A 12-Pound Turkey on Electric ECB

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grillmonkey

Smoking Fanatic
Original poster
Jun 15, 2014
850
80
Twin City, GA
Thawed the turkey in the fridge (keeping food safety in mind).

Salted turkey inside and out with Kosher salt, added my new favorite poultry rub and placed in the fridge uncovered 24 hours prior to smoking. Allowing the skin to dry uncovered overnight will help keep it from getting rubbery.


My favorite poultry rub recipe:

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 tbs Paprika

1 tbs ground cayenne

1 tbs garlic powder

1 tbs onion powder

1 tbs coarse ground black pepper

1 tsp allspice

1 small bottle of fajita seasoning

Mix all ingredients thoroughly and sprinkle liberally over turkey inside and out and under skin if you really want to spice it up. Makes enough for 2-3 turkeys or several chickens.

The plan is to smoke the turkey in the electric ECB using a large handful of golf ball-sized chunks of pecan and a large handful of cherry chips (dry, not soaked in water) wrapped in aluminum foil with several holes poked in it to keep it from catching on fire. The ECB will probably never get up over 275 degrees before the breast IT reaches 150 degrees, so at that point I will dump a can of Kingsford (Blue Bag) into one side of the Weber kettle and (with all vents open) place the turkey opposite the coals and bring the breast IT to 165-170, thigh temp to 175-180. This should crisp up the skin and leave a beautiful dark golden brown smoked turkey that will be almost too pretty to eat....almost.

I will provide q-view throughout the process, whether I succeed or bomb.
a38.gif
 Turkey will go in the smoke about 10:00 AM.
 
Looking good. Sounds like a good plan for crispy skin. The one I did had rubber skin will have to remember this for next time.
 
Should be tasty! Just noticed we have a 12 pound bird in the freezer hogging up space. Probably should thaw that thing out and have some turkey!
 
Turkey sounds good. I'm like Dirt, I have a 20 pounder sitting in the freezer needing to be smoked.

Be watching for your finished pics

Gary
 

Preheating some fire bricks on the bottom rack to keep the temp stable. No water pan, but a pie pan on top of the bricks to catch the drippings.


It will be sprinkling rain off and on all day so I put up the tent.


A handful of cherry, and a handful of home-grown pecan should do it.


A few holes in the foil to let the smoke out.

Temp is at 275, wood is in the pan; time to get the bird.
 
Just put the turkey on and the temp is already over 230 and climbing at turkey grate level. Fire bricks did their job. The chips are starting to smoke, and that smell mixed with the turkey rub aroma is indescribable with my limited vocabulary. Let me just say it smells gooder than great!
a38.gif
 Should be ready for the grill in about 4 hours.
 
Should be tasty! Just noticed we have a 12 pound bird in the freezer hogging up space. Probably should thaw that thing out and have some turkey!
 
Turkey sounds good. I'm like Dirt, I have a 20 pounder sitting in the freezer needing to be smoked.

Be watching for your finished pics

Gary
If y'all could smell this thing right now you'd be thawing those turkeys today!
 
Just put the Maverick meat probe in. Breast IT 147. I think I'll go to 155 before I move it to the Weber. Wifey went shopping this morning so she is behind schedule cooking the easy stuff to go with the turkey.
 
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