Best way to smoke a turkey

[SmokinJoe70]

What is the best type of wood to use to smoke a turkey?

[JMSetzler]

Hickory in small quantities. Poultry absorbs smoke quickly.

[Puppyboy]

Brine brine brine!!!!!!!!

[fnnm358]

looking for input on this also
I havent done this one before and would like to try
best of luck to ya on it

[stephan]

oak, cherry, maple, and I would brine the bird.

[Coldholler]

I wanna know too. OK -- brine for how long in how much salt? Cook for how long at what temp to what temp? I'd thought to put mine in a big roaster pan to keep the juices. Plenty of room in my whole hog cooker for that. Matter of fact, we'll do some other birds at the same time for nearby friends, so I need to get it right!

[EricF]

I like to use lighter tasting woods when I smoke a whole bird. I have an offset stick burner but I have a difficult time finding fruit wood in anything other than bags of chips. So I use white oak logs and handfuls of cherry wood chips. I have also used pecan logs and cherry wood chips. Both turn out good results for whole turkey.

Basic Brine:
1 gallon hot water
1 cup of table salt or (1 and 1/2 cup kosher salt)
1/2 cup sugar
1 bag of ice

combine the hot water, salt, and sugar, and any other spices you may want to use then any the ice. After the ice has chilled the brine add the turkey.


Smoking:
I try to hold the grate temp at 230 until the thigh is done at a temp reading of 165. Oh yeah I also prefer to spatchcook the turkey to reduce the risk of drying out the meat, as well as I find it cooks more evenly.

[Ron_L]

Two different questions here? The subject asks for the best way to smoke a turkey and the body asks for the best wood.

As far as wood, a little hickory is good, but I prefer a mix of apple and cherry for any poultry.

Now, the best way to smoke a turkey, in my opinion, is don't To me, smoking is done at lower temps (typically 225 - 275), and I don't like turkey cooked that low. It can dry out and the skin ends up rubbery. I roast my turkeys over a charcoal fire with wood chunks for flavor (either in the Weber Kettle or the BGE) at 325 - 350. The skin comes out much better at those temps. I stuff the cavity with onions, carrots, celery, apples, lemons and oranges and as many fresh herbs as I can find. Then I usually rub under the skin with an herb butter mixture and give the skin a nice rub down with the herb butter. Then it goes into a pan on a rack and in the bottom of the pan I also put in the same veggies, fruits and herbs, plus some white wine and either turkey or chicken stock. The whole thing goes into the Egg. Typical cook time is 25 minutes per pound at 325, if I remember correctly. I watch the liquid in the pan and add more stock as needed. The pan liquid can be used to make a great gravy.

Oh! One tip... Since the breast meat is done at a lower temp than the dark meat I place a gallon bag full of ice on the breast for about an hour. That way the breast starts out colder than the thigh and leg and both end up being done pretty close together.

There is a Google search near the bottom of every page. Search for turkey and you'll get pages of threads from last Thanksgiving or Christmas.

[Ron_L]

Oh yeah... Brining. I do it and like the results. I brine for an hour per pound and then allow the same amount of time out of the brine to equalize and allow the skin to dry.

[Coldholler]

YES! Thank you. That's the information I needed. I'm going to put mine in a pan (after doing that ice trick), smoke it for an hour or so with apple chunks, just for flavor, remove all coals, ash, and combustable matter from the offset firebox, and fire up the propane burner that runs the length of my cooker beneath a 3/8" thick angle iron deflector. Then I'll crank it up to turkey cooking temperature -- 325.

Trial and error I guess, but that's my plan.

[Coldholler]

And thanks for the brining tip. And thanks Smokinjoe70 for asking the question -- I was going to post an identical inquiry. Dang, this forum is useful already.

[mbshop]

i used to brine but no longer. i just don't like the altered taste. though i do mine in my weber kettle, now i just rotiss them.

[Zin]

I just cook my turkeys like a beer can chicken, works great.

[SmokinJoe70]

I was Thinking of just doing a turkey breast not the whole turkey should i still use a brine?

[stephan]

You can still brine the breast. I just did 3 of them for the holiday weekend. I smoked them at about 325-350. I cant remember the amount of time not more than 3 hours I think but I used a remote thermometer pulled it at 160 wrapped in foil to rest and they were very tender and juicy