TALKIN' TURKEY!! (The official/unofficial turkey thread)

Not a bad mornings work!

Brined these four breasts for two days then smoked the at 350. Done at 165. Carved them into individual breasts for sandwiches and boiled the carcasses for soup.

Beats the heck out of the smoked turkey you buy in the store!

Rick

Weber Genisis Silver
GOSM gasser
Rec Tec
Maverick ET 732
 

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thegentleoso said:
This is my first turkey! I brined it in apple juice with a cup of kosher salt, a handful of fresh thyme and a few bay leaves. I also injected it with butter. It was the most incredible turkey I ever had!
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Congratulations. Looks awesome. I use a similar method when smoking turkey. Always great.
 
Seasonal sticking :-D

Please check out this thread before posting your turkey questions!
 
BQ33 and all of the Brethren. Thank you for accepting me into the BBQ Brethren. I love cooking BBQ for friends, family. I will try to get some pics of my toys on site soon. I have a sticker burner that I built out of a 315 gallon water retention tank.
On the same trailer, I have a meadow creek PR60 and BBQ42 chicken cooker.
I a;lso have a collection of WSM's. I live and breath BBQ.
 
I'm getting my pre-Thanksgiving warmup tomorrow with an ancient frozen turkey breast that I deboned. Planning a nice hot run in my WSM. It's brining now with some Tony's Cajun seasoning. Hopefully it didn't dry out too much in the freezer.
 
i am going to try and come up with a butter injection instead of brine any one have any luck this way
 
Tailgaters said:
i am going to try and come up with a butter injection instead of brine any one have any luck this way
Click to expand...

I have tried the brine alone and the butter injection alone and neither is as good as both together. It is worth the timne to do both.
 
I'm getting warmed up to do a dinner for roughly 20 people. 2 questions:

I want to do 2 birds on my 22.5" WSM. Anyone have recommendations on turkey size? I'm probably aiming for 2 ~15lb or so.

Also, I want to run hot but my WSM doesn't get up to high temps easily, at least not when doing a minion method burn. Would it be better to fill up the charcoal ring, get more (perhaps not all) coals lit, and let my BBQ guru stoker do its magic rather than a slower minion method style start?

Thanks for all of your suggestions!
 
Man, I cannot wait. Doing a pre-thanksgiving, thanksgiving with friends this weekend and I've been given the honor (and pressure) of smoking the turkey. First time I've smoked a turkey. Planning on a 24hr brine Fri night to Sat night, take it out, rinse and let it dry overnight in the fridge. Sunday morning the bird goes on the ol' offset.

Still tinkering with ideas - which wood, foil tent to deflect some smoke (I cook with nearly all wood rather than charcoal, which certainly can be smokier), how to make the gravy, etc. ---- but this thread has been massively helpful!
 
Schooly D said:
I'm getting warmed up to do a dinner for roughly 20 people. 2 questions:

I want to do 2 birds on my 22.5" WSM. Anyone have recommendations on turkey size? I'm probably aiming for 2 ~15lb or so.

Also, I want to run hot but my WSM doesn't get up to high temps easily, at least not when doing a minion method burn. Would it be better to fill up the charcoal ring, get more (perhaps not all) coals lit, and let my BBQ guru stoker do its magic rather than a slower minion method style start?

Thanks for all of your suggestions!
Click to expand...

Personally I think the ideal turkey size is 12-14 lbs. I've done them up to 20 lbs and they turned out fine, but you run the risk of having the outside done more by the time the inside of the breast and thigh are done, ESPECIALLY at higher temps.

I'm not real familiar with the 22" WSM's, but I'd think that a 15lb'er would fit fine on each rack. Depends mostly on the rack spacing (which is what I'm not sure on with the 22" model).

I will say that 2 - 15 lb birds is a lot of meat for 20 people.
Unless you like smoked turkey leftovers.....which I do as well. :thumb:

We usually have between 15 and 20 people at my place for Thanksgiving and I have no trouble feeding everyone with a 15-16 lb bird. I have done 2 smaller ones before too, though, as everyone likes to take leftovers home.
 
