Smoked Chipotle Turkey Breast

Smoked Turkey is one of my favorite meats. I love to eat it straight from the pan,& so does everyone else in our family! We smoke whole turkeys when we have lots of time, but if you want the smoked turkey experience & have less than a few hours to get it, try a half turkey breast.

Williamson Bros Bar-B-Q has a chipotle sauce that is really great. The chipotle taste is prominent but it also has a cumin and garlic note that is very pleasing. This sauce adds a smoky flavor to your meats from the inherent taste of the chipotle itself.

If you haven't tried chipotles, you should give them a chance. These little wet, wrinkled chili peppers come in a can & are packed in adobo sauce. It isn't necessary to remove the sauce, it actually adds incredible taste to any dish.
http://www.livestrong.com/article/416613-chipotle-pepper-benefits/?utm_source=popslideshow&utm_medium=a1

We marinated our half turkey bone-in breast in the refrigerator over night in a mixture of 2 tablespoons of Williamsons Spicy Chiptole BBQ sauce & 2 teaspoons of pecan flavored liquid smoke. If you have never used a smoke flavoring, you can find it in the grocery isle with the steak sauce, bbq sauce etc. I like the pecan because it doesn't overpower the other seasonings.

Injecting a mixture of half sauce & half olive oil into the breast will keep the meat moist while smoking. It's also healthier than butter, but if you need the butter...it's your call!

When you are ready to start smoking the turkey breast, remove it from the fridge & let it sit on the counter & come to close to room temperature. About 15-20 minutes will usually be enough time. While it is resting, start your wood pellets in your smoker box on your gas grill. I turn my grill to high & sit the smoker box in the back corner. Do not wet the pellets or wood.

I like to smoke my turkey breasts in an iron skillet. I do not wrap in foil, that tends to steam the meat & you don't get the results you are looking for.

After about 30 minutes the grill should have enough smoke to start the smoking process. Reduce the temperature to medium indirect heat. With the turkey breast in a well seasoned iron skillet, coat it on all sides with the sauce before placing it on the grill. 

What I like about Williamson Bros sauce is the consistency. It isn't thin, but it isn't thick & sticky. This type of sauce is the best for gas grill smoking because of the lower sugar content of the sauce.

During the smoking process I apply sauce to all the sides every 10 minutes.

Remember that you should have your grill on medium indirect heat. The temperature inside the grill should be about 300 degrees. The skillet should be sitting in the middle of the grill with no flame under it. Although this is only a breast, it can dry out quickly so keep it well marinated with sauce.

I cook my turkey breast to a temperature of 170 degrees. This usually takes about 30-45 minutes on my grill, but ever grill is different & the outside air temperature is a factor also. Just judge your doneness on that meat temperature...this is just a really great reason to go buy a cool meat thermometer!

 After it cools a little, I remove the meat from the bone, leaving the skin intact. You can remove the skin but it really adds to the taste & look of the smoked turkey.

We added Williamson Bros Spiccy Chipotle Bar-B-Q sauce to the top of the turkey breast. Simple turkey taken to another level. Healthy & delicious, we had baked sweet potatoes from the grill to complete this meal. Oh & we had salad...just hard to do on the grill! Although I am wanting to do the grilled romain lettuce so who knows...we just might do that!

Williamson Bros Bar-B-Q sauces impressed me in many different ways, but one of the things I loved was the low sugar content. Many people who are on a sugar restricted diet must avoid bbq like the plaque. Being a RN & working with diabetics I can say this sauce is a great choice for sugar & carbohydrate counts. Best part is they are really good!

Visit Willamson Bros Bar-B-Q website today!
www.williamsonbros.com

Mesquite Charred Corn & Poblano Salsa

This recipe is for a cold salsa made with mesquite smoked fresh corn, poblano peppers, garlic, fire roasted tomatoes, cilantro & spices. I added chipotle in adobo sauce for ours, we like it a little kicked up!

This recipe requires the following ingredients:

• 4 ears of fresh corn
• 2 large poblano peppers
• canola or olive oil
• 1 pod of garlic
• 2 Tsp mesquite liquid smoke
• 2 Tablespoons chopped cilantro
• 1/2 cup chopped red onion
• 1 15oz can chopped fire roasted tomatoes, or fresh if you have them
• 3 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (leave out if you don't like the heat!)
• 1 tsp Texas Chili Blend, or your favorite chili powder
• 1 lime, juiced
• 1 cup mesquite wood chips
• salt to taste

Mesquite Charred Corn & Poblano Salsa

• Shuck & remove silks from corn, rinse corn & poblano peppers & pat dry
• Rub corn & poblano peppers with oil, place in plastic zip bag with 1 tsp mesquite liquid smoke
• Let rest in fridge for 1 hour
• Soak mesquite wood chips in hot water with 1 tsp mesquite liquid smoke added . Soak 1 hour
• Drain wood chips. Heat gas or charcoal grill to high heat. Place wood chips in smoker box.
• Rub oil on outside of garlic pod
• When smoke is present, remove garlic & poblano peppers from plastic bag & place on center of grill
• Turn center burner to medium low to char for 2 minutes on each side, this should char the flesh, if not leave it several more minutes until it is charred
• Once the pepper is black, turn off center burner & cook corn & peppers over indirect heat to continue the smoking process
• Place garlic beside corn to smoke
• Limit how much the grill is open to retain the most smoke you can.
• Smoke for 15 more minutes at low heat
• Remove from grill on to a heat proof dish & let it cool on the kitchen counter.

