Grill-Roasted Turkey Breast - Cooks Illustrated

Notoriously dry turkey breast is tricky enough to roast indoors using a predictable heat source (the oven). So how do you keep it moist and tender on the grill?

The Problem

Turkey, especially breast meat, is temperamental. Cooked just a few moments too long, it will dry out and toughen—there's simply not enough fat in the meat to keep it moist.

The Goal

We wanted a deeply bronzed, crisp-skinned turkey breast with smoky, moist meat.

The Solution

Brining proved to be the first key. It kept the meat moist and seasoned it evenly to the bone. But we needed to keep the brine simple; eliminating sugar in the brine was necessary to keep the skin from burning. The second solution was to roast the breast with steady, moderate heat. Piling the coals on one side of the grill, placing the turkey opposite the coals, and then covering the grill turned the grill into an outdoor oven that worked well. For the smoky flavor, we just needed to add a few water-soaked hickory or mesquite chunks.

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