Picked up a couple of turkeys, so I just had to do one in the old MES 30. It was a 12 pound bird, did not brine it (next time).
As you can tell from 1st pic I threw a little bit of everything on and in it including a couple of bay leaves. Even put some apple juice in the water pan. Did I mention this was my first turkey.Preheated it to about 270, put the bird in, added apple wood chips to tray, and walked away. About 25 minutes later remembered that i forget to turn the temp down, so turned it down to 250. Added chips a couple of times. About 2hours 45 minutes in checked the smoker, and thought damn that bird looks brown, open the door and checked temp in a couple of spots and averaged like 190. I remembered that with chickens if you could grab a leg and it came unattached easily it was probably done. So I figured what the hell and burnt my damn finger, grabbed a kitchen towel and tried it, and it seemed to come loose easily. Brought it in and let it set for about 30 minutes and tried a piece(bottom pic). And was pleasantly surprised, good eats. I have read in other sources about turkeys baking quick in smokers, anyone else had this happen to them?
As you can tell from 1st pic I threw a little bit of everything on and in it including a couple of bay leaves. Even put some apple juice in the water pan. Did I mention this was my first turkey.Preheated it to about 270, put the bird in, added apple wood chips to tray, and walked away. About 25 minutes later remembered that i forget to turn the temp down, so turned it down to 250. Added chips a couple of times. About 2hours 45 minutes in checked the smoker, and thought damn that bird looks brown, open the door and checked temp in a couple of spots and averaged like 190. I remembered that with chickens if you could grab a leg and it came unattached easily it was probably done. So I figured what the hell and burnt my damn finger, grabbed a kitchen towel and tried it, and it seemed to come loose easily. Brought it in and let it set for about 30 minutes and tried a piece(bottom pic). And was pleasantly surprised, good eats. I have read in other sources about turkeys baking quick in smokers, anyone else had this happen to them?