We're doing Thanksgiving at our house this year, after a 5 yr hiatus, and my husband decided he wanted to smoke the turkey this time. But since not everything we've done has been successful we figured we should do a practice run first. Good thing we did.
I should probably say that we have a Brinkman electric smoker that has a water pan, and the chips go into a box on the heating element. The top temp on the smoker is about 225 degrees.
We brined the turkey (approx 10lbs) with a tea/lemon brine recipe we got from a friend. We dried it up real good, and coated the skin with oil. We didn't stuff the turkey with anything since I was concerned about getting the turkey up to 140 degrees with the 4 hr window.
We happily smoked the turkey, using apple wood, until it got to about 150 degrees, then put it into the oven until it go to about 170 and put it into a cooler to keep warm until we were ready to eat.
The meat tasted great, but the skin was rubbery. While my husband doesn't eat the skin (great, more for me), he knows that alot of people almost consider that the best part. So, what did we do wrong? Should I have used the broiler, not the oven? Should I have put it on the grill on high?
We'll probably do the Thanksgiving turkey in the oven, but just wanted make sure we got this right the next attempt.
I should probably say that we have a Brinkman electric smoker that has a water pan, and the chips go into a box on the heating element. The top temp on the smoker is about 225 degrees.
We brined the turkey (approx 10lbs) with a tea/lemon brine recipe we got from a friend. We dried it up real good, and coated the skin with oil. We didn't stuff the turkey with anything since I was concerned about getting the turkey up to 140 degrees with the 4 hr window.
We happily smoked the turkey, using apple wood, until it got to about 150 degrees, then put it into the oven until it go to about 170 and put it into a cooler to keep warm until we were ready to eat.
The meat tasted great, but the skin was rubbery. While my husband doesn't eat the skin (great, more for me), he knows that alot of people almost consider that the best part. So, what did we do wrong? Should I have used the broiler, not the oven? Should I have put it on the grill on high?
We'll probably do the Thanksgiving turkey in the oven, but just wanted make sure we got this right the next attempt.