turkey breast cooking advise

A friend of ours hooked us up with a ten pound turkey breast. After what seemed to take forever for this thing to thaw, Im ready to cook it today. This is not a piece of meat I normally ever get,so Im not familiar with the best method for cooking this monster. I made a brine last night thats been cooling in the fridge. This morning(8am) I combined the giant turkey breast and brine in a large pot and put it back in the fridge(after some real creative reorganizing of the fridge). What do you feel would the best time/temp for this hunk o bird. Cover no cover? Up down/flip it? Do you think 7 8 hours in the brine is long enough?
Any help will be most appreciated.

Deep fry

John I'm sure others on the forum will be able to give you more creative advise. What I've done in the past is pretty simple. I stuff the chest (I'm assuming it is a turkey with wings/legs/thieghs removed but with chest cavity and spine in tact) with a small, quartered onion and apple. Rub the chest with butter then I would normally salt and pepper it. Since you have brined the bird you may want to skip this. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes per pound (since this is a breast only) Cook breast side up. I tent it loosely with a little foil to start with then remove it for the last 30-45 minutes so it can brown nicely. The internal temp when finished should be 180 degrees. Check the internal temp at about 3/4 of the way through the cooking time so you can gauge how much more time you really need and not over cook your bird.
Again, there are much more experienced chefs on this forum than myself and they may give you better info.
Good luck!

Thanks Carla, when you say internal temp of 180...is that after the rest period? I was thinking of pulling it out at around 160 to 165 and letting the temp rise as it rests.

[Robin Garr]

Thanks Carla, when you say internal temp of 180...is that after the rest period? I was thinking of pulling it out at around 160 to 165 and letting the temp rise as it rests.

Whoa, hold on there, podnuh ... not to disagree with the charming Ms. Carla, but you'll scorch that sucker dry if you roast it to 180.

Even the ultra-conservative food scientists at USDA suggest pulling a roast breast at 165. which will carry it to 170 or so.
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/factsheets/let ... /index.asp

I'd suggest that even this is going to give you less-than-juicy meat.

John, is it an heirloom/free-range bird or an industrial bird? In the latter case, I'd probably go to 165 to burn out any potential baddies. If it's from a farmer you meet face to face, I wouldn't be shy about taking it out a little sooner. You're good on bacteria assuming you reach 150 after carryover.
http://www.ochef.com/308.htm

Yep...industrial bird. Not my normal route,but this was given to us. 185 seemed pretty high to me as well. Now if your saying 165 for industrial poultry...same question, is that the "pull out" temp or the final temp after rest. I would prefer to pull this sucker as soon as I can. Any thoughts on 325 vs 350? And what about the brine time...think thats long enough to get the job done...8 hours or so?
Next problem is what the heck Anne and I are going to do with 10 pounds of cooked turkey.

[Robin Garr]

Yep...industrial bird. Not my normal route,but this was given to us. 185 seemed pretty high to me as well. Now if your saying 165 for industrial poultry...same question, is that the "pull out" temp or the final temp after rest. I would prefer to pull this sucker as soon as I can. Any thoughts on 325 vs 350? And what about the brine time...think thats long enough to get the job done...8 hours or so?
Next problem is what the heck Anne and I are going to do with 10 pounds of cooked turkey.

John, USDA (and me) say pull out at 165 and let carryover do whatever it's going to do. You just don't need to bake that sucka til it's hard.

Personally, I'd go with high heat to start (400, anyway - 450 might be rough on the skin), then reduce to 350 after a half-hour or so. As for brining, I've never really been a fancier. I've tried it with pork and turkey and haven't really seen results to justify the extra effort, but I know others disagree, so this may be a blind spot for me.

If you have a convection oven, use it.

OK thanks, Ill pull it out 160 to 165 and go from there. I go back and forth on brining. For some things it seems to make more an impact than others, in respect to taste and texture. I have also noticed it seems to have the effect of speeding up cooking times.
Im sure no matter what I do, its not going to taste as good as a locally raised bird.

In my opinion, brining is a must for an "industrial" bird.

In my opinion, brining is a must for an "industrial" bird.

Well do think my 8 hours will be enough time?

John,
I'm with Gayle on brining--to me it makes a huge difference in taste, texture and cooking time. I would think 8 hours would be long enough for a breast. I usually brine a whole bird overnight.

I switched to dry brine last fall and I'll never go back to a wet brine. I know you've already got it in the bucket, though...and yes, 8 hours is plenty of time. Depending on what's in the brine, the meat can take on a "mushy" texture if you leave it in the liquid too long.

More about dry brining: http://www.latimes.com/theguide/holiday ... 4438.story

Pull it at 158F.

Sorry to take so long to get back to you, John. I didn't do the computer this afternoon!

I am a wet briner. Presonally, I like wet brines much better than dry ones. When doing a whole turkey, I think the dry brine works fine on the dark meat portions, but, imho, the white meat of a turkey does better with a wet brine. Since I prefer the white meat, I go with the wet brine. I have never had a turkey go "mushy" on me; so I guess I am lucky. I wet brine both turkey and pork. I brine whole turkeys over night; turkey breasts usually get the over night treament, too, although I have gotten by with less time. Haven't tried brining any other meats. I usually brine shrimp, as well, but very briefly like twenty or thirty minutes.

Well it turned out quite nice. I went 400 for about 45 min and dropped it down to 335,splitting the difference between 350 and 325. I put it in at 4:30 and checked temp at 7:00 and it was at 148.Kind of like a rookie nurse trying to find a vein, it took me a couple times to find the coldest spot with the temp probe. It didnt take long to get up Lynchs suggested "pull out" time of 158.I While resting, it went to up 163. The bird remained really juicy and went well with mushroom mashed potatoes and some veggies. Made a great gravy from the drippings also.
That breast had an incredible amount of meat on it. We will see how well it freezes. I guess Im looking at turkey burritos or something similar in my future. Thanks all for the advise.

Glad it turned out well for you, John. Also condiser turkey/mushroom quesadilas with the smallest bits at the end.