Dr. BBQ’s Injected Turkey Breasts

For many years I dreamed of traveling the country learning about barbecue — and now I am privileged to make a living by passing on what I’ve learned. In my two decades of travels I have found endless surprises, but there is always one constant and that’s the passion for food. Over the years I have come to realize that cooking on the Big Green Egg is an experience as much as it’s a way to prepare a meal. The versatility of the EGG seems to bring out the best in cooks no matter what their level, and the Big Green Egg is all about serving great food for family and friends during the holidays!

For this next installment of my video recipes I’ll show you how to prepare two holiday turkeys — an Injected Cajun Creole Butter Turkey and a Lemon, Pepper and Herb Turkey. If you are preparing a whole turkey, just double the injection recipe and inject into the thighs as well as the breasts. These are great recipes for Thanksgiving, Christmas or a delicious meal throughout the year.

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2.9/5 (21 Reviews)

Ingredients

  • Whole bone-in turkey breast (approx. 6 lbs)

Instructions

Set the EGG for indirect cooking with the convEGGtor at 325°F/163°C. (If you are cooking a whole turkey, cook at 325°F/163°C for 12 minutes per pound until the turkey has reached a safe minimum internal temperature of 165°F/74°C throughout the product.)

Prepare based on specifications below, depending on which recipe you are using.

Cook the turkey breast for approximately 1.5 hours, or until the internal temperature is 165°F/74°C

Remove the breast from EGG. Tent with foil and allow to rest for 20-30 minutes.

Cajun Turkey Ingredients

  • Creole butter
  • Creole rub
  • Apple (if cooking a whole turkey)
  • Onion (if cooking a whole turkey)

Cajun Turkey Instructions

Inject turkey, using the Big Green Egg Injector with Creole butter in a grid pattern. Rub turkey breast with Creole rub.

If cooking a whole turkey, place the apple and onion inside turkey and set on grid of EGG.

Lemon and Herb Turkey Breast Ingredients

  • Lemon juice
  • Fine grain sea salt and black pepper
  • 1 bundle of herbs

Lemon and Herb Turkey Breast Instructions

Squeeze lemon juice all over the breast and rub with sea salt and pepper.

Place the bundle of herbs on top of the breast and set on the cooking grid.

21 thoughts on “Dr. BBQ’s Injected Turkey Breasts”

  1. Thought I would try a turkey breast on my egg. I wanted to keep it simple so I tried the lemon and herb. Cooked it per the instructions and it turned out great. Served if for Thanksgiving. I have a grown nephew who is a really picky eater. He rarely eats any meat, because he doesn’t like the taste. He loved it and said it was the best turkey he had ever had, high praise for him. Everyone else enjoyed it as well. We had other meats at our meal, but there were no turkey leftovers. It really was moist and flavorful. Thanks for the recipe, it’s one I’ll use again.

  2. I’ve made this recipe several times and all my family and guests LOVE it! It’s simplicity shines through in the flavors as you can taste the perfect blend of herbs and lemon permeated through the meat. Try it. You’ll like it.

  3. My first turkey today…tried the Cajun rub recipe, and after cooking a 6# bird for 1:20 mins in a foil pan on top of grill top with plate setter in place, it wasn’t ready! What did i do wrong? Did using a foil pan extend the time i needed to cook?

    1. Injecting the turkey is more than enough to ensure the breast is moist. I started smoking turkey breasts instead of buying from the deli and I get compliments from whoever has tried them. No brining necessary.

  4. I tried the Lemon & Herb Turkey, for our family Christmas Dinner. The turkey was just under 5 lbs. I Did exactly what Dr. BBQ said to do and it turned out Great; It was so Great. The kids eat it all, before the wife and I had a chance to try it. So the wife went weekly grocery shopping and bought another turkey breast. That is what I am going to smoke today for our New Year Dinner on my BIG GREEN EGG. Sorry kids Mom and I are not sharing this one. “Happy New Years and May God Bless” you all.

  5. tried this yesterday and it was the best turkey we have ever had!!! Breast only is the way to go. Pulled it off at 160 degrees internally, rested it for 30 minutes and BAM, MAGIC!!!!

    1. I couldn’t get the egg back up to 325 degrees, even though it was over 700 degrees prior to putting in the plate setter. I had cleaned out the bowl and put in new charcoal. Overall I cook great “low and slow” around 250 degrees but can’t get much above that with indirect heat. I had two turkey breasts on the grill; could that have restricted air flow? Other thoughts?

      1. My egg too doesn’t get back to temperature unless I take the chimney louver off. Open it up on the top and it’ll get back to temp.

        1. I would clean your green egg first. There are several YouTube videos to do that. After cleaning I would then pay particular attention to the alignment of your bottomHole in the green egg where you pull the ash out. The inter-lining of the egg and the outer hole have to be aligned. If this is not inline you will have temperature problems. Again I would check on YouTube they show you how to do this. Hope this helps

      2. If you’re still using the dome thermometer that comes with the egg you may have been real close to or even in the turkey. Before I switched to a pit probe I used to back the thermometer out a bit. It never hurts to check your thermometer with boiling water too just to see that it’s reading right.

      3. You don’t want to put a cold plate setter into a hot Egg . Heat it up with the plate setter in it. But it does sound kind of like an air flow problem, but not with the bowl or anything (otherwise you wouldn’t have hit 700 in the first place). Did you have foil or something extending over the edges of your drip pan?

      4. Line up fire box opening to lower vent, make sure all air holes in fire box are not clogged, use large lump in bottom of fire box so holes vent (not small used), leave lower vent wide open, install plate setter feet down for more heat-air flow… If that doesn’t work, temporary use a glove or something to keep the lid up 1/4 inch or so

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