Another year, and an opportunity to share blessings this year. My wife and I volunteer our time to cook for our Church food pantry's Thanksgiving meal. Church pays for all but we still try to keep cost reasonable. Cooking 175 pounds of bone in turkey breasts. 24 birds in total, not all are for the pantry, 5 are for our Church staff and Home group along with one for our T-Day family.
Early start as it will be 3 cooks on my RF, Lefty. I can only put 8-10 birds in the cooker. Sorted birds by size, trimmed, injected, oil rub and pepper. The weather was cooperative but winds were increasing as the day wore on. Not a big deal but I would need more wood to keep temps up.
Unwrap, rinse and trim birds. I use a pump style injector, it saves time and these old hands when doing this many birds. See my prior post for injection recipe. Pantry Cook 2023 We save the trim and make a broth for gravy.
Put birds on the smoker. Using hickory, cherry and apple woods. Run the temp at 275-300F. It was difficult in the wind. They are done 165F in about 3 hours. I wrap in double foil and let them rest for an hour. Restack the fire and load up another 8. Cook those in another 3 hours. We have found it best to cool and return the next day for slicing.
next day we load the smoker with the smallest birds and repeat. Unwrap, and slice breasts. We reserve the jelled juice and add it to some chicken broth. We vac pack the sliced meat with a bit of the broth. We will reheat these bags in boiling water when serving the attendees. We will freeze the one for Thanksgiving.
We are serving dinner this Monday evening. Turkey, gravy, mashed taters, green beans, roll and pumpkin pie is the offering. We are expecting a large turnout as with the gridlock in Washington and inflation. I'll post a few pictures when we serve. I am so blessed to be able to do this for my fellow man. Life is good, its better when you Share! God Bless The USA.
RG
Early start as it will be 3 cooks on my RF, Lefty. I can only put 8-10 birds in the cooker. Sorted birds by size, trimmed, injected, oil rub and pepper. The weather was cooperative but winds were increasing as the day wore on. Not a big deal but I would need more wood to keep temps up.
Unwrap, rinse and trim birds. I use a pump style injector, it saves time and these old hands when doing this many birds. See my prior post for injection recipe. Pantry Cook 2023 We save the trim and make a broth for gravy.
Put birds on the smoker. Using hickory, cherry and apple woods. Run the temp at 275-300F. It was difficult in the wind. They are done 165F in about 3 hours. I wrap in double foil and let them rest for an hour. Restack the fire and load up another 8. Cook those in another 3 hours. We have found it best to cool and return the next day for slicing.
next day we load the smoker with the smallest birds and repeat. Unwrap, and slice breasts. We reserve the jelled juice and add it to some chicken broth. We vac pack the sliced meat with a bit of the broth. We will reheat these bags in boiling water when serving the attendees. We will freeze the one for Thanksgiving.
We are serving dinner this Monday evening. Turkey, gravy, mashed taters, green beans, roll and pumpkin pie is the offering. We are expecting a large turnout as with the gridlock in Washington and inflation. I'll post a few pictures when we serve. I am so blessed to be able to do this for my fellow man. Life is good, its better when you Share! God Bless The USA.
RG
Last edited:
