What started out as a small gathering for Thanksgiving a couple of weeks ago ended up turning into quite the event. As usual, my inlaws were hosting and since we were only planning on about five or six people, it didn't seem like such a big deal. I think the plan was just to have a traditional meal, but then @mrsbozz's sister texted the group and said they would be willing to come up from Ohio for Thanksgiving if uncle bozz (not my real name) was going to smoke a turkey breast.
Now, I'm sure they were probably planning on coming up anyway, and asking for smoked turkey was just a good excuse. Also a nice way to inflate my ego.
We quickly shifted our plans and it was set that along with a traditional turkey I was going to smoke a turkey breast or two. We still did the traditional turkey because understandably, some people prefer dark meat and as tasty and juicy as a smoked turkey breast is, you still don't get the dark meat.
Plus, the turkey breasts are only about three pounds each, so if you figure maybe half a pound of turkey per person (which is super easy to eat when it's this good), you really don't get more than six servings out of one breast.
Then, due to some unexpected circumstances which I have alluded to in the past, but I still can't talk about here, it was decided that basically all of the siblings were going to attend Thanksgiving. Suddenly our small gathering of 5 to 6 people turned into a full meal for fifteen people. We quickly realized I should probably smoke four turkey breasts as well as the full turkey.
My father in law has a grill we bought him several years ago that is a bit fancier than the one I have, but it is still a Weber Kettle, so the basic concept is the same. You can see his gas grill in the background that I try to touch as little as possible, but I have used it in the past.
While everyone else was inside watching the football game, I started getting things prepared with the grill and the turkey breasts.
Really, the only difference with his grill over mine is that it comes attached to a cart and has that side and bottom shelf that mine does not have. Beyond that it is the same size and has the same hinged grates that my cheaper model has. If you already have a nice prep area, I'm not sure the added cost is really worth it between the two.
As I said, we picked up four of the turkey breast for me to smoke. These Butterball brand come in a couple different flavors. You can get the plain, savory herb, or cajun. We got two cajun which you can see on the left and two savory herb which are on the right. I've tried taking the netting off before grilling them, but they kind of fall apart on the grate, so I have started to leave the netting on and take it off after the fact.
I had my drip pan ready with a glass of water to fill it as well. My bourbon was poured, and my Chef IQ probes were already in two of the turkey breasts. I also had some hickory and apple wood on hand for the smoke flavor.
I was a little worried there wasn't going to be room to fit all the birds on the grill, but I was able to make it work. The important thing is to not get them too close to the coals so you don't over cook half of one of them.
About an hour and a half into the cook I moved them around a bit and I even took one of them off because it had already reached that 165 degree Fahrenheit temperature I was looking for.
After about two hours it was time to serve them. My brother in law sliced them up and dinner was served. I didn't get any photos after this because I was too busy filling my face. I'm glad we ended up going with four breasts, I think anything less would have been too little. There were some leftovers, but I think most people snagged the smoked turkey to take home and snack on later. It basically got wiped out entirely.
Now here's where it gets interesting... At one point someone mentioned that fact that we should be having brisket at Thanksgiving instead of turkey. My brother in law then mentioned that he had a brisket in his freezer. Finally, it was decided without my consent, that I would be doing a test run of smoking a brisket for Christmas with the plans that next year I will then smoke a brisket for Thanksgiving.
I've only ever done a brisket once before and I don't feel like it turned out that great. I'm pretty nervous about this, but you better believe I will be taking photos so I can post about it!
Be sure to check back after the holidays to see how I did!
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