Seeking advice for Thanksgiving smoked turkey on my traeger pellet grill

[frijolefrito]

I read the article on smoking turkey and have some questions. If I don't care about the time it takes is their any other reason to spatchcock it? I also love brining but am willing to try the dry brine. I was just hoping to be stupidly excessive and make drunken turkey using beer as my water base in the brine. I've since reading the article changed my mind and going to do a dry salt based brine and put that gravy under the turkey deal. When I did it last year and it came out great I did a rub and just smoked it. Injecting sounds fun but time consuming. Okay lets get to my questions:

Has anyone done a drunken turkey brine and is this a stupid idea? I could just use wine in the gravey and add that alcohol element there.

Is there a point to spatchcocking if I don't care about the time it takes to cook, my traeger I self adjust it's cooking temp and have a good temperature probe reader deal?

Is it okay to shove some sticks of butter in the turkey hole that we aren't supposed to put stuff in?

Anyone try the bobby flay leftover recipes?

Lastly I usually like to give something back to these forums so here is the best darn leftover turkey sammich recipe I've found (haven't tried the ones on this site tho):

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Turkey-Torta-51198840

[frijolefrito]

http://www.traegergrills.com/recipes/detail/63#.VHIvJYvF-ao

lol last years recipe.

[frijolefrito]

this is the drunken turkey I'm thinking.

http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/roasted-beer-brined-turkey-with-onion-gravy-and-bacon

[Marauderer]

F, I have done one turkey on my Rec Tec pellet grill and I wasn't happy with the skin. I will be doing a 12 lb one tomorrow and plane to just dry brine it and then use some poultry seasoning and put it on the grill at 325*F and let it roll till it reaches an IT of 160*F and see how it does. It is a butterball bird so it has been somewhat injected. I will post results tomorrow.

[David Parrish]

Barry can you give us the details on how you cooked the turkey with the sub par skin? Or link to thread you talked about it in? Thanks!

[fracmeister]

Spathcocking has the advantage that the bird cooks more evenly and can result in crispier skin.

[fracmeister]

(snip)

Anyone try the bobby flay leftover recipes?

(snip)

My comments come at about 33 seconds into this video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J37gAIVVp8A

[frijolefrito]

Thanks for all the respones... Anything on drunken turkey idea?

[frijolefrito]

My comments come at about 33 seconds into this video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J37gAIVVp8A

that's funny

[Marauderer]

Great music video Frac!!

[Marauderer]

Pit Boss wrote: Barry can you give us the details on how you cooked the turkey with the sub par skin? Or link to thread you talked about it in? Thanks!

Yes. I prepared it using MH's S&G rub in oil. I rubbed the skin with the oil rub and put it on the grill at 325*F. I did not Spatchcock it. The problem was....................I put the bird on the opposite end of the grate on the Rec Tec and the maverick was at the other end. My bad, considerable temp diff. Like at the bird end of the grill the box temp was 250-275*F. The bird tasted great but it took way to long to cook.

I cooked another one yesterday and I will do a thread about it and it was spatchcocked and the temp around the bird was 325*F and it turned out great.

So the punch line is check your temps around your meat and make sure you are getting a representative sample of air of the appropriate temps.

[David Parrish]

Pit Boss wrote: Barry can you give us the details on how you cooked the turkey with the sub par skin? Or link to thread you talked about it in? Thanks!

Yes. I prepared it using MH's S&G rub in oil. I rubbed the skin with the oil rub and put it on the grill at 325*F. I did not Spatchcock it. The problem was....................I put the bird on the opposite end of the grate on the Rec Tec and the maverick was at the other end. My bad, considerable temp diff. Like at the bird end of the grill the box temp was 250-275*F. The bird tasted great but it took way to long to cook.

I cooked another one yesterday and I will do a thread about it and it was spatchcocked and the temp around the bird was 325*F and it turned out great.

So the punch line is check your temps around your meat and make sure you are getting a representative sample of air of the appropriate temps.

Got it. For either bird did you dry brine with salt and let the skin dry out in the fridge? Those two steps help as well (for crispy skin).