Smoked Thanksgiving Turkey

Welcome to the Mothership! This Thanksgiving we are smoking up our turkey on a pellet smoker! This is the perfect way to add some smoke flavor, but also to free up all of that valuable space in your kitchen! This is the way I cook all of my turkeys, and it consistently provides amazing flavor, juicy meat, and crispy skin! In this video I'll go over everything you need from buying your turkey to actually cooking! Sound good? Lets get started...

YouTube Instructional: https://youtu.be/ILcjyFJuDcQ

Ingredients:
Turkey - prefer fresh - appx 13lb
1 Stick Salted Butter
Food Grade Plastic Bag

Brine Radio (2x or 3x if needed)
1/4 Cup Orange Juice
4 Tbsp Kosher Salt
3 3/4 Cup Water

Also added to brine:
4 Garlic Cloves
1/4 Cup Worcestershire Sauce
1 Tbsp Black Pepper

Dry Rub:
2 Tbsp Paprika
1 Tbsp Garlic Powder
1 Tbsp Black Pepper
2 Tsp Onion Powder
2 Tsp Chili Powder

Olive Oil

Step 1: Defrost your Turkey

If you have a frozen turkey, the first step is to defrost. This will take quite a long time in the fridge, expect 3-4 days at least.

Step 2: Brine the bird

Once fully defrosted, its time to brine the bird. Even if you are buying a “prebrined” turkey, we can dial in the salt content by making our own brine.

Remove the bird from the plastic and take out any extra plastic pieces.

Line the inside of a bucket with a food grade plastic liner. Put the bird into the liner.

Using the brine ratio above, add liquid to the bucket until the bird is fully covered.

Throw in the garlic, worcestershire sauce, and black pepper.

Cover and move to a cool spot. an unheated cold garage floor works, or an empty basement fridge.

Brine for 18-24 hours. I dont go beyond 36 hours

Step 3: Rinse, Trim, and Rub

Once we are done brining, we want to completely rinse off the inside and out of the bird. Get all of that wet brine off, and then pat it dry.

At this point we can trim the turkey down. Remove any excess skin or neck meat.

Lightly Coat the skin with olive oil

Generally coat the exterior of the bird in our dry rub (notice we did not add any salt to this dry rub!)

Place onto a wire rack, and put in the fridge overnight. This will really help the turkey skin dry out

Tie the legs together

Step 4: Smoke the bird

Preheat your smoker to 180

Place your bird breast side up and let her rip for an hour or two to get as much smoke on it as we can

Step 4: Bump heat and continue to smoke

After 2 hours, bump the temp to 350 degrees.

Step 5: Baste the bird

When the breast has an internal of 140 degrees - usually about an hour after you bump the temp to 350. Begin basting!

We are using melted salted butter, and will baste it down ever 15 minutes

Around 160 degrees in the breast we want to pull it. make sure you dont put butter on right before you pull it, that will soften up the skin!

Let it rest for a bit to let everything relax

Enjoy!