• When corn has cooled to touch, remove corn from the cob by standing it on the flat end in a large bowl.
• Begin with knife at the top & cut from the cob, turning after each cut.  
• Continue to cut until all corn is off

                           

• Poblano peppers will char black, then you need to remove the charred skins, veins & seeds. Try to remove as much as possible.
• Slice into small strips, then chop into bite size pieces.
• Add to corn in bowl



• Roasted garlic will squeeze out of the papery skins without much effort
• Discard the papery skins then chop or mash & add garlic to salsa



• To the corn, poblanos, & garlic, add the chopped red onions, tomatoes, cilantro,chopped chipotles in adobo sauce & seasonings
• Add salt to taste.
• Finish by squeezing the juice of the lime over the dip
• Stir well to blend
• Cover with plastic wrap & place in fridge to chill at least 1 hour for the full flavor blend.
• Serve with your favorite chips. Great on taco's or burritos. Also a great topping for taco salads

Southern Ladies always serve dessert....

Resolve to Change #6
Food is not the enemy...make friends with your cookies!

We all love dessert! In the south it's just expected after a big family dinner. The only problem is we never know what a true serving actually looks like. I had Blue Bell Ice Cream for dinner last night and the serving size was 1/2 cup. I dished up the meager bowl and looked at it with extreme sadness. I realized it was the same size as the two huge bites I stole from the carton when I brought it home from the store! I felt a little weak in the knees. Wow..1/2 cup Ice Cream sure looks like less than 1/2 cup of cooked carrots.

Not to be deterred from keeping with my Southern roots and providing a sweet treat at the end of a meal,I searched for alternatives. I measured a serving of fresh berries and it looked like it was so much more food than the ice cream. I added low fat frozen yogurt and crushed nuts to the top and had a yummy parfait. Serve this in a beautiful crystal parfait glass and our Southern grandmas' would proud!

There are so many new recipes for healthier dessert recipes. Many cookbooks are available that focus on sugar free recipes or reduced sugar recipes. You can substitute applesauce for the oil and for a real fiber builder you can substitute black beans. I haven't tried this one yet but those who have say it's good...I'm still trying to find the courage to eat Black Bean Brownies! I love Cooking Light's magazine and website for desserts, they focus on the taste of the food as well as the fat and sugar content.

When you put all these Resolve to Change points together, you eat healthy. You are not on a diet...that should be taken out of our language. It brings about such bad memories of cardboard food and feeling guilty. Food should be eaten as close to the way God provided it as possible. Mostly life should be enjoyed and lived to the fullest, just nice to feel good while your doing it!

Vegetables were not created to be limp!

Resolve to Change #2
Don't kill your veggies...they've done nothing wrong!


Until about 20 years ago my vegetable plate would have been corn,green beans, and lettuce salad. I hated this seemingly unneccesary food group with a passion. Those funky colored English Peas could make me run crying from the table. Don't even begin to make me try greens of any kind. I ate salad that consisted of iceberg lettuce, bacon bits (those hard red kind) and cheese. I added the boiled egg and Thousand Island dressing to my salad. These were my "vegetables".

I have grown leaps and bounds since then, but still need work on a few of those greens! Upon examining what I hated about vegetables I discovered it was the way they were prepared. The overcooked, limp, mushy things on my plate really took away from my Southern meals. Why would you cook beautiful pieces of fried chicken and make fluffy mashed potatoes to only plop down mushy vegetable to complete the plate?

Over the years I have learned to eat so many vegetables I never thought I would enjoy. Cooking a vegetable until it loses it's color also drains it of all it's nutrients. Vegetables should be steamed, sauted, grilled or eaten raw to retain their health benefits. I am so addicted to farmers markets and love asparagus grilled with fresh garlic and olive oil. Frozen vegetables are the next choice after fresh for taste, but even canned veggies retain some nutrients to provide our bodies with what we need.

Be kind to the little green beans...love your asparagus...handle with care your sweet little carrots...don't send them to the party all limp and mushy!! Try this recipe this spring when the asparagus is fresh, it's so easy and guick, don't cook too long!...No limp veggies!

Roasted Fresh Aspargus with Garlic
Wash and clean the amount of asparagus needed to serve 5-6 spears per person.
Pat dry with towel, snap off woody ends and place in shallow ovenproof dish
Toss with 1 tabespoon of olive or canola oil
Finely chop 2-3 cloves of garlic, add to asparagus and salt lightly if desired, Toss well to coat.
Bake or grill at 325 degrees for 10 minutes or until spears begin to turn brown, may need to turn during cooking time,depending on your oven or grill.

Check out some really good information at the American Dietetic Association
http://www.eatright.org