First Turkey - "lots of butter" method

[opilat10]

Hey all!!

Happy Turkey Day!!

This morning I smoked my first bird. I used the "lots of butter" method on a 15 lb bird. It took 5.5 hours as advertised. The flavor was amazing, and the white meat was amazingly juicy, even after a 1 hour transport.

A couple suggestions:
1. I had one complaint of it being a little too salty (not unberable). Depending on the salt content in the rub and brunette, maybe go with an unsalted butter.
2. The skin was not crisp at all, at least on the leg I had. Maybe bump the heat towards the end to try and crisp up a little bit (this also may have happened in transport)
3. I had trouble getting the rub to stick on the skin. I did not allow to fully dry, and I was on a tight time budget.

This recipe may become a turkey day staple for my family. Overall, we rate this on a solid A!

IMG_20161124_114220.jpg

• opilat10
• Nov 24, 2016

 

[timberjet]

Did you brine it? I made the mistake of forgetting to rinse the brine off one time and it was too salty. I put my rub under the skin as well. If your skin wasn't good and dry it won't get real crispy. looks great to me though. Most birds are injected with salt solutions for moistness so I don't use much salt in my poultry rub and yes, unsalted butter.

 

[opilat10]

Thanks! I did brine it and I gave it a pretty good rinse. I just used a store bought poultry rub, did not check the salt content on that.it wasn't horribly salty though, my wife likes being a tough critic.

I will definitely have to make sure I wake up on time next time. . . I'll have more time to let it dry completely.

 

[SmokinAl]

Well it sure looks good from here!

Al