The lighter side of grilling - Smoked Turkey Breast

As I get older, 36 and counting, it's harder and harder to keep the weight off. My latest tactic of working out my chest and shoulders to make my gut look smaller by comparison has not gone all that well. I have gotten great results working out. So much so that my 44 regular suits don't fit anymore and had to go buy two 46's for the wedding circuit this summer. And being only 5'10" a 46 inch suit requires a boatload of tailoring so this new workout regime has been pretty expensive and didn't really diminish my growing midsection. Evidently beer is really fattening!?! Who knew, right?

So it looks like I have to look at my diet a bit. And considering what my passion is, my diet is usually very high in fat content. And while smoked turkey will never be higher than ribs or a steak on my list of faves it's still really good. And my dad is the master of making smoked turkey. He has many variations. This one is probably the most basic. Click here to see the process step by step, pic by pic. And if the pics below don't entice you to want to click the link then there is something seriously wrong with you:

Working on it. So far I have been featured in the St. Louis Post Dispatch, the Central Illinois Herald and Review and am being interviewed for a radio show in Houston to be aired this weekend...

The problem with doing a whole turkey is that the extremities cook quickly. Truss the bird so that the wings and legs are stuck close by the body. And the butter over the skin really browns it up nicely for great presentation...

Do you have one of these?



Place one of the sides over the coals and flip up the lip. You will need to add charcoal and wood chunks periodically to keep the temp up. As the coals burn the ash insulates them and reduces the temp.

And what about one of these:



With the probe therm you can monitor the temp without having to open the lid. Only open the lid when you need to add coals or flip the meat and such and try to do everything at one time to limit the lid openings.


Way ahead of you. I'm all about the high protein low carb diet. I'll eat pasta but it has to be multi grain, same with bread. I don't count calories. I just cut portions and eat more protein. If I do get fast food I just get the burger and not the fries. No soda ever. I haven't had caffeine since 1994 and have soda maybe twice a year.

But I just got back on the better diet kick. I got married about 3 years ago. Before that I lived alone and cooked for myself. When we first got married I did all the cooking. Now my wife does most of it as she gets off work fairly early. I don't get home till at least 6 (7 on days I work out). So for the last year and a half or so I have been eating whatever she cooks. My wife is new to cooking. Healthy cooking is hard to do for new cooks. It takes a while to get there. She is getting better now.

All that being said, smoked turkey is a great low fat, high protein meal unlike the three slabs of ribs I did on Sat which I have had for lunch two days this week. Or the scotch eggs I did with the ribs that I have been eating for breakfast every day this week. Lots of protein in those meals but a lot of fat too. I could stand to cut my fat intake as well.

Try getting one of those probe therms I have a pic of in the above post. Shove it deep into the breast. When it hits 160 pull it from the grill, bring it inside, loosely foil it for about 10 minutes at which time it should rise to 165, carve and enjoy...