Hey, all - I haven't posted in forever as I let my big smoker sit idle for too long and haven't been using my charcoal grill that much either. Way too much family stuff going on but the dust is settling. I recently got the big smoker cleaned up, re-seasoned, and ready to smoke!
I smoke turkeys every Thanksgiving. My practice in the past has been a 24-hour brine, followed by a hot (425 - 450), fast offset smoke on my medium-sized Charbroil charcoal grill. I can cook two 12-14 pound turkeys in 2 hours or less. They turn out almost black but are still very moist and tasty due to the brine.
This year my lovely wife asked me to smoke a couple of turkeys on the big smoker so I decided to do a low and slow cook. I brined two 16-pound turkeys as normal for 24 hours. I use a baffled charcoal basket in the firebox and can easily maintain 8 hours of 225 degrees after coming up to heat using 40 lbs of charcoal, which I spice up with aromatic wood chips for extra smoke flavor.
The turkeys went on at 11 AM. After 8 hours of steadily rising meat temps (which I monitor with a Maverick dual-probe wireless thermometer), both birds stalled at 160. I let them at stall for a while before realizing that due to the moisture content from the brine they would likely stay stalled for .... forever. And I was getting hungry. I fired up both kitchen ovens to 420, put foil over the birds to prevent evaporation (according to Meathead, heat loss from evaporation causes the stall), and 45 minutes later they had pushed through the stall and were ready to eat. Delicious!
I apologize for no pics; I was clearly suffering from food deprivation when the birds came out. They turned out a deep golden brown, and were not at all dried out from their time on the smoker.
The brine (per bird):
I hope y'all find this useful!
-Tom_S
I smoke turkeys every Thanksgiving. My practice in the past has been a 24-hour brine, followed by a hot (425 - 450), fast offset smoke on my medium-sized Charbroil charcoal grill. I can cook two 12-14 pound turkeys in 2 hours or less. They turn out almost black but are still very moist and tasty due to the brine.
This year my lovely wife asked me to smoke a couple of turkeys on the big smoker so I decided to do a low and slow cook. I brined two 16-pound turkeys as normal for 24 hours. I use a baffled charcoal basket in the firebox and can easily maintain 8 hours of 225 degrees after coming up to heat using 40 lbs of charcoal, which I spice up with aromatic wood chips for extra smoke flavor.
The turkeys went on at 11 AM. After 8 hours of steadily rising meat temps (which I monitor with a Maverick dual-probe wireless thermometer), both birds stalled at 160. I let them at stall for a while before realizing that due to the moisture content from the brine they would likely stay stalled for .... forever. And I was getting hungry. I fired up both kitchen ovens to 420, put foil over the birds to prevent evaporation (according to Meathead, heat loss from evaporation causes the stall), and 45 minutes later they had pushed through the stall and were ready to eat. Delicious!
I apologize for no pics; I was clearly suffering from food deprivation when the birds came out. They turned out a deep golden brown, and were not at all dried out from their time on the smoker.
The brine (per bird):
- 2 quarts apple juice, unfiltered - not from concentrate
- 1/2 pint apple cider vinegar
- 1 pound brown sugar
- 1 cup kosher salt
- 3 oranges, quartered
- 4 ounces fresh ginger, thinly sliced
- 15 whole cloves
- 6 bay leaves
- 6 large cloves garlic, crushed
I hope y'all find this useful!
-Tom_S
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