FOOD + DRINK
A KENTISH CHRISTMAS CONT .
Whole Smoked Turkey Breast
Recipe by : John Bingley executive chef , Firepit Restaurant at The Cave Hotel , Boughton www . cavehotels . com
Create a show-stopping turkey for Christmas Day Ingredients :
• Turkey breast
• 1 block butter
For the brine :
• 2 litres water
• 13g salt
• 9g sugar
• 130ml white wine vinegar
For the seasoning :
• 2 parts coarse ground black pepper , to one part kosher salt
Method :
1 . Remove the skin from the turkey breast and trim any sinue .
2 . For the brine , place all of the ingredients in a bowl and whisk until dissolved . Place your turkey breast in the brine . For best results leave for 24 hours .
3 . After 24 hours , drain off the brine and pat the turkey breast dry .
4 . Evenly season the breast so every slice has the same amount of seasoning .
5 . We cook over oak at our restaurants on our offset smoker which allows us to cook indirectly for a low and slow finish . You can cook indirectly on most bbqs at home .
6 . Once the smoker has reached the temp of 135 º C place your turkey breast thick side towards the fire . You are looking for the outside colour to be light brown . At this point the turkey will not be cooked so we now need to wrap the turkey breast to prevent burning the outside bark .
7 . Get two sheets of foil and a block of butter , cut half of the butter into 4 slices . Place the butter on the sheet of foil in a line the length of the turkey breast , place the breast on the butter skin side down and wrap tightly .
8 . Place back in the smoker , use a probe to make sure the turkey reached 65 º C at the thickest part of the turkey . Once at that temperature take out of the smoker and leave on the side to rest until the internal temp reads 45 º C and then slice .
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