Tailgaters said:
i am going to try and come up with a butter injection instead of brine any one have any luck this way
Click to expand...

I agree that it's worth the time to do both.
The brine will help with flavor and moisture retention while the butter injection helps even more with flavor by adding fat into the meat during the cook.

I don't think (personal opinion) you'll get as good a result with JUST injecting with butter as you will if you also brine.


Here's a cook I did with both and it turned out fantastic.
 
Lol at seeing my notes from last year here. I have a butterball from last year that should be ready for a brine for this weekend's pre thanksgiving test.

What Id like to do is try to infuse some flavor in with the butter injection. garlic and maybe some sage/rosemary/thyme?

Also Id prob go a step further than spatchcock and fully separate out. Might look at supplementing the thanksgiving cook with extra drumsticks. they are always a hit with some of the guests. wouldnt take much to toss an extra 4 on.
 
Turkey Skin......

I get nothing out of the skin other than some serious rubber. Has anyone played with removing the skin and trying cheesecloth or maybe even a bacon weave?

Im considering going to deep frying. still brine and inject but see if a guy can get a better skin through frying
 
Untraceable said:
Turkey Skin......

I get nothing out of the skin other than some serious rubber. Has anyone played with removing the skin and trying cheesecloth or maybe even a bacon weave?

Im considering going to deep frying. still brine and inject but see if a guy can get a better skin through frying
Click to expand...

Always considered doing a sort of reverse sear to really render and crisp the skin. Like have another smoker screamin hot at 450-500 degrees and when the IT of the turkey is about 10-15 degrees away, set it in there.

Either that or a flash fry in the turkey fryer for just a minute or so to crisp it up may work?
 
Yeah, Im just getting nothing out of the skin. Ive tried the foil/spray butter and its still garbage. Im thinking with the skin removed, I can actually get seasoning where it counts. Id just need a little protection to the meat that skin provides.

meat glue on chicken skin? Cheesecloth and butter? Bacon Weave?

Getting a deep fryer ready for a last min skin crisp seems like quite the waste of resources.
 
Hey guys I'm doing a test run on Thanksgiving today and want to make a good gravy from scratch. Have always just bought the jars.

So I'm looking for some pointers. I've seen people that collect juice from the pan that the turkey is in to make gravy and I'm going to do that but just want to know how I should do this.

My plan is to put the turkey on a grate in the pan so it's not just sitting in everything. In the bottom of the pan I'm planning on putting cut up carrots, celery, apples and onions. Anything else? Water in the bottom? How much? Or a juice (apple)? The neck and gizzards?

Then of course I have to take this juice and make the gravy is it just water + flour + turkey juice?

Any help would be great.
 
My plan would be to save the neck and gizzards and make a little stock on the stove while the bird cooked. I also cut off the wing tips for the stock pot.
Strain the drippings, let them settle, skim the fat off the top, use some of the fat to make a roux with the flour, then add the drippings and the stock to make the gravy.
Season as needed with salt, pepper.
 
What qman said, but not sure if you're putting the turkey in your Shirley or if you're doing it in the oven?

I'm going to make a good batch of stock next week for my gravy since I'm feeding 25, but you could always just use pre made chicken stock if in a pinch. If you're not making that much the necks/wing tips/gizzard/heart will also work. I personally wouldn't do apple in there, the carrot will give you the sweetness you need. You don't really want too sweet of a gravy.

I'd throw some water or other liquid in the pan (chicken stock, turkey stock, etc.) except for apple juice, again, you don't want to go too sweet and you also don't want that juice cooking off and potentially risk burning. Let the fat separate out and make a nice light brown roux with the fat, add stock, drippings, seasonings, maybe a sprig of thyme. Add a pat of butter at the very end to give it a nice sheen.
 
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