The past some years I’ve been smoking a turkey for Thanksgiving.

Let’s get the main joke out of the way…. how do you smoke a turkey? really big rolling papers. Or some have said since I live in Austin, I could use a bong or other sort of pipe. Ha ha ha. Joke over. 🙂

It started out of necessity: not enough oven and too many things to go into one. So we decided to put the turkey out on the smoker. Heck, it’s not even a real smoker but a simple Weber kettle grill (technically a Weber One Touch Silver 22.5″). Some people find it amazing I can smoke meats on a basic Weber grill, but that too grew out of necessity: I have the grill, it works, and I don’t want to spend hundreds of dollars on something else until this one breaks and must be replaced. The one essential modification was finding a proper thermometer. Drilled through the lid, mounted the thermometer, and that’s been essential in ensuring good heat levels. The only other useful pieces of equipment are coal baskets to hold the coals off on the sides of the kettle, and that the grill grate is one of those with the “flaps” on the side so you can position them over the coal baskets and easily drop in more fuel or wood chips. After that, it’s all about good heat control.

Normally the bird is a 15-20# bird, which is more than enough meat but also small enough to fit under the Weber’s lid. The general rule is to start the fire with your “Kingsford” style formed briquets and lighter fluid, but after that initial fire there is no “chemical” allowed on the fire. I have a supply of real charcoal, and sometimes I’ll use straight up wood chunks. I also like using wood chips soaked in water to bring particular smoke if I want smoke flavoring that I can’t get some other way. But these days my wood of choice is oak, not only because it’s plentiful in my area, but it provides a hearty but not overpowering flavor.

Temperature varied this year. Usually I’m keeping it down in a 200-225º area for a long time (could be up to 10 hours for such a sized bird). But this year because it was so cold outside I gave it a little more fuel and was aiming for about 225-250º, but I believe at times it was getting up to 300º. Consequently, the bird cooked a lot faster, done in about 5-6 hours. I know one reason the heat got up there was because before I started cooking I noticed one of the air intake vent “covers” had a hole in it… there’s just been too much abuse to the things over the 10+ years I’ve had the Weber and they’re just not sealing well enough, too much air is getting in and I just can’t get the heat control like I need.

But I actually think this worked out better. While the long slow smokes have been good, this turkey turned out better. Too much smoke can make things bitter and this bird had no trace of bitterness. As well, the meat was moist. I don’t have problems with moisture in the longer smokes (if needed, you can always cover the bird with some foil to retain moisture), but this was just a bit better which stands to reason.

All in all, I liked how this bird turned out and in the future I may continue to go against conventional wisdom and smoke the turkey in the 250-300º range. Granted that may not be true smoking, but let’s not split hairs on categorization or nomenclature. In the end it’s just me recording my cooking process in hopes of repeating it again next year.

But I did think about doing something new for next year.

Brining.

I’ve never brined a turkey before. I’d like to try. Rustmeister pointed out this recipe from Alton Brown, which I’m reproducing here only in hopes of ensuring it to stick around if the Food Network website ever opts to remove or relocate it. I’m unlikely to cook the bird like he did, but the brine sounded very nice. I may have to change woods, but that will have to wait for the second go-round as I should only change one thing at a time. See how this brine would taste with oak wood.

Good Eats Roast Turkey

Recipe courtesy Alton Brown

 

Prep Time:

15 min

Inactive Prep Time:

7 hr 0 min

Cook Time:

2 hr 30 min

Level:

Easy

Serves:

10 to 12 servings

Ingredients

• 1 (14 to 16 pound) frozen young turkey

For the brine:

• 1 cup kosher salt
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1 gallon vegetable stock
• 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
• 1 1/2 teaspoons allspice berries
• 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped candied ginger
• 1 gallon heavily iced water

For the aromatics:

• 1 red apple, sliced
• 1/2 onion, sliced
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 cup water
• 4 sprigs rosemary
• 6 leaves sage
• Canola oil

Directions

Click here to see how it’s done.

2 to 3 days before roasting:

Begin thawing the turkey in the refrigerator or in a cooler kept at 38 degrees F.

Combine the vegetable stock, salt, brown sugar, peppercorns, allspice berries, and candied ginger in a large stockpot over medium-high heat. Stir occasionally to dissolve solids and bring to a boil. Then remove the brine from the heat, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate.

Early on the day or the night before you’d like to eat:

Combine the brine, water and ice in the 5-gallon bucket. Place the thawed turkey (with innards removed) breast side down in brine. If necessary, weigh down the bird to ensure it is fully immersed, cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area for 8 to 16 hours, turning the bird once half way through brining.

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. Remove the bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard the brine.

Place the bird on roasting rack inside a half sheet pan and pat dry with paper towels.

Combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick, and 1 cup of water in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes. Add steeped aromatics to the turkey’s cavity along with the rosemary and sage. Tuck the wings underneath the bird and coat the skin liberally with canola oil.

Roast the turkey on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees F for 30 minutes. Insert a probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Set the thermometer alarm (if available) to 161 degrees F. A 14 to 16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours of roasting. Let the turkey rest, loosely covered with foil or a large mixing bowl for 15 minutes before carving.