey. If you want a different flavor, you could use one that would inpart that flavor instead.
What Rubs and Injections Should I Use to Smoke Turkey?
This is highly on personal preference. I have found less is more when cooking turkey for a traditional taste. We used garlic powder, salt and pepper for a ‘normal’ tasting turkey. If you like cajun seasons, use them. If you want a lemon rosemary flavor, use those. You can also inject melted butter, or other flavors, do it.
Temperature for Smoking Turkey Breast
The cooking temperature of your smoker should stay between 225-250F. Slow and low cooking allows the turkey to get a wonder smoke flavor.
You can smoke a whole turkey breast with in 3-4 hours. The internal temperature of the turkey needs to be 165F to be considered done.
Wood Chips for Smoking Turkey
We soaked the wood chips in water an hour before starting smoking the turkey. Once the turkey was ready and the smoker was up to temp, we placed the chips into the smoker. Apple wood chips are what we had, and work well. You can use hictory, cherry or pecan wood chunks, depending on your preference.
The wood chips/chunks didn’t need additional water applied to them during smoking. If you notice that there is no smoke happening, you may want to add a little water to your chips or more wood chips.
Smoking Turkey Breasts in Smoker
Ingredients
- 1 Tablespoon garlic powder we used Grill Your A$$ off Platoon Sargeant
- 1 Tablespoon salt
- 1 Tablespoon pepper
- boneless turkey breast
Instructions
- Set your smoker to 250℉ and prepare turkey.
- Add your wet wood chips/chunks into the bottom of the smoker.
- Remove turkey from plastic and trim down the twine around it, removing any excess.
- Take your seasoning and mix together. Apply the seasoning all over the entire turkey.
- Place your meat thermometer into the turkey in the deepest part.
- Put the turkey into the middle of the smoker and close. Check in 15 minutes to make sure turkey is getting smoke and check every 30 minutes until done for smoke. Add more wet chips if there is no smoke.
- Monitor turkey to reach internal temperature of 165℉. (this will take about 3 hours, depending on size of breasts. Ours were 3 pounds.
- Once turkey is done, remove from smoker and place on a plate. Cover and allow the turkey to rest for 15-20 minutes before serving.