For various reasons doing a couple of boneless turkey breasts tomorrow. I’m quite used to doing a whole bird but this is a slight departure for me.
Of course I want it not to dry out , but to have nice crispy skin.
Turkey is “naturally raised” from local farm.
chefGPT is suggesting:
24 hr dry brine, refrigerate uncovered
Roast at 400 convection, pull at 150-152 , tent loosely min 20 mins and let carryover cooking do the last mile.
Any comments or suggestions? I want to be sure the brine & fridge exposure only dries the skin and surface and that doesn’t really penetrate the flesh.
I think it will he tricky to get crispy skin, while keeping the meet from drying out, especially boneless. I only cook the breast separately, but I’ve pretty much given up on the skin. I do something like this:
My guess is this method will give crispy skin. The question is will the meat be moist. The theory of pulling them at 150+ and relying on carryover is plausible, we shall see. I’m making a serious gravy so that may offer some relief from any dryness.
What I can tell you from experience is that once the temp is climbing and approaching your target, it will go very fast, like minutes. I have learned to pull sooner than I think, and it will rise substantially as it rests.
I’m not usually the one to suggest it, but sous vide works well for something as lean as turkey breast. Then you can do the skin separately. I am pretty sure Serious Eats had a recipe at one point if you Google.
That’s exactly how I was cooking it weekly for lunch meat. Salt, immediately bag, sous vide, pat dry, and then finish skin side up under the broiler. Sometimes shoving tarragon, rosemary or sage into knife slits. I don’t remember the exact cooking temp but it was lower than I do chicken breast (145) and for around 2hrs. Never had any issues with drying out and it lasted for days.
That was chefGPT’s point. Good to have confirmation.
Unlike the legal profession with its hallucinated precedents etc, so far I have found ChatGPT pretty good on recipes, especially adapting for a special requirement.
It also explains very fully its reasons for what it suggests.
Of course it’s not the same as exactly following a Heston Blumenthal recipe say, but if you want to do something like tune a dish to work with both red and white wine it’s pretty good. Also pulling together timelines for complete meal.
Take a look at this video. I used it for Thanksgiving and it was flawless. Then bought two turkey breasts to cook the day after. That’s how good this recipe is.
I use my Combustion thermometer with safe cook. The meat doesn’t have to get to 165 ever as long as it’s at the lower temp for longer than a second and it does all the calculations. It usually ends up having me pull it around 138-140, which results in succulent and moist breast. If you pull it at 152, it’s going to be very dry.
Agreed 152 is too high. That combustion thermometer looks like a really cool gadget. I’ve watched the inventor’s YouTube videos and they are really well done and entertaining. My only drawback is that you have to use your phone with it and I tend to leave my phone in the other room way too often, plus I have multiple probes already from other companies
How long a rest if pulled at 140 and should it be tented? Pulling at 150, recipe said not to tent ant 20 minute rest
Each (half) breast is about 2.5 lb and on the thinner side.
Cook was 1 hr at 325 and 10 mins at 450 (plus the time to heat up). Pulled at 150.
Result was very good. Crispy skin and turkey was neither dry nor “damp” ( there’s a texture sous vide seems to give I can’t exactly describe but don’t like). This was proper roast turkey texture and flavour. (For any one jumping in at the end , this was after 24 hr dry brine).
