- Oct 23, 2017
- 103
- 130
This year for Thanksgiving I was smoking a turkey again and decided to try a dry brine instead of wet for a change. After doing (probably too much) research I went for it not knowing if the big part of the meal would be ruined. I ordered a fresh turkey that was 13LBS. Tuesday morning, I rinsed and trimmed up the turkey and then proceeded to add the dry brine. It was approx. 2TBS of cosher salt for every 5LBS of turkey. I was not exact with it but made sure i had salt in the cavity, under the skin on the breast and leg and then on top of the entire bird. I also added my normal smoked turkey breast seasoning and just placed the bird in a foil pain and let it sit until Thursday morning. I took it out about 1 hr. before smoking and applied a little more rub in places where it might need it. I was also my first time using the Turkey cannon I purchased last year that did not arrive in time. Before I placed the bird on, I added some fresh sage and rosemary and some chicken stock with a little bullion, pepper, and white pepper. After sitting the bird on top, I just a quarter of an onion and covered the neck whole so I can keep the steam inside the bird. The smoker was set to 325 and I let it go for about 3 hours until it was around 165 and then I took it off an let it sit on the counter for 30 minutes while we ate the first course. The dry brine was amazing, and the bird was super moist and the skin was also super crispy and tasty. I think the future I am going to stick with this method as everyone said it was amazing. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving as well.
