Have smoked several turkeys over the years with mixed results, but decided to give one a try this past weekend. Armed with Meathead's book and a bunch of charcoal this is what I did.
Spatchcocked the turkey and salted it for a dry brine. Original weight was 20lbs so I estimated 18 after trimming and removing the backbone and used 9 teaspoons kosher salt. Went in the fridge for 18hrs.
Started charcoal with one mini-log of pecan and seasoned the meat with Simon and Garfunkel seasoning rubbed under and on top of the skin. Back in the fridge while I prepped the smoker. I have a homemade drum smoker. Layered unlit coals and 3 pieces of pecan wood around outside and dumped hot coals and wood in middle. Used a DigiQ controller.
After 30 minutes or so temp was near 300 so the bird went on cavity side down. Held between 300-325 for first 2hrs, but then had some controller problems and temp started to slowly drop as the fan stopped. The cooker was at 245 when the meat-probe read 150 in breast, 165 in thigh and I moved it to my gas grill for finishing. Used 2 of the 3 burners on my Weber to keep temp around 325 until probe read 160 in the breast, thigh was 175. I didn't cut immediately as my wife wasn't home from work yet so I left it uncovered in the oven to rest.
Meat was very juicy, but the flavors were mild. May have gone too light on the seasoning, but I also think the size of the breast played a role. Hard to get flavor in the middle. Will consider book's advice and try smaller bird next time. Smoke flavor was fairly intense so could probably cut down to 1 lit and 1 unlit next time. Overall I was very happy for trying a very different technique from what I had been doing. Any additional advice for getting flavor into big breasts and other techniques is greatly appreciated. Meant to take more pictures, but only got this one after the cook was done.
Spatchcocked the turkey and salted it for a dry brine. Original weight was 20lbs so I estimated 18 after trimming and removing the backbone and used 9 teaspoons kosher salt. Went in the fridge for 18hrs.
Started charcoal with one mini-log of pecan and seasoned the meat with Simon and Garfunkel seasoning rubbed under and on top of the skin. Back in the fridge while I prepped the smoker. I have a homemade drum smoker. Layered unlit coals and 3 pieces of pecan wood around outside and dumped hot coals and wood in middle. Used a DigiQ controller.
After 30 minutes or so temp was near 300 so the bird went on cavity side down. Held between 300-325 for first 2hrs, but then had some controller problems and temp started to slowly drop as the fan stopped. The cooker was at 245 when the meat-probe read 150 in breast, 165 in thigh and I moved it to my gas grill for finishing. Used 2 of the 3 burners on my Weber to keep temp around 325 until probe read 160 in the breast, thigh was 175. I didn't cut immediately as my wife wasn't home from work yet so I left it uncovered in the oven to rest.
Meat was very juicy, but the flavors were mild. May have gone too light on the seasoning, but I also think the size of the breast played a role. Hard to get flavor in the middle. Will consider book's advice and try smaller bird next time. Smoke flavor was fairly intense so could probably cut down to 1 lit and 1 unlit next time. Overall I was very happy for trying a very different technique from what I had been doing. Any additional advice for getting flavor into big breasts and other techniques is greatly appreciated. Meant to take more pictures, but only got this one after the cook was done.
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