I love my rotisserie. Love love love love LOOOOOOOOOVE my rotisserie. I’ve only used it twice so far, and already I’m getting the hang of it. I just made, without a doubt, the most perfectly cooked turkey it has ever been my pleasure to chew on.
There’s some big ol’ hunks of beef and pork that have a date with my rotisserie in the near future. But for now I’ve got the how-to for turkey breast. This would go pretty much the same for a whole turkey if you’ve got a much larger grill than mine. The breast in the picture above is about as big as I can fit.
Ingredients
1 turkey breast
kosher salt and fresh-ground black pepper
Directions
I’d really like to be using a whole turkey here. I’m a dark meat fan myself. But it just wouldn’t fit, so a breast it is. I only learned a couple of years ago that you could get a breast, pre-cut and shrink wrapped right next to the whole turkeys.
It’s really convenient, but they inject the breast with up to 15% extra fluid. Which you have to pour out of the bag once you cut it open.
Then rinse it and pat dry with some paper towels.
Unlike a whole turkey, this cut is open on one side. I really wanted to run the spit through the meat, but the breastbone is in the way. I tried punching a hole through it, right where you see my thumb, but there’s no way.
So I had to be extra careful with the forks to make sure I secured the breast well. Same routine with the thermometer probe as when I did the chicken. In this case I was able to put the probe into the thick part of the breast.
Unlike the chicken, there are no wings or legs to truss up. But there will still be loose edges where they were cut off.
Instead of the thread I used last time, which burned off, I tried toothpicks. One at each opening, to keep the loose pieces tucked up under the forks, looked like it should do the trick.
Just like I did with the chicken, I put the turkey on the grill with no seasoning, then added salt and pepper once the bird started giving up some liquid.
After 25 minutes, the skin was starting to show a little color.
After an hour, it looked good enough to eat. But the thermometer showed 155°, another 10 degrees to go.
Another 10 minutes and the alarm went off. Isn’t this just a thing of beauty.
Yeah, I know you already saw that one up top. But I could look at it all day. As a matter of fact, I think I’m going to set the high-resolution version as my desktop.
Reminder: The spit will be hot. Use a heavy-duty mitt to help lift it out.
The toothpicks held up much better than the thread.
Here are the carving directions I mentioned with I did the chicken. Start by slicing down along one side of the breastbone as far down as you can.
Then in from the side at the bottom of the breast.
You should be able to remove the entire half of the breast in a single piece. (I told you it was easier than it sounded when I tried to explain without the pictures.)
About this time I started to feel like I was being watched.
The feeling grew.
And grew.
Man, everybody wanted to get their teeth into this.
Once the breast is off, slice it as thin as you can across the grain.
Serve with the mashed roasted potatoes and some fresh-cut chives from the garden.
And that’s it.
