It was a a balmy 30 degrees today (Celcius) after a couple days of pretty heavy rain up here in Stouffville Canada, so I decided to take the time to smoke up some turkey thighs. They were on sale 5$ a kg, (thats $2.27$/lb) so I grabbed 4.
First I brined them up overnight using a brine I found here, cut to orrder:
1 1/2 Gal Water, 1/2 C Salt, 1/2 C Dark Brown Sugar, 2 tsp Garlic Powder, 2 tsp onion Powder, 2 tsp Cajun Spice, 2 tsp Celery Salt
Mixed up a turkey spice rub, I found elsewhere. THis gave it a nice colour and the flavour was fantastic!
Rub:
2 Tablespoons onion powder
1 Tablespoon paprika
2 teaspoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon celery salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon powdered sage
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Went to bed.
Now for something humerous to start the day,
These past few weekends, I have been digging gardens, and teaching my toddler Luke (almost 3) that bugs and worms are nothing to be scared of. There has been a giant bumble bee around the past couple days, my son has been referring to it as 'My friend The Bumble Bee' even said goodnight to it last night (I thought he saw it out the window).
This morning he said good morning Bumble Bee, in the living room (he is very polite) And much to my surprise, this huge bee was sitting on the curtain in the living room. Shuffled my boy out of the room, grabbed a camera for a couple pics, captured it and released it back to the outdoors. Here are some pics of that for perspective
Took the thighs from the brine, air dried in the fridge for a couple hours, then rubbed down
Mixed Pecan and Applewood 2/3- 1/3 Got the smoker to 225 (tooks about 35 min) loaded it up and got it going.
Let it got for 2.5 hrs, hitting 250 for just over 2 hrs. No breeze so could not get the temps higher as suggested in other threads.
Added a few more chips at the 90 minute mark
Checked the, and they had hit 175IT at 90 minutes, so I pulled them off, gave them a light basing of bbq sauce (storebought *ducks* ) and put them back for another 30 min with a small toss of chops for some final smoke,
Made up a chickpea salad
(1 can chickpeas, 1/2 green pepper, 1/.2 red pepper, 1/4 bermuda onion. handful sliced olives, handful of cherry tomatoes & a small chunk of feta) made a dressing 50/50 mix lemon concentrate & olive oil, some crushed pepper, 2 small cloves garlic minced, spot of thyme & basil) mixed it up and chilled it for a couple hours.
And here are a few final pics including one which shows the smoke penetration in the thigh.
This was really awesome, hope my pointers can help anyone who may be looking, and thanks for the pointers and support from everyone here.
First I brined them up overnight using a brine I found here, cut to orrder:
1 1/2 Gal Water, 1/2 C Salt, 1/2 C Dark Brown Sugar, 2 tsp Garlic Powder, 2 tsp onion Powder, 2 tsp Cajun Spice, 2 tsp Celery Salt
Mixed up a turkey spice rub, I found elsewhere. THis gave it a nice colour and the flavour was fantastic!
Rub:
2 Tablespoons onion powder
1 Tablespoon paprika
2 teaspoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon celery salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon powdered sage
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Went to bed.
Now for something humerous to start the day,
These past few weekends, I have been digging gardens, and teaching my toddler Luke (almost 3) that bugs and worms are nothing to be scared of. There has been a giant bumble bee around the past couple days, my son has been referring to it as 'My friend The Bumble Bee' even said goodnight to it last night (I thought he saw it out the window).
This morning he said good morning Bumble Bee, in the living room (he is very polite) And much to my surprise, this huge bee was sitting on the curtain in the living room. Shuffled my boy out of the room, grabbed a camera for a couple pics, captured it and released it back to the outdoors. Here are some pics of that for perspective
Took the thighs from the brine, air dried in the fridge for a couple hours, then rubbed down
Mixed Pecan and Applewood 2/3- 1/3 Got the smoker to 225 (tooks about 35 min) loaded it up and got it going.
Let it got for 2.5 hrs, hitting 250 for just over 2 hrs. No breeze so could not get the temps higher as suggested in other threads.
Added a few more chips at the 90 minute mark
Checked the, and they had hit 175IT at 90 minutes, so I pulled them off, gave them a light basing of bbq sauce (storebought *ducks* ) and put them back for another 30 min with a small toss of chops for some final smoke,
Made up a chickpea salad
(1 can chickpeas, 1/2 green pepper, 1/.2 red pepper, 1/4 bermuda onion. handful sliced olives, handful of cherry tomatoes & a small chunk of feta) made a dressing 50/50 mix lemon concentrate & olive oil, some crushed pepper, 2 small cloves garlic minced, spot of thyme & basil) mixed it up and chilled it for a couple hours.
And here are a few final pics including one which shows the smoke penetration in the thigh.
This was really awesome, hope my pointers can help anyone who may be looking, and thanks for the pointers and support from everyone here.
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