I smoked our Thanksgiving Turkey for the first time this year, which was something I was hoping would be amazing though was left thinking was simply on-par with a traditional roasted bird. Which isn't to say i did not like it, I thought it was delicious... the meat definitely took on a subtle smoked flavor which I loved, but the overall bbq'd flavor needed to be amped up a few notches. I was looking to be rocked, and instead I was swayed. The process was a safe experiment of smoking a turkey though, and I'm now armed with the experience to kill it next year (after all, eating a turkey more than once a year is just plain silly).
For posterity's sake, here's what i did:
- Brined in a basic salt/brown sugar brine for 24 hours (perfect saltiness quotient)
- Air dried in the fridge for another 24 hrs (useless)
- Stuffed with clementines and apples (tasty)
- Brushed with 2 tablespoons melted butter (useless)
- Dusted with salt and papper (too subtle, rub would be better)
- Placed drip pans under the bird to catch drippings for gravy
- Smoke-roasted over hardwood charcoal and apple wood chips for 5 hrs (freezing cold day, hard to keep it at 300 for too long, so it ended up in the traditional 220 range for most of the time)
- Made a traditional gravy from drippings (which was hardcore, powerful stuff. i loved it!)
What I'd do next year:
- Brine was perfect. Repeat!
- Skip extended air drying and simply let it drain and dry with towels
- Stuffed with fruits was great. Repeat!
- Skip the butter step
- Make a robust rub, no sugar, but still leaning toward my bbq stylings
- Add cider to the water pan (i didn't have any water in the smoker this year)
- Do my best to make that fire run a little hotter more consistently.
- Catching the smoked drippings to make gravy was perfect. Repeat!
For the turkey enthusiast (don't deny it), a full gallery of photos can be seen here:
