I’m a household appliance junkie. Many women complain when they receive a birthday or holiday gift that results in extra work around the home. Me, I’m the one who comes up with a list of items that generally would be hated by other women. Cases in point include The Big Green Egg which the exe currently has custody of, the Kitchen Aid Pro Mixer, Vitamix, Breville Smart Toaster Convection Oven…the list goes on and on (ask my exe, he has the excel spreadsheet reflecting all expenditures on my appliance wish lists).
It came as no surprise to him that this year at the top of my birthday list was a smoker. (Okay, I did ask for a home in France and one million dollars too – just in case there was a snowballs chance in hell!) I had been trying to negotiate a time-sharing program with The Big Green Egg, but there were several valid points he made about logistics, who would move it, how to move it, and the fact that it requires some babysitting and ability to actually start a fire – a skill we were both uncertain I possessed with my lack of patience and resistance to reading directions. These factors combined with the links to product review and smokers to purchase that he received (my dogs are really excellent at emails and texting) apparently were enough to seal the deal.
Exe can be a clever one. I was returning from SommCon in San Diego and he was being rather annoyingly insistent that I needed to be home for a delivery that was “perishable”. He was making entirely all too big of a deal over this perishable delivery and the need to be home to receive it, so I finally acquiesced and made arrangements to work from home. When the delivery finally arrived, I couldn’t figure out why the delivery men had appliance straps around their neck and decided the Exe had finally lost his mind (most likely caused by me) and ordered me a side of beef to hang from the garage. Then this magical moment occurred and out from the back of the delivery truck magically appeared a Pit Boss Professional Smoker. A few minutes later he texted to confirm I had received my perishables, I squealed with delight that I received a smoker and was still waiting for the perishables to arrive. He had anticipated this and shortly thereafter delivered a Diestel Turkey Breast to break in the new man in my life – The Pit Boss.
The inaugural run had a few mishaps, all caused by user error. The bird was prepped in the normal fashion for traditional oven roasting – butter and herbs de Provence stuffed under the skin and massaged on the skin. There was a small internal debate over placing directly on the rack or using a roasting pan with V rack (I opted for the roasting pan with V rack for ease of clean up). I misread the temperature and thought we were on C when I set it to 170, realizing after two hours of smoking that the bird was rather pasty white instead of lightly tanned. A few minutes later the temperature was reset to the proper temperature for Fahrenheit and the bird miraculously started to get a beautiful golden color. Two and a half hours later a perfectly smoked, moist turkey breast emerged from the smoker and success was declared!
- 1 8 pd turkey breast (defrosted if not fresh)
- 1 stick of softened butter
- Herbs de Provence 1-2 tablespoons based on preference
- Salt and Pepper
- Pellets for smoker (hickory or your preferred pellet)
- Preheat your smoker to 325 degrees.
- Combined softened butter with Herbs de Provence. Gently separate skin from turkey breast and place butter underneath the skin of turkey. Place remaining butter mixture on the outside layer of skin and massage in. This also helps distribute the butter mixture evenly underneath the skin. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
- Place turkey breast into pre-heated smoker and cook for 3 hours at 325 degrees. Increase temperature to 425 degrees for final 30 minutes of cooking or until internal temperature of turkey breast reaches 165 degrees. Let turkey rest for 15 minutes.
