Help with turkey

Last time I smoked a turkey here was my process:

1.Rinse and Pat dry
2.Slide you hand under the skin of the breast to separate from the meat and add generous amounts of Parkay and fresh herbs under the skin: Marjoram, Thyme, Oregano, Rosemary and Tarragon. (This will help keep the breast meat moist and will add load of flavor)
3. I usually apply evoo to the whole bird then rub inside and out with Lawry's seasoned salt and poultry seasoning. Add paprika for color if desired.
4. Once rubbed, I insert half full beer can into the carcass along with leftover herb stalks.
5. Run the smoker at temperature range of 220 degrees F to 240 degrees F. Usually 45 min per lbs. I usually use Cherry and Apple for turkey.
6. Should be done around 165-170 (White) 180 (Dark). I check the white and dark meat.
7. Allow to rest at least 20 mins

Good luck! I'm sure there's millions of ways to do this but this was my best product.

Jon

IMHO Turkey's are about as easy/simple as a big chicken.
Being the neighborhood/family BBQ go to guy I got a ton of requests for smoked turkey for Thanksgiving. I hadn't done one in the big TS250 so we burned a load of fuel and did a test run before committing. It was simple, basic, poultry. Folks liked it enough they paid me to smoke 16 for Thanksgiving day, I had people come pick em up fresh and hot.

I dug threw online recipes, found basics on smoking/bbqing one, and rolled with it.

Let me say, I don't care for store bought, commercial smoked birds. They are usually pretty hammy and oversmoked for my tastes. I tried to produce something between smoked and roasted.

Basic KISS run down:

Smoker rolling around 240 degrees entire cook.
Totally thawed birds (get fresh if you can)
I used 14# birds, did NOT brine or marinade.
Pulled the bird, cleaned it up, filled (covered well) the interior with a poultry seasoning blend, lightly peppered the exterior, then sprayed down with Olive Oil so the skin might be more edible and brown up nicely.
Smoked/roasted at 240 Breast side down for the first 2 hours, then flipped.
Altogether the 14# bird only took about 5.5 hours to finish to 180 degrees.
Mild smokey flavor, tender, moist - pretty close to what I wanted (something between smoked and oven roasted)

I purposefully pulled birds when breast meat hit 170/175 as I knew the folks picking them up would take them home and throw them in their ovens til eating time. I recommended holding them at 200 in their oven for no more than 2 hours. I know from previous whole turkey smokes on other equipment that the pop-up timers don't always work right on smoked birds. I pulled and foiled the birds and loaded into covered foil pans with lids for my customers. Most of the folks said they held the birds hot in their oven at 200 for an hour or two and the pop up timer popped up just as they were pulling their birds to eat.

Got rave reviews, comments such as "best turkey we've ever had, we're coming to you next year"

So IMHO - keep it simple, season lightly - smoke a 12 to 15# bird between 4 to 6 hours, check internal temps for safe poultry eating.

Chef Jim said:

Question is: What is a good rub, and how long will it take?

My butt was 7.5 pounds and it took 10 hours to hit 185. I figure I'm going to have to get up real early to have it ready by 6 PM tomorrow.

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Take into consideration that pork and beef cook times, to tenderize tough cuts, tends to take a lot longer than most poultry.
If you smoke a 14# turkey 10 hours it will be tough and dry.

Jim - you could also do a beer can turkey - get a can of Foster's lager, drink half, put some seasoning (cajun or anything you like) in the can. Rub the bird with the same seasoning. Fire around 250, put the bird up on the can using legs as tripod. 16# bird s/b done in 6-7 hours (bird temp 165-170 tops). You can start it early because when it's done it'll keep well wrapped in HD foil standing in a pan - if longer than 45mins you should wrap in a towel on top of foil and put it in a cooler, it'll keep there for a good two hours or more. Has to sit at least 1/2 hr after cook though.

I like this method cause you don't have to flip it or pay much attention to anything but your fire.

I am not a big fan of brines, except for with Turkeys. Too me it makes a big difference in turkey, and it is well worth it.
I also iced the breast on the last one I did and it seemed to help the bird cook evenly.
Ron

rcubed3r said:

I am not a big fan of brines, except for with Turkeys. Too me it makes a big difference in turkey, and it is well worth it.
I also iced the breast on the last one I did and it seemed to help the bird cook evenly.
Ron

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I will second that one. Every Thanksgiving I have cooked dinner for the family and always do one roasted one smoked. Everyone always loved the smoked turkey. The roasted was always brined for 24 hours, but for some reason I never brined the smoked one until this past year. WOW, what a difference. Let's just say there were no left overs. :wink:

For my brines, I use the simple 3 parts salt, 1 part sugar method and nothing else. For me, I've never found all those extra ingredients made much of a difference, so I like to KISS. So much so that I dont actually use a rub. The saltiness of the brine mixed with the smoke gives the meat a very nice flavor IMO that it needs nothing else.

Good Luck Jim! Let us know how you make out.

stallardmark said:

Wow, thirdeye, that looks incredible! Sure are making me hungry. Mine sure don't look like that!

You bring up a good point about separating the bird. I always buy just the breast for smoking myself and it comes out very moist. Brining also helps keep turkey very moist even when overcooked.

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Thanks for the kind words. Some of my brines are pretty simple too, but I do add some Tenderquick for a bit of the pink color and I think it tightens the texture a bit. (I hot smoke mine so the TQ is not there for any bacteria protection or anything like that)

Great lookin stuff! and brining is always a good idea for Turkey and chicken, once you taste a brined bird you will be hooked. For my taste I like a lighter smoke and finish it off in the oven, When I smoke for too long it will turn out black when I finish it off in the oven. Just my 2 cents. Enjoy your bird. :wink:

Hey! are you a surgeon??? lol that looks cool.

Bingo1912 is right once you've had a brined bird you'll never go back to the old way.....next time try it you'll luv it...

thirdeye said:

I have the best luck with smoking breasts...

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Dude, I was a breast man before your post.
But those are inspiring.

Chef Jim said:

The Turkey went in at 7:45 this AM. It's now 10:45 and I have had to slow down the cook as the internal temp is already 145.

The bird looks really good. I injected it with my chicken stock and will now put some in a spray bottle and shoot some on it.

I decided on a Key West Citrus spice rub by Heidi Basik here in Florida http://www.backtothebasiks.com/ She makes some good stuff.

I used a morter and pestal with EVOO and rubbed the bird and let it sit in the fridge overnight.

I keep you posted, Jim

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The rub and injection sounds like a delicious combo.

On my first turkey smoke I noticed, like you, that it seemed to come up temp fast so I ended up taming my smoker temps down too. I'm thinking it's a poultry thing, them birds do like to smoke. Ultimately I ended up lowering my cooking temps and extended the cook time a little.

I think once you do one you'll get that "set it, forget it" going and let things roll straight through.

Now Chef Jim, break out the camera and show us some pRon!!!



Oh, my 2 cents about brining?
IMHO brining poultry brings a ham flavor to it, so I stopped. If I want to eat ham I cook pork. (shrug) Of some note though, I wanted a turkey to turn out someplace between smoked and oven roasted so brining seemed like overkill.

So, how did it turn out? Inquiring minds need to know.