20 pound turkey and scared to death!!

[JckDanls 07]

thank you all for your input!  I did brine it over night, but didn't stick it in the fridge. (no room!)  I washed it and patted it dry and let it sit for about an hour.  I used a rub that a buddy of mine told me about and it's in the smoker now.  Almost done after about 5 hours.  the first 3 hours I had the smoker sitting on maximum heat of 275, and then turned it down to 230.  I was told if I wanted the skin crispy to crank it up again for the last hour.( just did that with the remote but not sure I trust that thing!.)

Next I'm smoking a smoked ham shank, 12 pounder, with mustard bbq sauce.  I think I'll wait till tomorrow to smoke the mac and cheese.

happy turkey day everybuddy!

Man that turkey looks GREATTTTTTT.... after reading this I started to worry if it sat out all night in the brine... was it in a cooler with ice around it ? how did you keep it cold all night ?

 

[dingbatdinah]

the weather here was in the 20's and I had it in a 5 gallon bucket with ice water in it on my front porch.  Had the weather not been so cold not sure what I would have done except put ice on it.  It worked! No body got sick! LOL  and yes I was nervous about it. but it worked out.

 

[bherendeen05]

Bird looks great and its definitely doable in the mes 30. I see alot of people say stick to smaller birds but I done a 20lb bird and the smoker stayed about 270 the whole time and cleared the 140 in 3 an a half hours and was done around 6 hours also In a mes 30. Nice q view btw