Don’t wait until Thanksgiving to taste this juicy, smoky, and herbaceous turkey breast. Here’s how I make smoked turkey breast with a Traeger pellet grill, with a wet brine, compound butter, and my favorite smoking technique below.
Where to buy turkey breast
We all know that buying turkey can be a little tricky to find outside of the Holiday months of November and December, but I was surprised to see a constant supply of turkey breast at my local Sprouts market. Throughout the year, they consistently sell bone-in and skin-on turkey breast, thighs, and ground meat. You may be able to find raw turkey breast at grocery stores like Gelson’s or smaller butchers, too. A trick to helping find raw turkey breast faster without calling stores or visiting multiple locations is to use InstaCart as a search tool.
Brining the turkey breast before smoking
Just like when I roast my Thanksgiving turkey in the oven, I also like to use a brine here to get tender pieces of turkey. Especially since you’ll be smoking the turkey for long periods, you want to prep your bird for as much moisture and flavor as possible. I used an overnight wet brine for this recipe, including cold water, kosher salt, brown sugar, and aromatics like fresh rosemary, garlic, onion, peppercorns, and a bay leaf.
Herb compound butter
I also like to make and coat the turkey breast with compound butter right before smoking to help retain moisture and add more flavor. My compound butter is a combination of fresh herbs like oregano, sage, thyme, rosemary, and parsley with savory spices like ground mustard, onion powder, garlic powder, and smoked paprika. Make sure you have softened butter because it’s easier to mix together. I also like to peel the skin from the meat so I can butter in between and on top of the skin–this allows for ultimate flavor.
What temp to smoke turkey breast
Low and slow is best when smoking poultry to prevent it from drying out, but evenly cooking it. I preheat the smoker and cook at 225 °F until the internal temperature of the turkey breast (the thickest part) measures 165 °F at the thickest part of the breast. Then, I crank the heat to 400 °F until the turkey breast reaches 175 °F internally. The last part of smoking at higher heat creates a crispier skin and takes about 10 minutes.
How long does it take to smoke a turkey breast?
Smoking a turkey breast at 225 °F takes about two hours total in the smoker for a two-pound bone-in, skin-on turkey breast. There’s also an additional 10-15 minutes of higher smoking time at 400 °F to crisp up the skin at the end of cooking. The timing may be reduced if you use a boneless or skinless turkey breast. But overall, it does take a while so you may want to consider smoking more than one breast at a time.
Type of wood to smoke for turkey breast
Since I use a Traeger smoker, I specifically use wood pellets. I also recommend using maple or pecan pellets or chips when smoking poultry (like smoked chicken thighs) because you don’t want to overpower the flavor of chicken or turkey with bolder smoke flavors like hickory. Check out my other post, covering the best wood for smoking meat.
Should you smoke a turkey breast skin side up or down?
There are different recommendations for positioning turkey breasts in the smoker, but I like placing the turkey breast skin side up to prevent the skin from sticking to the grill. It will come out looking better in the end.
Sides to serve with smoked turkey
Turkey goes great with traditional mashed potatoes, or even my favorite garlic smashed potatoes if you’re feeling fancy. If there’s extra room on your smoker you could throw whole corn on the cob in foil since the turkey will be in there a couple hours. If there’s no room you can boil or just microwave corn on the cob for a side too. If you have lots of smoked turkey left over, and of course the bones, you could use all of this to make a delcious Vietnamese rice porride, or cháo gà. For more smoker ideas check out my recipes:
smoked salmon smoked chicken thighs best wood for smoking pork baby back ribs smoked beef ribs smoked turkey legs
