Smoked Turkey Tenderloins

Learn how to make smoked turkey tenderloins on ANY grill or smoker, whether its a Traeger or Pit Boss pellet grill, a Masterbuilt propane smoker, or just a simple Weber kettle!

Smoked turkey tenderloins are just about the easiest way to make some smoked turkey that everyone will enjoy!

So you want to make some smoked turkey but don't necessarily want to mess with smoking a bone-in turkey breast, much less a whole turkey.

You've got other options such as a boneless turkey breast or even turkey thighs and turkey wings.

(Yes, you need to smoke some caveman-style turkey wings if you've never made them before!)

But the hands down EASIEST and FASTEST way to make a simple smoked turkey meal is with some smoked turkey tenderloins!

What are Turkey Tenderloins you ask?

Well they aren't exactly true tenderloins like you might find with a pork tenderloin or beef tenderloin, because, well, turkey's just aren't designed that way.

What they really are is the best part of the turkey breast meat.

Lean and tender, and shaped almost just like large chicken breasts or chicken tenders to be more precise.

So if you know how to cook chicken breasts, you can make these super simple smoked turkey tenderloins just as easily.

Jump to:

• Buying Turkey Tenderloins to Smoke
• Our Favorite Seasonings
• Choosing Wood Pellets
• Smoking Temperature
• Cooking Time
• Target Internal Temperature
• Slice and Serve
• 📖 Recipe

Buying Turkey Tenderloins to Smoke

A typical package of turkey tenderloins will be 1.5 lbs in total weight and contain two large turkey tenderloins.

A good rule of thumb is to serve a ½ pound of meat per person, so one package of two tenderloins will serve about three people, or two if they are very hungry.

Make sure to consider how many side dishes you are serving as well.

If you have leftovers, smoked turkey tenderloin works great on a smoked turkey sandwich the next day or even in some homemade smoked turkey soup!

Our Favorite Seasonings

We are going to smoke the turkey tenderloins with medium INDIRECT heat.

So no need to worry about burning the sugar in your chosen rub like we have to think about when crisping up the skin on chicken wings with high DIRECT heat for example.

That said, think about what flavor profile you are going for with your smoked turkey tenderloins.

Do you want classic thanksgiving flavors to accompany some mashed potatoes and gravy?

Or do you want a more barbecue style smoked turkey to serve in the middle of summer when everyone's sick of hamburgers and hot dogs?

We typically like ours barbecue style when making smoked turkey tenderloins and especially like one of our favorite BBQ seasonings, Three Little Pigs Kansas City Championship BBQ Rub when making chicken or turkey in the smoker.

It's got a little sweetness and a good hit of garlic, onion, and some heat to really perk up the otherwise bland turkey meat.

If you want to make your own Turkey Rub we've got a simple recipe for that down below as well!

Since turkey tenderloins have no skin, make sure to spray or brush little cooking oil such as olive oil on before applying the rub.

This will not only help the rub stick better but keep the meat from drying out as easily in the smoker.

Choosing Wood Pellets

For turkey we generally go for a milder smoke flavor by choosing oak or fruitwood pellets.

Pecan, apple, beech and cherry all give great results.

On our pellet grill we used these apple pellets and got a nice mild smoke flavor on our smoked turkey tenderloins.

Smoking Temperature

Because turkey tenderloins have no skin to worry about crisping up like with turkey legs or turkey wings, we can smoke them at a little lower temperature and keep them nice and moist while giving them time to absorb a lot of good smoky flavor.

But because turkey tenderloins are also about 99% lean, we can't smoke them TOO low or we risk drying them out before they ever finish cooking.

So that's why we decided to split the difference between 225°F where we sometime cook pork butt and beef brisket, and 325°F where we like to smoke "skin-on" turkey, and smoked our tukey tenderloin at about 275°F.

Cooking Time

Our smoked turkey tenderloins took about 1 hour and 20 minutes to fully cook at about 275°F on our pellet grill.

Make sure check with an instant read thermometer to see if certain tenderloins are cooking faster than others and may need to be rotated around depending on how even the heating is of your grill or smoker.

We made sure to flip the smoked tenderloins after about 40 minutes too because the heat coming from the bottom of the Pit Boss pellet grill was cooking the underside of our turkey tenderloins faster than the tops.

Target Internal Temperature

You HAVE to use a good instant read meat thermometer to know where the internal temperature is of your smoked turkey tenderloins.

If you don't yet own an instant read thermometer, ThermoPro makes a good one.

Bring the internal temperature of your smoked turkey tenderloins up to at least 165°F.

Turkey tenderloins are WHITE meat, so we target the same internal temperature as we would for other turkey white meat such as breasts and wings.

 

Slice and Serve

Let the smoked turkey tenderloins rest on a cutting board for at least 5 minutes before slicing them.

Using a good meat slicing knife, like our go-to favorite from Mairico, cut the turkey tenderloin right before serving into about 1 inch thick slices.

The thinner you slice the more surface area is exposed to air and the faster the smoked turkey tenderloins will dry out.

So just like we do with our smoked pork loin and beef tenderloins, always slice in nice thick increments, right before serving.

If you are going for summer BBQ flavors, you can serve the smoked turkey along with some smoked baked beans and smoked mac and cheese!

If you want a more traditional Thanksgiving vibe, go for the smoked sweet potatoes or smoked mashed potatoes with some smoked brussel sprouts or green beans on the side for a little delicious color!

You have a lot of great options when it comes to serving smoked turkey tenderloins!

The leftovers also work great on a smoked turkey sandwich or in a batch of smoked turkey soup!

📖 Recipe