Smoked Turkey Breasts

I smoked two 9+ lb turkey breasts. Overnight brine in a new brine recipe, 5 hrs air time. Pepper, sage, thyme, poultry seasoning on the skin, buttered cheesecloth on each breast, then I threw them into a preheated smoker (temp got to about 210* when I tossed the birds in). Birds were 44* at smoker entry. 3.5 oz of pecan. 3 hrs to 160* internal...cheesecloth removed the last hour.

Here's the brine recipe:

Ingredients:

1 gallon cold water
2 quarts apple juice
2 quarts orange juice
3 cups Kosher salt
1 cup brown sugar
9 whole cloves (I used the powder equivalent)
1 tablespoon ground nutmeg

Preparation:

Pour apple and orange juice into a large pot over a medium heat. Add salt, brown sugar, cloves and nutmeg. Simmer for 15 minutes until salt and sugar are completely dissolved. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Add cold water.
Place poultry in a large container. Pour brine over top. Brine poultry for 1 hour per pound in the refrigerator.

Thoroughly rinse all the brine from the turkey before cooking. Otherwise there will be a salty flavor to the turkey.

I took one of the turkey breasts over to my son's house to serve to his in-laws (very nice people)...went back home to our out of town company.

The birds turned out very tasty and incredibly moist. Plenty of compliments.

Interestingly. I set the smoker to 300*. Threw the turkey breasts into the smoker at 210*, and the smoker never got over 238*. The birds still cooked in the 3 hr expected time. Skin wasn't very good, but the meat was award winning. Next year I'll let the smoker get all the way up to 300* before throwing in the breasts.

I sipped brandy and had a cigar on the patio while watching the smoker do its thing. I almost never watch the smoker so I better keep an eye on it to make sure I don't have a problem.

We didn't have a 2012 Turkey Report this year, so I threw this together. Maybe other folks would feel like sharing their efforts in this thread. I'd sure like to see what others had up their sleeves.