As the Thanksgiving Turkey season draws near and my kids are all grown up, it gets harder for me to cook a whole turkey as my parties are getting smaller and I have too much leftover bird to eat. I’ve done several smoked turkey recipes including a Tangilicious turkey, Turkey Lollipops, an outrageous MooOinkDuckTucken. For this year, I’ve decided to simplify things as I got invited to a Thanksgiving party, so I’m spared a whole lot of hard work! I plan to bring a platter of sliced turkey breast but I’m going to take it to the next level with a whiskey maple butter injection.

You can cook this turkey breast recipe in the oven but I wanted a bit of barbecue flavor so I cooked it indirect in my Weber Kettle to get some smoke before finishing it in my oven. Once the turkey has some color and the crust is formed, it’s tightly wrapped in foil with melted butter. This minimizes the breast drying out and lets the breast meat marinate in its own juices and infuse with butter flavor. The injection has a hint of whiskey (I used Chivas Regal as I raided my adult son’s liquor stash (he’ll never miss a half cup anyway); but any whiskey or bourbon would work) with some sweet maple syrup which really brings out the flavor of the turkey meat. The addition of black pepper to my SYD Chicken Rub also adds another dimension of peppery goodness. Try it as it’s simple to do and I know you and your guests will be pleased with the results.