Cooking a turkey breast so it's moist

[Fat Guy]

I have the assignment to cook a turkey breast. I'd like it not to be dry and disgusting, to the greatest extent possible.

The skin doesn't matter. It will be discarded. So a wet cooking method is okay if that's the best move.

I don't have sous-vide equipment available for this.

Thoughts?

[faronem]

With that lean of a meat, I'd probably dry poach it, seasoned and buttered on both sides, in between parchment.

Or, if you wanted to be fancy, how about slow poached in a beurre monté?

[lancastermike]

If brined, lots of cooking methods will make it moist. I brine them and smoke them for moist smoky turkey.

Refrence this EG topic with posts from some legandary EG members including the dearly departed Fifi. And other smoking and brining luminaries like Col Klink, Arne, Snowangel, Abra, Marlene and some guy from lancaster.

smoked turkey

Edited January 7, 2011 by lancastermike (log)

[heidih]

What about the method often used for chicken breasts of bringing to a simmer in flavored liquid to cover, then covering pot and letting sit off heat till done to taste. The turkey breast of course is larger but if you can trim to more manageable pieces it could work. Leave bones in for better flavor.

[Shalmanese]

If all you care about is moistness and you don't have access to sous vide, brine + ghetto sous vide is probably your best bet. Brine overnight in a 3% salt/2% sugar solution. Make a court bouillon or some other similarly flavorful liquid and bring it up to 70C. Put the turkey breast in and then put it covered in a low, low oven, with a thermometer in the breast and another in the water. The breast should cool the water down to 60C or so, adjust the oven so it maintains 55 - 65C (this may require cycling between low & off if the oven doesn't go down that low), cook until the internal temp hits 60C.

[gfweb]

I'd do something like that. Braise it slow in an oven.

Or do a beer cooler sous vide in the bathtub. I have done this and it works fine. You don't need a vac sealer, just a good airless zip lock will be fine.

I'd salt the meat surface and then bag it. A big cooler with lots of hot water at the right temp would work great and is the most fool-proof, I think. I'd start out higher than the target temp by a few degrees to make up for the cooling from the meat. 62C would be the target temp and time would depend on the meat thickness of course.

I know sv owners can get evangelical about it but the sv results with turkey are just sooo much better than the old way.

[lancastermike]

I'd do something like that. Braise it slow in an oven.

Or do a beer cooler sous vide in the bathtub. I have done this and it works fine. You don't need a vac sealer, just a good airless zip lock will be fine.

I'd salt the meat surface and then bag it. A big cooler with lots of hot water at the right temp would work great and is the most fool-proof, I think. I'd start out higher than the target temp by a few degrees to make up for the cooling from the meat. 62C would be the target temp and time would depend on the meat thickness of course.

I know sv owners can get evangelical about it but the sv results with turkey are just sooo much better than the old way.

Can you elaborate on how the turkey is better done this way than the "old" way?

[Mikels]

I suggest a simple solution. Brine the breast, add aromatics in the body cavity, oil well, then use an external probe thermometer and remove it from the oven at 165F - 170F depending upon your preference. Although I have not done this for a breast, it works quite well with or without brining for a whole turkey or chicken. If you are able, instead of roasting it, use a turkey frier; the oil seals in the moisture. Using the external probe thermometer, the turkey does not overcook, which leads to dryness.

[FauxPas]

Not sure that this is of any use to you, but I read somewhere online (can't remember where, of course) about making a turkey "throast." Debone a thigh (or thighs?) and breast, spread the thigh on the breast and tie for roasting. Never tried it, but it did sound like a nice way to get a mix of white and dark meat and prevent the breast from drying out.

[gfweb]

I'd do something like that. Braise it slow in an oven.

Or do a beer cooler sous vide in the bathtub. I have done this and it works fine. You don't need a vac sealer, just a good airless zip lock will be fine.

I'd salt the meat surface and then bag it. A big cooler with lots of hot water at the right temp would work great and is the most fool-proof, I think. I'd start out higher than the target temp by a few degrees to make up for the cooling from the meat. 62C would be the target temp and time would depend on the meat thickness of course.

I know sv owners can get evangelical about it but the sv results with turkey are just sooo much better than the old way.

Can you elaborate on how the turkey is better done this way than the "old" way?

It is unfailingly juicy & tender when done SV. Not even a bit stringy. Absolutely brainless to cook too. No worrying about juices running clear or internal temperature. I'm a pretty decent cook, but I'd be unhappy w one of three birds cooked in an oven and have to spend a lot of time compulsing over temps.

The disadvantage with SV is that you don't get crispy skin; but you can separate it and broil it.

You also don't get drippings for gravy, but you do get the carcass to make stock from which is a great trade-off for me. On Christmas Eve I SVd the breasts and made a stock-based wondra-thicked gravy that was essentially fat free but looked and tasted fantastic. I re-heated both for Xmas lunch in the SV. It tasted perfect and fresh-cooked (as opposed to reheated and dried out).

Dark meat takes longer and higher temps eg 180F and 24 hrs (or something like that). I'm not big on the stuff so I just stick with the breast.

[faronem]

Regardless of "sv vs. old" methods of cooking, the commonality I see in all the suggestions is that cooking (slowly?) to a specified temperature is key to retaining a sense of moisture.

[IndyRob]

I'd probably just brine and roast (on the bone, with skin, preferably). Brining makes roasting much more forgiving.

[rooftop1000]

You could inject it also....last week I fryed a turkey that I injected with melted chicken fat infused with Jamaican jerk paste. Very subtle flavor but great aroma from the Jerk seasoning.

t

[lancastermike]

melted chicken fat infused with Jamaican jerk paste.

t

Tracey,

That sounds like something to eat with a spoon.

