Description

Scored, seasoned with herbs and spices, rolled up and smoked, this turkey porchetta will take your Thanksgiving table (or any table) to the next level!

Ingredients

Meat used: 1 turkey whole breast, with skin

Seasoning: Parsley (1 C), fennel seed (1/2 Tbsp), peppercorns (1 Tbsp), salt (1/2 Tbsp), a little red pepper flake to taste, and some olive oil (1 Tbsp).

Wood Used: Apple

Grill Temperature: ~250-275 F, indirect heat

Meat Temperature: 145-150 F

Smoke time: ~2 hours

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Instructions

First thing we need to do is remove the skin and set it aside for later. I found that the easiest and best way to do it without tearing is to get your fingers in-between the skin and the flesh and to just work your hand in there separating the two.
After that you’ll want to debone the breast and, in my experience, you’re just going to want to carve the breast bone from the flesh. I wish I had some tricks or secrets but for me it was a time-consuming process.
Once you get that, you’ll butterfly your breast out and flatten it out on top of that lovely skin that we have. After that we’re going to score the breast so that our herb mixture can get in there as much as possible.
Speaking of herb mixtures, we should probably make one, shouldn’t we? For your herbs, you can use any kind of Thanksgiving type herbs. I went with parsley (1 C), (since I still have some in my garden), fennel seed (1/2 Tbsp), peppercorns (1 Tbsp), salt (1/2 Tbsp), a little red pepper flake to taste, and some olive oil (1 Tbsp). You could easily use something like sage as well.
You’ll want to mix it up in a food processor or high-powered blender until it’s almost a pesto like consistency. Once you have that all processed just go ahead and rub it into the scored side of the turkey breast.
Now we'll get to rollin'. You’ll need to roll up the breast on its own and get it nice and tight making sure we get as much of that mixture in there as we can.
After you’re rolled up, you roll it up again, this time with the skin, so we have a nice packet of meat under the skin. Make sure you keep all of the skin on the outside of the breast.
Next, you’ll want to tie this bad boy up with butcher's twine, so it stays all together. Now would be the time to use any fancy butcher’s knots that you’ve learned over the years.
We dusted the outside with a little rub which was just the herb mixture minus the parsley, oil and chili flakes, so basically fennel, salt and pepper.
Now it’s time to get smoking. Set up your smoker to 250-275F. When you put your turkey on, add a little bit of wood (we used apple, but any mild fruit wood would be fine). You’ll want to get the internal temp up to 145-150F which should take about 2 hours or so. When you get close to your internal temp, you can crank up your temperature to crisp up that skin on the outside.
Once you’re all done, pull it from the smoker and let it rest for a few minutes to let juices redistribute. After that, all that’s left is to snip your twine and carve it up. Now enjoy that pretty cross-section and get ready for a tryptophan induced nap.

Notes

See post notes for step by step image instructions on how to prepare the turkey porchetta for smoking!