I have to transport my turkey on Thanksgiving, about a 10 min trip. I want to wrap it tight with foil, as the site says, and let it rest so it is ready to be carved when the other fixins are done. Tightly wrapping with foil will not cause the skin to become soft, correct?

Unfortunately, this is exactly what happened to the turkey breast I did this past summer. I wrapped tightly in foil and the trip over to my friends house was only a 5 minute drive but that was all it took for the skin to become soggy. The turkey meat itself was fantastic and everyone loved it, but a few were disappointed with the soggy skin.

To be honest, I've never been happy with my turkey skin!

If you've got the secret to non-soggy, edible skin, foiled or not ... fill me in.

These days (when I can find them) I buy those 4.75 lb boneless turkey breasts w/skin and netting on them. Honeysuckle brand I believe and they ALWAYS weigh right at 4.75 lbs and cost around $13 each. I reach inside of the netting and with a couple of quick jerks I can remove the skin and leave the netting intact. Spice em up, smoke em with your preferred method, glaze if you want. Finish temp should 160* Once you remove the netting you'll end up with just under three lbs of seasoned boneless, skinless turkey breast with a nice crust/coating (depending on type/amount of rub/glaze). Most folks I make them for call them turkey hams. They're that good! Especially a day later when they've chilled.

And you can wrap them!!!

Not as cool as a whole turkey, but trust me once they get a taste they won't care!

Turkey Breasts

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Rick Kramer,

quote:

Originally posted by Rick Kramer:

These days (when I can find them) I buy those 4.75 lb boneless turkey breasts w/skin and netting on them. Honeysuckle brand I believe and they ALWAYS weigh right at 4.75 lbs and cost around $13 each. I reach inside of the netting and with a couple of quick jerks I can remove the skin and leave the netting intact. Spice em up, smoke em with your preferred method, glaze if you want. Finish temp should 160* Once you remove the netting you'll end up with just under three lbs of seasoned boneless, skinless turkey breast with a nice crust/coating (depending on type/amount of rub/glaze). Most folks I make them for call them turkey hams. They're that good! Especially a day later when they've chilled.

Not as cool as a whole turkey, but trust me once they get a taste they won't care!

Turkey Breasts

Rick, those look delicious. Do you recall the preparation method you used for those TBs?

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Garrett... tightly sealing the cooked bird or any cooked meat traps hot moisture from with-in which destroys any crispiness.

Rick... I can get the skin crispy by "jacking up" the heat at the end. When I rotiss a hog I increase the heat at the end, especially on larger hogs which have thicker skin. You can see bubbles forming. I have even taken a propane weed burner to the hog just before taking it off the coals. I think taking a torch to the turkey would do it... although it looks like "cave-man" cooking! LOL

joe

Thanks for the comments guys! To tell ya the truth I don't have the exact recipe in front of me but they're really no-brainers. First off, find that style of turkey breasts. They are actually 3 or 4 turkey breast pieces packed inside of skin and then netted. They are packed in the typical turkey style shrinkwrap. I do believe they are Honeysuckle and they always weigh in at around 4.75 lbs.

First I reach inside the netting and get a real good grip on the skin and yank it out. Usually takes a couple of quick jerks. Tighten the netting back up. I just twist it a little, too tight and it kind of cuts into the meat making it harder to remove after cooking. Apply any spice mix, marinade, or mop that you would use on poultry. I shy away from the typical paprika based rubs, just not my favorite. The two in the pic were rubbed fairly heavily with (1) Lawry's poultry rub, and (2) some kind of cajun rub. Tempwise on these is real flexible. Anywhere from 225* to 325* will work. I usually shoot for 275* or better. Depending on temps they'll cook up in anywhere between 2 and 4 hours. Seems like mine take around 2.5 hrs. Feel free to rotate and/or flip them if you like. When internal temp hits the high 140s or low 150s start applying your favorite turkey or ham style glaze. Honey, brown sugar, maple syrup, fruit juice, etc. Remove from cooker at 160* to be HD safe, but we actually try and pull them at 157*. Rest, remove netting, slice and serve. Approx 2.85 finish weight.

Tip: removing the netting can get real messy with all of the rub flinging off of it. Best way we've found is to use scissors and cut the netting lengthwise. I place the breast in a box/deep pan and have someone hold a flexible cutting board above the breast so as I pull the netting the board kind of deflects the flying rub. Or just do it outside!

Some guys remove the netting before they glaze so they have more area for the glaze to adhere to. Makes sense. You just have to do it hot!

Even though they're great that way I rarely serve these hot. We give em a day or two in the fridge, slice em up and people use them for sandwich meat.

I'll be looking for some of these again real soon. They're a seasonal item @ Sam's, and hard to find elsewhere.

Rick @

Thanks for the feedback.

Looks like the turkey will be going from the smoker to the truck to the table. No foil involved.