Smoked turkey breast

[brettbrown]

This year I'm taking the bird off the gasser and going to try it on my performer. So I thought I'd do a practice run today with just a breast. I've got the water pan sitting on the charcoal grate and about 3/4 of a chimney of K on the sides. I have the meat sitting on an 18.5 grill grate just above the water pan. The only reason I set it up like this is that it lowers everything about 2", and I think that will help when there's a full bird in there. I forgot to get a set up pic but here's want I have
Any advice/tips would be greatly appreciated. I'm also using pecan wood I got from #argentflame

[brettbrown]

Finished product
And just enough for lunch meat for the week.

[namtrag]

Some fine looking bird there!

[f2benny]

I'd like to get more info.  What temp did you cook at and what temp did you pull it off.  I did a turkey "tenderloin" last winter on a milder day.  Used the Simon and Garfunkle rub.  I was nervous about drying it out and pulled it promptly at 162 degrees if I recall (two separate digital therms) then to be sure it stopped cooking sliced it up quickly.  It was great.

By midnight my wife and I were both puking our guts out.  Still not sure what went haywire but I think it was due to not staying at the target temp long enough.

[namtrag]

I cooked my first one to 170, and no issues.  I think it ran at 170 for a while before I pulled it.  It was pretty moist as I coated underneath the skin with butter and olive oil mixed together and melted. 

[1buckie]

@f2benny

Here's the Foodsafe general temps:

http://www.foodsafety.gov/keep/charts/mintemp.html

In the situation where someone gets "food poisoning"  or a fairly quick rejection reaction, it's very likely that either the food was handled unsafely in processing (prior to purchase) or somehow a small amount of raw juice sat for a time & then ended up in contact with the finished product......

Most likely cooking to 162 as you did, the temp would rise a bit just getting it off the cooker......
Chances are, it not your undercooking as that pretty close................
watch for pink in the meat.....can get away with some of that in pork, but chicken & such, not so much.....

Poultry juice is no joke.......the raw juice is a magnet for dangerous bacteria, so please be careful folks.....

I always take care to use a different surface for after cook, just to make sure......

[brettbrown]

It cooked around 260 degrees for the full cook, about 2 hours. I pulled it when the internal temp was 165. It was perfect. I've cooked about 5 full turkeys. The first one I took off at 160 and it was great, the next one I did the same and it seemed way under cooked. The last few I've taken off at 165 and they have all been great. I've followed the amazingribs.com turkey recipe pretty closely every time and never had any complaints. For this breast I just used a chicken rub I had laying around.

[brettbrown]

@1buckie
Thanks for the link. And I also think the pecan wood I used came from you too. The flavor from the wood was a little stronger than I thought. I've used a mixture of alder and Apple in the past and never got the strong smoke taste that the pecan wood gave off. My wife says it's too smokey, I think it's great. I'm eating it right now as I type this.

[1buckie]

Could be if you got it from Alvin......looks familiar......it is seasoned, but has always been just a bit sharper than normal pecan that is store bought.....

Comes from the big tree in the yard.......it may benefit from splitting, then burn it bark side up so the bark gets a chance to heat before it ignites.....

[brettbrown]

I did get it from Alvin.

[1buckie]

Get an old chisel from the 2nd hand store & split.....it will work a bit better.....I don't always get to splitting the pieces....

Forgot to say.....nice lookin'  turk !!!!