Thanksgiving Turkey

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Don't do your first turkey for the big day. It will be totally never wracking and stressful. Many people assume those invited to your dinner are into smoked turkey. My girls and most of my in-laws are NOT. That being said, if I was asked to smoke one (which means running another in the oven) it would be Pops low salt smoked a few days ahead and reheated.
 
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as much meat as I smoke, this will make Y'all cringe. I only do whole Turkey once a year for Thanksgiving. for the past 40 years I get Glad plastic turkey bags. Shake some flour in it and put it in the oven with2 inkbird probes. I'd be sick if I F'd up my one turkey dinner a year trying to smoke it.
About the only way I can think of to screw up smoked turkey is to try and cook it on Thanksgiving day and have it ready according to the wife's planned mealtime.

I've had a bunch of hungry folks ready to stick a fork in me because the bird just wouldn't conform to the set schedule. I always smoke and carve the day before and just reheat in foil pans with a little broth since then.
 
Don't do your first turkey for the big day. It will be totally never wracking and stressful. Many people assume those invited to your dinner are into smoked turkey. My girls and most of my in-laws are NOT. That being said, if I was asked to smoke one (which means running another in the oven) it would be Pops low salt smoked a few days ahead and reheated.
I agree with this completely. They are going on sale a few weeks before here. So doing a turkey the week before as a practice run will let you figure things out for the turkey you do on Turkey day.

The biggest issues I think people will run into will be just simply dealing with the size of the bird. The brining/curing, the positioning and fitting in the smoker, etc.
Next will be the poultry skin issue.
Smoke at a high enough temp and it should be edible and maybe even crispy. I do mine at 325F and have it on a vertical smoker rack. It seems to me when birds are vertical the skin gets way more airflow and often gets more then bite through edible but will get crispy in for me :D

One issue specific to my system is that the amount of humidity from a soaked turkey gives my smoker fits in hitting higher temps. I work around it though :D
 
I vastly prefer to dry brine (24 hours) . Less fussy than wet brine and I believe produces a better skin. I also do not care for the texture of the meat in a wet brine.

I like "hanging" my turkey in the smoker because it maximizes air flow, If placing the turkey on a rack I make sure the bottom of the turkey is above the rim of a pan.

I smoke at about 300f to get the Maillard reaction I seek and still get a decent smoke.

I avoid using butter because it introduces too much water to the skin. Basting is not needed.

Using baking powder on the skin is a game changer.

I know spatchcock produces better results but I cant bring myself to do it.

Monitoring both the breast and thigh temp is important.

Out of habit, I do try very carefully to separate the skin from the meat.

Its better than oven roasted so I continue to do it.
 
Good question.

I use a 5 gallon bucket and it all goes into my garage fridge.

Two methods to measure.

Method 1: put the bird in the bucket/tub while the bird is still in the package. Fill up the bucket/tub with 64oz pitchers of water and count how many you use. Fill until you are about 3.5 inches over because the cavity of the bird will take up water when not in the packaging. See how much you have written down and you can use new water if needed or just stick with the water you used already. If using that water then take the pitcher and pull out 64 oz of it so you can blender up the salt, sugar, and cure in that water :D

Method 2: (my preferred method) Put the bird in the bucket WITHOUT it being in the wrapping and start filling up with a 64oz pitcher. Go until barely not covering. Then take your number and add 1 gallon to it (two 64oz pitchers) and you can use that last 1 gallon to blend up your salt, sugar, and cure and pour it in to finally cover the bird.


My mother likes to buy smaller turkeys like 10-12 pounds and use a big roasting pan to do this.
If you spatch cock or half the bird you can also easily use a meat tote/lug, or big roasting pan to do this as well. These are wider than taller and may help with people's fridge dimensions.
My garage fridge stays pretty empty in the fridge section so I can do things like this.
Only the door and the freezer part have things in it.

I hope this makes sense and ask all the questions you have :D
When do you thaw the turkey? Are you brining and allowing it to unfreeze as it goes or do you thaw it completely then brine it for 2-3 days, which seems to be kind of lengthy to be unfrozen? Or do you let it begin to unthaw for 24-48 hours and begin the brining then? I did buy an injection syringe and plan on injecting the brine and also using cure #1 in it. I would think injecting a frozen turkey might be difficult.
 
When do you thaw the turkey? Are you brining and allowing it to unfreeze as it goes or do you thaw it completely then brine it for 2-3 days, which seems to be kind of lengthy to be unfrozen? Or do you let it begin to unthaw for 24-48 hours and begin the brining then? I did buy an injection syringe and plan on injecting the brine and also using cure #1 in it. I would think injecting a frozen turkey might be difficult.
I thaw completely before I dry brine.
 
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I mostly do turkey breast spatchcocked. I brine them every time in slaughterhouse brine for 12-24 hours.
1 ½ Gal Water
½ C Salt - Kosher
½ C Dark Brown Sugar
2 tsp Garlic Powder
2 tsp Onion Powder
2 tsp Tony Chachere's
2 tsp Celery Seed

275 till 165 at thickest part. works great every time! I have one brining right now!
 
I thaw completely before I dry brine.
thaw completely, but a little ice/frozen wont do anything bad, the breast i just started brining today had some ice inside the cavity, I just rinsed it out and dropped it in the brine
 
thaw completely, but a little ice/frozen wont do anything bad, the breast i just started brining today had some ice inside the cavity, I just rinsed it out and dropped it in the brine
Thanks. I’m planning on cooking Tuesday so I guess I should move it to the refrigerator now? It’s a 20# whole Turkey
 
When do you thaw the turkey? Are you brining and allowing it to unfreeze as it goes or do you thaw it completely then brine it for 2-3 days, which seems to be kind of lengthy to be unfrozen? Or do you let it begin to unthaw for 24-48 hours and begin the brining then? I did buy an injection syringe and plan on injecting the brine and also using cure #1 in it. I would think injecting a frozen turkey might be difficult.
Hey, sorry for the late reply (holiday company has been here since last Thursday) but I think you found the answer.

I start defrosting in the garage fridge about 8 days before I plan to cook it. After about 4 days it's got some defrosting going I can throw it into the cure or brine and the liquid helps it defrost even more if it is still a little frozen in parts. You will want it defrosted enough to be able to inject the cure or brine into the breast.
 
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Hey, sorry for the late reply (holiday company has been here since last Thursday) but I think you found the answer.

I start defrosting in the garage fridge about 8 days before I plan to cook it. After about 4 days it's got some defrosting going I can throw it into the cure or brine and the liquid helps it defrost even more if it is still a little frozen in parts. You will want it defrosted enough to be able to inject the cure or brine into the breast.
Here’s my biggest question. Do I remove the tie that holds the legs crossed when I brine or do I do it when smoking or not until after cooked?
 
Here’s my biggest question. Do I remove the tie that holds the legs crossed when I brine or do I do it when smoking or not until after cooked?
Sorry for the late reply again. It's a busy time of year.
I'm sure you sorted something out by now but the answer is that I leave the legs holding thing when I brine/cure and I remove it when smoking.

I don't think it will melt when smoking but less plastic while cooking, the better lol :D
 
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