Smoked Boneless Turkey Breast in a Masterbuilt Electric Smoker

Smoked Boneless Turkey Breast in a Masterbuilt electric smoker is seasoned with a fresh herb and garlic rub and smoked until juicy and flavorful!

A boneless turkey breast is a great way to make smoked turkey when you have a small group to feed, or you only care for white meat.

It takes much less time to cook than a whole turkey or even a bone-in turkey breast.

When prepared improperly, smoked turkey breast can be dry due to the lack of skin. We cook our Masterbuilt boneless turkey breast in a moist chamber to ensure it is anything but dry.

In fact, a boneless turkey breast is highly suited for an electric smoker because you don't need to crisp the skin. Most electric smokers do not get hot enough to crisp turkey skin.

By using an easy rub with fresh garlic and herbs, this turkey has so much flavor, you won't miss the skin!

Jump to:

• Prepare and Season the Turkey
• Set Up the Electric Smoker
• Wood Chips
• Smoke the Turkey Breast
• Target Internal Temperature
• Rest and Slice
• Serving Suggestions
• Storage
• 📖 Recipe

Prepare and Season the Turkey

Remove the packaging from the turkey breast and remove the gravy bag or anything else that was packaged with the turkey.

We also like to remove the netting from the turkey breast to allow the rub to fully season the outside of the meat. You can leave the netting in tact if you prefer.

Mix up the rub ingredients in a small bowl:

• Olive Oil
• Lemon Juice 
• Garlic
• Fresh Rosemary
• Fresh Sage
• Fresh Thyme
• Dry Mustard
• Kosher Salt
• Freshly Ground Black Pepper

Apply the rub to the exterior of the turkey. Set it aside for a few minutes to set up the smoker.

Set Up the Electric Smoker

Start up the Masterbuilt smoker and set the temperature to 275°F.

While the smoker is preheating, fill a small aluminum pan with water and place it on the lower shelf inside the smoker.

This will help keep the inside of the cooking chamber moist.

Oil the cooking grates as well to prevent the turkey from sticking.

Once the smoker reaches 275°F, it's time to add the wood chips.

Wood Chips

For turkey, we like using a fruitwood like apple or cherry.

To avoid having to refill the wood chip tray multiple times when cooking larger meats, we use the Masterbuilt Slow Smoker Attachment, which has a large wood chip vessel that will provide up to 6 hours of smoke if filled completely!

For the turkey breast, we don't need quite this much smoke, so we fill it with wood chips only partially.

Once smoke starts coming out of the top vent, it's time to put the turkey in the smoker.

Smoke the Turkey Breast

Place the turkey breast in the center of the rack above the water pan. Allow the turkey to smoke, refilling the wood chips as needed.

After smoking for about 45 minutes, you should insert a leave in thermometer to monitor the internal temperature of the turkey.

Our favorite inexpensive option is this ThermoPro. It has wires that can be fed up through the top vent of the Masterbuilt.

We love using the MEATER wireless thermometer. This avoids having to mess with feeding wires through the vents.

The MEATER pairs with an app on your smart phone to allow you to monitor both the internal temperature of the meat and the ambient temperature of the smoker throughout the cook.

The app uses these data to generate an estimated time when the meat will finish cooking.

Target Internal Temperature

It is important to use an instant read thermometer to also spot check different areas of the turkey breast during cooking.

This will inform you if you need to rotate or flip the turkey breast to ensure even cooking.

As you get close to your final internal temperature, you can use the instant read to make sure all areas of the breast are up to a safe temperature.

The safe final temperature for white meat turkey is 165°F.

Because the internal temperature of the meat will rise slightly during resting, we can remove it from the smoker when it reaches 160°F.

Rest and Slice

Allow the turkey breast to rest on a cutting board for 15-20 minutes.

Then, use a good meat slicing knife to slice the turkey against the grain. The thickness of the slices will depend on your preference.

Serving Suggestions

Boneless turkey breast goes great with all the traditional turkey sides like Smoked Sweet Potatoes, Smoked Mashed Potatoes, Smoked Twice Baked Potatoes, and Smoked Baked Potatoes.

For a vegetable side, we like Smoked Acorn Squash, Smoked Carrots, Smoked Green Beans, and Smoked Cauliflower.

It's also great on a Smoked Turkey Sandwich. Leftovers can be added to Smoked Turkey Soup.

Storage

Leftover turkey breast should be refrigerated for up to 3-4 days.

To reheat, place the turkey in a pan with a little bit of chicken broth or turkey stock in the bottom. Cover with aluminum foil and heat in the oven on 300°F until heated through.

The broth will keep the meat juicy and prevent it from drying out.

📖 Recipe