My son turned 7 so we had both sides of the family over today for a party and to watch some football. My wife bought one of the biggest turkeys I have ever cooked, 19 lbs.
I started with a brine of 1 gallon of water, 1 cup of Kosher salt, 1 T of pepper corns, 1 T of thyme. I let the turkey brine for 24hrs. After I took it out of the brine, I put it on a rack with a baking sheet under it. I stuck it uncovered on the bottom shelf of my refrigerator for 2 days until the skin got nice and dry,
The rack the turkey is sitting on is the rack for my smoker. As you can see, there is a slight problem.
I was worried about the size of the bird and staying clear of the 140 deg - 4 hr rule so I was going to spatchcock it anyway. But I needed to cut it in half in order for it to fit in my smoker. I just added black pepper to both sides because the brine will impart all the salt and flavor that I'm looking for.
This big bird really didn't take as long as I thought it would. It got to 165 deg in about 4 hrs. I ran my smoker as hot as it would go and I could only muster 235 deg. I use a Smoke Hollow electric. It was probably about 45 - 50 deg outside in MN yesterday. I also used my AMNPS filled with hickory pellets.
I ended up just shredding half of it and vac u packing the other half for a snowy MN winters day. This ended up making enough for sandwiches for 11 people with a little left over for a sammy for me tomorrow for lunch!
I started with a brine of 1 gallon of water, 1 cup of Kosher salt, 1 T of pepper corns, 1 T of thyme. I let the turkey brine for 24hrs. After I took it out of the brine, I put it on a rack with a baking sheet under it. I stuck it uncovered on the bottom shelf of my refrigerator for 2 days until the skin got nice and dry,
The rack the turkey is sitting on is the rack for my smoker. As you can see, there is a slight problem.
I was worried about the size of the bird and staying clear of the 140 deg - 4 hr rule so I was going to spatchcock it anyway. But I needed to cut it in half in order for it to fit in my smoker. I just added black pepper to both sides because the brine will impart all the salt and flavor that I'm looking for.
This big bird really didn't take as long as I thought it would. It got to 165 deg in about 4 hrs. I ran my smoker as hot as it would go and I could only muster 235 deg. I use a Smoke Hollow electric. It was probably about 45 - 50 deg outside in MN yesterday. I also used my AMNPS filled with hickory pellets.
I ended up just shredding half of it and vac u packing the other half for a snowy MN winters day. This ended up making enough for sandwiches for 11 people with a little left over for a sammy for me tomorrow for lunch!