first turkey recommendations

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acd4476

Smoke Blower
Original poster
Sep 9, 2010
92
48
Metro Detroit, MI
Going to smoke my first turkey for Christmas this year. I'll have a tenderloin roast and ham for backup if this goes sideways. Wondering what everyone prefers? Currently leaning towards brine, spatchcock and smoking at 225 for 2 hrs then bumping the heat to 350 until 165 IT. I've read some like a 225-250 chamber the whole time while others prefer the hot smoke. I dont plan to smoke this thing for 10 plus hours and am looking to keep cook time under 6 hours for ease. Turkey will be 12-15 lbs. Cooking on my pellet grill with added smoke.
 
I'd recommend going 325F for the whole smoke. Poultry skin is rubbery unless it is cooked at a high enough heat or your do some other stuff. If you cook 325F the whole time you should have edible skin.
Also I would suggest adding Cure #1 to your brine to get a hardcore smoked turkey and have great flavor like the turkey legs at the state fairs and such.
 
Brine it, smoke at low temp a couple 3 hrs, pull at 115-120 into a cooking bag then the preheated oven, works very well for smoke flavor moisture and no need to dismantle the bird imo.
 
Thanks everyone. Finally got around to this today. Turned out great.
 

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Wow that looks perfect! Curious which route you decided to take as I'm also about to do my first turkey (on a pellet smoker too) and was debating which method to go by.
 
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Wow that looks perfect! Curious which route you decided to take as I'm also about to do my first turkey (on a pellet smoker too) and was debating which method to go by.
I went 45 minutes smoke setting then 350 the rest the way. I think next time I'd go 300. Dark meat got well done but the white was perfect. I did spatchcock this one. Took about 3 hrs total. My pellet s.oker didn't have a 325 setting
 
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