A grilled bone in turkey breast often refered to as a split breast, will take an hour or so to grill and about 10 minutes to prep. When done properly the turkey will be tender and juicy and is well worth the effort. We are grilling a pair of bone in breasts over Royal Oak Natural lump charcoal. We like the added layer of flavor that charcoal gives to our turkey, so we recommend it if it is an option for you. If grilling over gas you can add some wood chips for that additional flavor.
We are going to be grilling our turkey breast barbecue style with Memphis style sauce and rub. Feel free to substitute any flavor combination you would like.
Prepping the grilled bone in turkey breast:
Step 1 injecting: We take our Corky’s barbecue sauce straight from the bottle and inject it into our breasts. concentrating the injection points on the ends and thinner parts of the breast that may dry out. We inject into 6 different places on our breast. This gave me the opportunity to test out our new injector as well.
Step 2 Dry Rub: You can use any spice combination you would like here. We used the Corky’s rub that pairs with our sauce but there are many great rubs out there. The important thing here is that you use heavy coverage, this is a large piece of meat so don’t be shy.
Then cover and refrigerate for an hour or two, this allows those spices to break down and penetrate the meat. I do all of the prep in the Charcoal Companion Grill Station. It is great for holding the mess in and just set the lid on it when your done.
Heat Your Grill:
You will need to be set up for medium heat indirect cooking. You want a temperature of 350 to 375 degrees on your hood thermometer. In our case a single chimney of our lump charcoal with the lower vent half-open and upper vent fully open does the job perfectly. If your temp is to high at the beginning the outer part of the meat will get tough.
Grilled bone in turkey breast, the grilling:
Place your breast with the thickest part of the meat towards the heat. After the first half hour rotate the breast so the thinner part is facing the heat. After another half an hour check the temperature, hopefully you will be in the 145 or up range. If not rotate again and continue to check your temp every 10 minutes or so.
When your grilled bone in turkey breast is has reached at least 145 you have reached the finishing stage. Here you are faced with a choice. You can either sauce the outside, this will leave you with a chewy but tastier skin. For this continue to grill over indirect heat for an additional 10 to 15 minutes, until the breast has reached 165 internal temperature.
For a crispy skin: Turn the breast skin side down and place directly over the heat and grill for 5 to 8 minutes. Watch and listen for flare ups. Remove from grill and tent with tinfoil for at least 5 minutes.
Slice and serve your grilled bone in turkey breast.
Mike
aka Sultan of Sizzle
I have been blogging about and selling grilling tool for over 12 years. A Certified Food Safety Professional, KCBS member, award winning writer and have over 10 years experience in the food service industry.
“I have experienced some of the best food this country has to offer and nothing is better than the food that comes off my own grill!”
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