[JAZ]

Steven, how are you planning to serve the turkey? To me, that makes a difference in how I'd cook it. Although I don't do much turkey, when I cook chicken breasts for sandwiches, I poach them and keep the meat in the cooking liquid, but if I want the meat as the main dish, I'll roast them (brined if I have time).

[JBailey]

As I have noted under the sous vide topic, I followed Phillip Preston's Polyscience video for turkey breast. In the vacuum bag add sage, duck fat and a touch of apple cider. Then circulate it for 4 hours at 160F, followed by 30 minutes of finishing in the oven at 350F. When in the oven, I wrap the breast in a butter soaked cheesecloth and I discard the skin before carving. I have not experienced such most and tender turky breast previously-and it comes out this way each time I have cooked it sous vide.

If you are going elsewhere, maybe you can do the sous vide segment in your kitchen and the finishing in an oven at your destination.

[Fat Guy]

Janet, this will be for sliced, boneless, skinless applications. Maybe a couple of sandwiches, maybe a few slices heated and served with gravy, maybe some other ways. I'm not entirely sure. I just need the product ready.

[Dave the Cook]

If you've got a vacuum sealer, a probe thermometer, a big enough pot (and a rack to hold the bagged meat off the bottom of the pot), plus a decent attention span, it's easy to rig an adequate sous-vide setup on your stovetop. Convection in the open pot seems to provide adequate circulation; you just need to pay attention to the water temperature. For the last two Thanksgivings, I've done turkey breast this way at 60°C, give or take (my range is pretty stable) for 2-1/2 hours. I'm unlikely to ever cook turkey breast any other way.

[aschall]

The key to cooking turkey perfectly is to brine it 24-48 hours. Then whatever cooking method you decide on, use a thermometer to get it to the perfect temperature. And remember carry over cooking will continue to heat the turkey after it's removed from the heat.

[ChrisTaylor]

Yeah, brining. Give it a day. You could flavour that brine with something too, if you want. And the low and slow temperature. When I roasted turkey for the first time I didn't bring it but I did rub the breast--under and on top of the skin--with a lot of flavoured butter. I wrapped the bird in foil while cooking it. Obviously a vaccum pack would be better but I didn't have that and neither did you. I wouldn't 'seal' it in a pan. I wouldn't expose it, uncovered, to the drying heat of the oven.

If you want to make a gravy you could just scrounge up some wings and bones and such and work with that. Forget getting anything from the breast.

If it's just a one-off (instead of something you want to do every day in a shop or somethng) then you could try the ghetto sous vide setup described above. I've used it for 'roo fillets and it worked pretty well ... altho' I was even more ghetto and worked with cling film.

Edited January 7, 2011 by ChrisTaylor (log)

[andiesenji]

I save turkey fat in the freezer and when I have a turkey breast to cook, I use my larding needle, fill it with the (defrosted) turkey fat and insert two lines of fat linearly in the approximate center of the breast half about 2 inches apart.

If I'm not cooking for people who don't or won't eat pork, I sometimes use pork fat, unsmoked, and have also used beef suet if I don't have enough turkey fat. I have also used duck fat, which is a whole 'nother story.

During roasting the fat is almost completely rendered and distributed in the flesh.

[PedroG]

I have the assignment to cook a turkey breast. I'd like it not to be dry and disgusting, to the greatest extent possible.

The skin doesn't matter. It will be discarded. So a wet cooking method is okay if that's the best move.

I don't have sous-vide equipment available for this.

Thoughts?

As you don't have sous-vide equipment, you might try the water-pot in an oven method.

Recently I did turkey breast steaks, brined overnight in 7% NaCl / 3% sucrose, bagged with marinade and mustard (it remained 3 weeks at 1°C/34°F), cooked SV 1h at 60.5°C (sufficient to pasteurize), dabbed dry and seared in 200°C/392°F rice bran oil for 1 minute. It came out tender, juicy and succulent.

[MelissaH]

Or even throw it in a crockpot with a bit of liquid, and let it go with the cover on till it's done.

MelissaH

[goldie]

Cook it low (325 degrees) and slow until you reach the desired internal temp. Prior to cooking, season as you would prefer, but I like for sandwiches cajun style (lift the skin and put underneath) or a nice bbq rub. I've only brined a few turkeys (and they were whole birds and came out wonderfully), but I would imagine it would help (unless you are watching sodium) should you be so inclined.

Alternately, you could use the same technique as chicken under a brick which would improve the texture in the long run.

[HungryC]

(I know you're in NYC so my method won't help you.) No brining needed (I don't like the taste or texture of brined turkey, that's why I bother to seek out higher-quality fresh natural turkeys, as the cheaper stuff is already treated with a solution). Smoke-roasting turkey breast in a Big Green Egg is the best way I know to cook turkey breast.

Put your favorite dry rub or paste (my standard is herbes de provence, lemon zest, garlic, salt, & black pepper) above & below the skin of a bone-in HALF breast and cook it in a BGE on a raised grid at 350 degrees, using a few fruitwood chips in the first 30 minutes (I like apple best for turkey). It's done when it hits 175 (or slightly lower, if you'd like). Let it rest a good while before slicing. A 5 lb half breast takes about 90 minutes, unattended. I've never tried it in the oven, but I'd put it on a roasting rack and tent it with foil for the first hour, removing the foil for the last 30 mins. No smoke, but it should be perfectly juicy.

Doing split breasts rather than whole ones decreases the cooking time a bit, reducing the chance of overcooking. I used to buy the deboned fresh breasts, but then I figured out that carving the split breasts was very easy & the bone-in had better flavor.