Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. This Thanksgiving, I decided to smoke a turkey using a popular recipe from the Cookshack forums.
The first part of the recipe is to brine the turkey 24 to 48 hours ahead of time (preferably closer to 48).
Smokin’ Okie’s Holiday Turkey Brine:
- 1 gallon water
- 1 cup coarse kosher salt
- 3/4 cup soy sauce
- 1/2 c white sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
- 4 tablespoons black pepper
- 3 – 4 tablespoons chopped garlic
- 1 teaspoon Allspice
- 1 ounce Morton’s Tender quick (optional)
Instructions:
Heat water/salt/sugars to rolling boil. Take off burner, add other ingredients. Once the brine has cooled down to room temperature, put the turkey in a non-reactive container large enough to hold the turkey and brine. Once the turkey is added, pour the brine over the turkey so that the turkey is fully submerged in it. Let sit in fridge for at least 24 hours and preferably up to 48 hours.
Smokin’ Day:
Take the turkey out of the brine, rinse and pat dry 3 times. The following is the rub ingredients that I used for the turkey (mix all together in a bowl):
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons paprika
- 1 tablespoon onion powder
- 2 tablespoons seasoned salt
- 1/2 tablespoon garlic powder
- 1/2 tablespoon chili powder
- 1/2 tablespoon lemon pepper
- 1 tablespoon sage, dried
- 1/2 teaspoon basil, dried
- 1/2 teaspoon rosemary, dried
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Instructions:
Carefully separate the skin (making sure not to tear it) breast; add about 2 tablespoons of rub underneath the skin. Rub down the outside of the turkey with the remainder of the rub. Soak a cheese cloth in some butter and place over turkey (to prevent the skin from becoming to black from the smoke), and put the turkey in the smoker. I smoked it at about 250 (highest a Smokette will go), if you smoker goes higher, go up to about 350 degrees. When you believe you have about an hour left of smoking, remove the cheese cloth from the turkey and let it resume smoking until your desired temperature.
Results:
Overall the turkey tasted wonderful, but could have been better. I had some issues with the brine forming a leak in the turkey bags I used to brine it in, next time I will use something else. The only dark meat I had of the turkey was one of the wings, and it was way too smoky for me. The other people that had the dark meat thought it tasted great, but I was the only one that had one of the wings. The breast meat tasted great. Next time I may drop the amount of wood I smoke it with to try and get less smoke in the dark meat.
Looks good. We’re looking for something different to do with the bird on Christmas. Hope your Thanksgiving was a good one! – s
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