Awesome smoked turkey on T-giving

[Trilbysdad]

I smoked a turkey breast for the family on Thanksgiving. I received the ultimate complement fron my wife after her first bite when she said :this is the best turkey I have ever had." Let me share with you what I did.

I brined a 8 lb turkey breast over night. The brine consisted of:
brown sugar, real maple syrup, sea sault, soy sause, garlic cloves, bay leaves and thyme. I boiled it until the sugar melted then let it cool. Once the brine was cooled in went the turkey and it sat in the fridge overnight.

Thanksgiving morning I removed the turkey from the brine and dried it off. I took two of the cloves of garlic and melted butter, added maple syrup and honey. I injected this into the turkey. I then lightly rubbed salt, pepper and poultry rub (Everglade Seasoning from Michelbobs).

I smoked the turkey with apple wood for four hours until the internal temp was 160 degrees. I let it cool for 15 minutes then sliced her up.

It was wicked tastey !!!!!!!!!

[allsmokenofire]

Winner winner turkey dinner!!

Congrats!
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Mike
Team Enoserv

[davejschultz]

I had a totally different idea in mind for my first brined/smoked turkey attempt this weekend in prep for xmas...now I have to re-think after reading this OP.
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[Smokin Mike]

Yeah, it does sound good doesn't it? I've got two that I'm smoking up x-mas day and trying to make final decisions on the brine. Also gotta get the GF's ok on it all.

Hey Trilbysdad, you got the recipe/formula for your brine???

[Trilbysdad]

I have the recipe for the brine at home. I'll post it tonight or tomorrow. Try it you'll love it !!
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[Smokin Mike]

[Trilbysdad]

Here's the link. I also injected the turkey after removing from the brine with the cloves of garlic from the brine, melted butter and honey.mmmmmm

Enjoy and let me know how you make out !!
http://bbq.about.com/od/brinerecipes/r/bl61203d.htm
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[Big Ron]

http://www.smokinbluesbbq.com/Turkey.html


Here is my recipe.
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[Smokin Mike]

Thanks TD!

I thought those ingedients looked familiar. I had copied earlier about another 4 or 5 brine recipes from http://bbq.about.com/lr/brine_recipes/244873/1/

I've got two 7-1/2 pounders so I'm going to do one with your recipe and the GF wants one done with the Savory Turkey Brine. I gotta cook up a pot of vegetable stock for that one though. oh well, anything for the little lady.


Nice article there Big Ron!

Thanks guys,

Mike

[Petunia]

Throwing in my two-cents cuz we've been smoking a few turkeys here, too. Always done 'em butterflied/spatchcocked, always use Dan Gill's buttermilk brine recipe, and only once have I used anything other than fresh birds, not frozen-then-thawed.

Guess which was the only one to come out dry and relatively flavorless? And guess who's family got to eat it on Thanksgiving?



Here's my tale: been sticking with 10-12 pounders, but a friend asked me to smoke his Thanksgiving bird this year and he showed up the day before with a fresh 22 pound monster. Read that you should stick with 15 lbs and under for smoking (too much time in the danger zone), but what was I gonna do? Made sure to caution him again on the fact that the skin probably wouldn't be real crisp, that it might be the weak link of the meal.

Brined the fresh bird the night before along with one for my family - our freebie from the store which was rock hard a week prior and took almost as long to thaw, spatchcocked them both, inserted thermometers and let 'em go for about 3 1/2 hours (oak, hickory, hardwood charcoal) between 225 & 250 on an offset stickburner (Klose GrillChef). The fresh bird was beautiful. Norman Rockwell picture perfect. My buddy says it was juicy and tasty, people were raving and he already prebooked for next Thanksgiving.

Ours was just like a normal oven-baked dried out tasteless turkey. The skin, on the other hand, was to die for. Kind of faked us out that the whole bird would be as tasty but it wasn't to be.

Next step for me is to try some different brine recipes and consider injecting.

Good luck and Happy Smoking!

[Trilbysdad]

Petunia, sorry to hear about your dried bird. I'm tellin ya try mine and you wont go back. I only smoked a breast since the wife and kids hate dark meat. It was frozen when I bought it. Came out unbelievable. Happy New year.
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Ham Dawg BBQ - Home of the Award Winning Ribs !!

[Smokin Mike]

TD, I just wanted to pop in to let you know the maple brine was a winner. My crowd had that bird gone in less than 15 minutes. I also did one with the vegetable stock brine and no complaints on that one either but I give the prize to the maple/soy mix.

I cooked 2 free range (never frozen) 7-1/2 pound breasts and it took about 4 hours @ 225* to get them to 165*.

Once again, thanks for the tip!

Mike

[Johnny Schmoeker]

The wife brought home a frozen turkey breast a couple of days ago and asked if I'd smoke it for New Year's Day. Fresh is always better but I'll cook what I got. Assuming this thing didn't get a salt bath already during processing (forgot to check when I put it in the fridge) I'll use the maple brine. Will cook it on my WSM with briquettes plus a couple of apple and/or cherry chunks. Would rather keep the lid on as much as possible since outside temps will be in the 20s, so little to no basting. The two schools of thought for turks seem to be those who like to run 300+ temps versus the lower-and-slower crowd. I did a whole fresh, 18 pound free-ranger for Thanksgiving running 300-315 on average and it turned out great. Was thinking I'd do this breast at 300+ also since it worked for the whole bird, but would I be safer going low-and-slow to make sure it doesn't dry out?

[Trilbysdad]

Johnny, Brining it over night will keep it moist. If you inject a couple of garlic cloves from the brine along with melted butter, honey and maple syrup into the bird before putting it on the smoker will also help. Go low and slow - 250 degrees until the breast internal temp is 160. You'll want to cover the breast once it starts to brown, probably after 90 minutes or so. My 7lb breast smoked for 4 hours.

Make sure you rince the breast in water before brining.

Let me know how you make out

Happy New Year!
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Ham Dawg BBQ - Home of the Award Winning Ribs !!

[Johnny Schmoeker]

Trilbysdad: Turkey breast turned out pretty good. It was a grocery store breast that had already been brine-injected so I skipped that step. Had two issues--goal was to smoke at about 325 but on a cold Michigan day, I couldn't get the WSM over 300 no matter what I did. Ended up running about 280 for most of the cook so dinner started a little later than I'd wanted. Second issue was that the breast wanted to lean over on the grate so it was almost cooking sideways. I should have rigged it up somehow so it was sitting with the breastbone facing straight up, because the side that rested on the grate cooked faster than the other side. No real problem--I just carved off the faster side when it hit 160 and left the other side on for about another 45 minutes until it got there too. Not a bad bird, but frankly the little 2 lb brisket I had on beside it turned out better. ABTS were awful good too, as usual.

[Trilbysdad]

Johnny,

Remember you want to go low and slow. Even though it's cold out and your using a water smoker you want to keep the temp 250. Yes, it will take longer but you wont have the issue of part of the meat cooked and the other part not done.

Happy Smoking.......
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Ham Dawg BBQ - Home of the Award Winning Ribs !!