Nashville Hot Turkey - Smoked Fried Turkey

Nashville Hot Turkey - Smoked Fried Turkey
Given how much we love Nashville Hot Chicken and the popularity of our Nashville Hot Chicken Recipe, we had to try this method on Turkey. In true Meat Church Fashion we take this recipe a step further by smoking the turkey and then frying it so we get that smoky, crunchy, best of both worlds. And let me just tell you that Smoked Fried Turkey is awesome!

Just as in our Hot Chicken recipe, we brined this poultry in pickle juice to get that familiar Chick-fil-A pickle twang which is AMAZING in this recipe.

In this Nashville Hot Turkey recipe we opted to prepare this recipe and video with a boneless turkey breast (AKA turkey lobe), so the protein was easier to manage and required less pickle juice. However, this process works great with a whole turkey, which requires more juice obviously, and also works with the more commonly found bone in turkey breast. 

Meat Church How To YouTube Video: https://youtu.be/cIkACp0Do5A

Meat Church Nashville Hot Turkey supplies: http://bit.ly/nashvillehotchickensupplies

Other turkey recipes. We have a lot! https://www.meatchurch.com/blogs/recipes/tagged/turkey

Ingredients

• 1 boneless turkey breast (sub bone in or whole turkey)
• 6 buns, buttered & toasted

• 4 C, pickle juice (we use Best Maid)
• Meat Church Holy Voodoo

• 1 package Meat Church Chicken Fried Breading (sub seasoned flour)
• 2 C, panko
• 2 T, Meat Church Honey Hog Hot (jalapeño)

• 4 eggs
• 6 oz beer (sub milk or buttermilk)

• 1 C, hot frying oil (use this from your pan after you fry - or sub melted lard)
• 2 T, cayenne pepper (adjust to you heat preference)
• 1 T, brown sugar
• 1 T, Meat Church Honey Hog Hot

• Fry basket
• Wire rack
• Peanut Oil
• Instant Read Thermometer

Brine\Season the turkey
Brine the turkey in pickle juice for at least 4 hours completely submerged for a 3.5 lb turkey breast. 

Remove the turkey from the brine, pat dry and season with our Honey Hog Hot.

Prepare your smoker
Prepare smoker at a temperature of 275 degrees F. I recommend a medium smoking wood or pellet such as pecan, hickory or a fruit wood for this cook. We used Meat Church pellets (oak\hickory).

Smoke the turkey
Smoke the turkey at 275 until you reach 160 internal in the thickest part using your Instant Read Thermometer. It will carryover cook a few more degrees to get it to 165.

You can adjust the smoking temperature to your favorite cooking temperature. I find 275 imparts enough smoke, but gets the turkey done sooner than if I was cooking at a lower temperature such as 225.

Remove from the smoker and allow to cool completely. This is an important step as we are going to fry the breast next and we do not want to go over 165 internal as it will dry it out.

Prepare your fryer
Prepare your fryer at 350 with peanut oil or whichever oil you prefer. I like peanut because of its high smoke point. 

Prepare the dredge
Bowl #1 - Dump contents of 1 package of Meat Church Chicken Fried Breading + 2 T of Meat Church Honey Hog Hot and the panko into a bowl and mix well. 

Bowl # 2 - Mix the eggs and beer.

Dredge the turkey breast in theChicken Fried Breading\Honey Hog Hot\Panko mixture.

Then soak it completely in the wash.

Then coat it thoroughly in the dredge again.

Fry the turkey
Next slowly place the chicken into the hot oil and fry until golden brown. That took 5 minutes in this how to video. The turkey is already cooked when it goes into the oil. You are simply trying to get the breading cooked and pretty.

We use our Thermoworks Instant Read Thermometer to make sure each piece of chicken reaches at least 165 internal temperature.

Remove the turkey from the oil and place on a wire rack to cool and allow the oil to run off. 

Prep the Nashville Hot spicy mixture
Thoroughly mix the hot oil, cayenne (adjust this to your preference of heat level), brown sugar and Honey Hog Hot in a small pot. Be careful as this oil is very hot. The seasonings will not fully dissolve, but that is ok.

Ladle this mixture over the turkey to your liking.

Slice the turkey into #2 pencil sized slices.

Serve on buttered\toasted buns simply with mayonnaise and pickles. Enjoy!