my first turkey

[metalmonkey]

Hi everyone. I am am trying to plan out thanksgiving for my family a little bit ahead. I was wondering if you need to brine or inject a turkey to hot smoke it? This will be a whole bird probably in the 12 to 14 pound range. Is there any other little tod bits I should know before I dive into it?

 

[oldschoolbbq]

Monkey , actually the Birds in the Mkts. are already 'enhanced' , the only reason I would Brine or Inject would be to add a flavor ... Garlic , Cajun , Butter , whatever .

Remember the ' 40 to 140 rule ' , make sure it is compleatly thawed !

I like to start with Breast down and flip after an hour , then cover the Breast with foil so as to not get too dark .

Some folks are doing thiers Spatchcocked and get good results .

Be sure to take your probe therm. ( in the Breast and Thigh ) and pull at 165*F in Breast and the Thighs may be a bit more , but no problem :biggrin::biggrin:

Practice runs with Chicken would benifit and get you set...:yahoo:

Have fun and . . .

 

[metalmonkey]

Great thanks for the info. I'm somewhat keen on handling the bird from my experiences deep frying a thanksgiving turkey but I had no clue what may be different or not with smoking one. We have a large enough group that I could actually do one each way as long as they aren't extra big birds. What is spatchcocked?

 

[oldschoolbbq]

When you Spatch . , you will cut ( use Kitchen Shears for this ) , the Backbone from the rest of the Bird . Score the inside of the Breast ( down the center , all the way . don't cut the meat , just the bone ) . Then turn the carcase over and press the top of the Breast , efectively breaking the bone so it will lay flatter .

I like to place foil wrapped Bricks on top to keep it flat . Carves easier too .

 

[metalmonkey]

Oh ok well that's a new term to me thanks

 

[daveomak]

Quartering a BIG bird can reduce cooking time... What I have done with 20#'s+......

jan2013Turkey Sectioned.jpg

• daveomak
• Oct 17, 2015

 

[metalmonkey]

I'll keep it in mind thanks dave