Smoked Turkey Recipe

Print Recipe

1 Rating

You are the new head chef at Thanksgiving now

Prep Time1

Cook Time6

Course: Autumn, Dinner, Main Course

Keyword: dinner, grilled, smoked, turkey

Servings:

Calories: 0.2kcal

Equipment

1 five gallon bucket clean, to be used for brining the turkey
1 large bag can be found at the grocery store in November typically, or online
1 smoker or grill

Ingredients

1 whole turkey
1 pkg brine kit from scratch brines work perfectly fine too
½ cup butter, plus herbs (1 stick)
1 jar seasoning salts whatever your favorite poultry seasoning is

Instructions

Make the brine. In a medium saucepan, add brine to water and heat according to the directions on the package (Redmond Brine Kit makes it super easy!!) Once cooled, add brine liquid to turkey bag with turkey in it, ensuring the entire turkey is submerged in the liquid. Remove any air bubbles from the bag, and tie it closed. Set bag with turkey and brine in a 5-gallon bucket, and let sit in a refrigerator for 18-24 hours.
Spatchcock the Turkey *optional*. After brining is complete, remove turkey from bag, rinse, and pat dry. With a sharp kitchen knife or boning scissors. remove the backbone from your turkey. Flip the bird over and lay onto. flat surface like a cutting board. Using the palm of your hand, gently press down on the breasts of the bird to break the breastbone. When done right, the bird should lay fairly flat on a cutting board.
Pre-heat your smoker
Add any final Butter or Seasonings. If you want additional butter flavor, add an herb butter of your choice to the turkey. Gently separate the skin from the breast meat, and slide small chunks of the butter in between the breast and the outer skin, and then some Redmond Red Rock BBQ seasoning sprinkled on top.
Smoke the Meat. 225 degrees for roughly 30 minutes per pound. A few hours in, I always advise to start checking temp to make sure you don't overcook, especially with smaller birds.
During the cook, spray intermittently with apple cider vinegar. Every hour or so, quickly open your smoker lid and spray the turkey with apple cider vinegar in a spray bottle.
Once to temp, let sit for 30 minutes. Turkey is done when the meat hits 165 degrees. I always temp check the breast and the thighs, to make sure all parts of the bird are cooking evenly and together.
Carve, and eat! No further explanation needed here.

Notes

*Spatchcocking is definitely optional. I very much prefer it, but if you want to leave out that step and cook the complete bird, feel free to do so.

*If done right, the meat should separate from the bone very nicely when you are carving the turkey up. This is another reason I love smoking turkeys, is there is almost no meat wasted after everything is carved up and pieced out.

Nutrition