Smoked Turkey - My first go!!

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zakkyc

Fire Starter
Original poster
Aug 26, 2022
40
52
Starting up a whole turkey. My first time cooking a bird! Practice for thanksgiving! Hope you guys are smoking well today. Go Chiefs!
 

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Sounds delicious. I’m in for the finish. What final IT are you shooting for?

No I didn’t. It came pre brined. I injected the breasts with butter, ancho chili powder, chipotle chili powder, and salt. Then dry rub was just coarse salt and pepper!
 
Sounds delicious. I’m in for the finish. What final IT are you shooting for?
I’ll post pics! I’m gonna shoot for 160 breast, 180 dark meat. Give it a good 30 min rest after. I started 225 for a couple hours and about to crank to 325 to crisp skin and let it get to temp. Then after rest, I’m gonna drizzle with a piping hot herb butter with sage, rosemary, and Mexican oregano. Burning pecan splits!
 
Sounds and looks good . I've brined the pre-brined birds without issue . I just don't add any more salt to the surface .
Be waiting for a slice pic .
 
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Posted some pics of the finish! Turned out great. Excited for thanksgiving!
 
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I smoke a turkey every year for Thanksgiving, and I've been doing it for over 30 years. I used to use a stick burner, but the skin came out black and tasted like it came out of an ashtray, so I switched to my Weber Genesis about 5 years ago. I put some wood chunks in the grill and set the temperature to 350-375. That made the skin tasty and imparted a slightly smokey flavor to the bird, but not as smokey as I like.

How did the skin taste on yours?
 
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Looks great I give mine a couple hours of smoke then into a cooking bag to finish, makes life easy lol
 
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I smoke a turkey every year for Thanksgiving, and I've been doing it for over 30 years. I used to use a stick burner, but the skin came out black and tasted like it came out of an ashtray, so I switched to my Weber Genesis about 5 years ago. I put some wood chunks in the grill and set the temperature to 350-375. That made the skin tasty and imparted a slightly smokey flavor to the bird, but not as smokey as I like.

How did the skin taste on yours?
Awesome! I think the skin turned out great. I feel like I could maybe get it just a bit crispier if I buttered between the breast and skin. Another problem was when I went to slice the breasts, the skin didn’t stay on, it just slid right off as I made my cuts. That may be a knife issue, though.
 
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Killer job especially for a first run! My first few turkeys went into the trash :emoji_laughing:
To me there's 2 styles of "smoked turkey". Hot smoked like this one. The other being cured and low temp smoked. Takes on a ham type flavor. I like both but prefer cured. For hot smoked poultry I would just run higher like 325F the whole time or putting a pellicle on the skin gives you nice bite thru on skin at the lower smoking temps. Edible, not rubbery but not crispy like run hotter. Also, early for me to say but remember not all people like smoked turkey so keep that in mind if hosting TG. My wife's family won't touch the stuff...
 
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Killer job especially for a first run! My first few turkeys went into the trash :emoji_laughing:
To me there's 2 styles of "smoked turkey". Hot smoked like this one. The other being cured and low temp smoked. Takes on a ham type flavor. I like both but prefer cured. For hot smoked poultry I would just run higher like 325F the whole time or putting a pellicle on the skin gives you nice bite thru on skin at the lower smoking temps. Edible, not rubbery but not crispy like run hotter. Also, early for me to say but remember not all people like smoked turkey so keep that in mind if hosting TG. My wife's family won't touch the stuff...
Thank you!
 
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