With Thanksgiving just a week away I thought it might be time to talk about Smoking a Turkey! Nothing better IMHO!
Get a plain fresh or frozen turkey. Stay away from the Butterballs. You want to add your own flavors! It can be fresh or frozen I will describe both.
Frozen turkeys - You need the turkey thawed! So if your bird is frozen, 2 to 3 days before Thanksgiving thaw the bird!
Fresh not frozen turkeys - you can start the day before Thanksgiving.
Take the thawed bird and wash it thoroughly, and remove all the gizzards and neck and whatever else they stick in the cavity. I trim off the extra neck skin and the tail.
You’ll need a big bucket, stainless steel pot, cooler or anything big enough to hold the whole bird plus a about 1-1/2 gallons of water. Wash and sanitize the container before using it.
Next collect the ingredients for your brine. Here’s my very basic brine.
1-1/2 gallons ice cold water
1/2 cup salt (sea salt or kosher salt)
2 teaspoons Garlic Power
2 teaspoons Onion Powder
*2 teaspoons DJ’s Cajun Spice*
** 1/3 cup Dextrose or some form of sugar – optional
NOTE: You can add as much as 1 full cup of salt to the brine water. If you like your food more salty add a full cup, if you are watching you salt intake only use 1/2 cup of salt!
You can add whatever spices you normally use for spicing up your bird. Add about 2 teaspoons of each of your favorite spices to the brine water.
Sugar - sugar can be in any form, dextrose, white, brown, Molasses, honey, maple syrup, oranges - any sugar you choose. The only rule is use the same amount of sugar as you use salt. Sugar is said to balance the harshness of the salt. I tend to use as little salt as I can so I don’t use the sugar unless it’s to add a specific flavor to the meat.
Boil about two cups of the water and dissolve the salt and spices in it, if you don’t do this the salt and sugars will just sit on the bottom of your brine bucket and do nothing for the bird!
Once everything is dissolved add it to the ice cold brine water add the bird and keep it totally submerged. Let this sit over night. If you are in a warm climate add ice to the brine water to keep it cold!
I like to then inject the bird with the brine water every few inches. You can buy a cheap meat injector at Wal-Mart for like $3. I like to take a pair of pliers and cut the tip off to the first hole. That’s so my spices don’t get stuck in the needle. Then carefully open up the end again. Be care this is going to be very sharp!
It’s Thanksgiving morning!Pull the bird out of the brine and let it drain for awhile while you get your smoker ready and up to temperature. What temperature is that? This is poultry and poultry does not have all those miserable connective tissues that make meat tough so we don’t need t worry about cooking poultry low and slow! Smoke this bird as close to 375°F as you can – just like in your oven! BTW if you don't have a smoker do it in the over - your just won't have the smoke.
I know some smokers will not go that high so go as high as you can up to 300 to 325°F. This will help render the fat in the skin and make it nice and crispy.
We’re not done yet!Next we are going to inject the bird every few inches with melted butter and our favorite spices. Here’s mine:
1 stick of margarine, butter or margerine
3/4 teaspoon Garlic Power
3/4 teaspoon Onion Powder
* 3/4 teaspoon DJ’s Cajun Spice *
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
Melt the butter and mix in all your spices. Inject the bird every few inches or so and rub the spillage all over the skin. If you run out don’t worry just mix up another batch and keep on injecting. As you start to inject slide the needle out of the bird this will allow more room for the butter and spices to fill.
Woods like cherry, orange and tangerine will give your poultry a nice deep red/orange color with great flavor. Try mixing these in with your other favorite smoking woods! I like to mix theses woods with hickory, pecan and apple.
Place foil over your water pan and suspend it above the pan to catch the drippings. Add some water to the foil so it doesn’t dry out. You have to have gravy with turkey!
Once the bird reaches 160 to 165°F, remove the bird and let it rest with foil tented but not touching over the bird for 20 minutes or so before carving to allow the juices to redistribute throughout the meat. The internal temperature will continue to rise by about 5°F after removing it from the smoker.
Here is the bird I did last Thanksgiving:
For more details, pictures and instructions on Smoking Turkeys
Go here! And for more ideas on mixing brines
Go Here
