Turkey questions

[BBQ_Ben]

Eyeing a turkey for the smoker.  The forums have been great, but questions remain!
- Better to smoke this bird whole or break it down in to pieces?  Seems like most here on the forums go for the whole bird or cut it up to save some time.  Seems like you'd have more control to cook different cuts for different lengths of time...maybe I'm overthinking this.
- Use a rub? on skin or under?
- Thinking of smoking for 3 or 4 hours then pulling to a hot oven to finish and crisp the skin.  If I do the entire cook in the Bradley, though, still hold smoke to 3-4 hours or smoke for the whole time?
- Thinking of standing upright to avoid spilling turkey juice all over myself.  Are turkeys hard to balance this way?

TIA!


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[beefmann]

welcome aboard,

as for  smoking a  turkey there are  various ways that you  can,,, if you  have a  favorite poultry  rub , or any other  favorite  rub that you  have ,,   go ahead and  use it, Some people  brine there  turkeys  with a  basic  brine such as

1 gallon of liquid ( my  preference is apple cider  or  juice )
1/2 cup kosher salt
1/2 - 1 cup brown  sugar
4 tbsp black  pepper
4 tbsp ground mustard
2 to 4 tbsp garlic powder
2 tbsp onion powder
2 tsp ground nutmeg
2 tsp ground all spice

brine your turkey 8 to 12 hr then start  smoking for 4 hours with apple, box temp at  200 to  225, after the smoking  process  move into the house oven at  225 use a  pan to catch the  juices in the main  oven,, do not  use any   dripping from the  smoker it  will have a  bad ash  taste from the smoke... also have the top  vent  wide open,,, plan on this process to take 1 hr to 1 1/2 hour per  pound to  cook,,, plan a  bit ahead.


as for balancing  turkeys,, you can  get a  beer can chicken or  turkey  stand at most any  bbq  place,, if you  have  a  local walmart,,  even there.. with  out the stand it can be difficult to ballance

[Saber 4]

Welcome aboard, I've only done my turkey's spatchcocked in the Bradley both brined and just with rub, then finished in the oven to crisp up skin although the turkey legs I did recently using a brine with cure #1 had crispy skin in the Bradley only after they had been dried on a rack in the fridge. Spatchcocking is very easy and I think it allows you to have better control of your cook.

[BBQ_Ben]

Ok, you've spatchcocked but now split out the dark meat from the breasts.  That could work.

12lb bird - 3 or 4 hours of smoke sound about right before bringing inside?


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[Saber 4]

Ok, you've spatchcocked but now split out the dark meat from the breasts.  That could work.

12lb bird - 3 or 4 hours of smoke sound about right before bringing inside?


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You could separate the breast/wing from the leg/thigh, I don't have enough experience with that to say for sure whether or not you would gain anything by doing that. I can fit one 12 lb spatchcocked bird on one rack which allows me to rotate racks 180 degrees and switch them up and down on levels to keep them cooking evenly if I am doing more than one turkey. 3-4 hours of smoke should work fine for you, it's really about personal preference we like lot's of smoke so I usually go to the longer end of the smoke range given in a recipe. I have used hickory but you can also use apple or pecan to avoid the stronger woods on turkey and other poultry. Here is a link to the post I did on a spatchcocked turkey. http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=32862.0

[KyNola]

I'll yield to other folks about smoking a turkey but be advised that poultry is a smoke sponge.  It sucks up smoke like no other meat I know.

In my humble, know nothing, amateur opinion 4 hours of smoke will be a lot of smoke for poultry. Many folks here smoke pork butts for only 4 hours and then they're going to cook for several more hours.

That said, it's your turkey and your smoker so drive on and roll smoke!

[Ka Honu]

Listen to the man from Paducah.  Two hours of smoke is usually plenty for a turkey - then finish it with another (hotter) heat source (grill, oven, TBE, etc.) for crisp skin.

[Habanero Smoker]

Hi BBQ-Ben

Welcome to the forum.

I've had fairly good success smoking roasting turkeys vertically. Though by far my best results come from using a Spanek Vertical Roaster. You may find similar or different versions locally. I have also used tallboy beer cans, and also the large size Foster beer cans. The 12oz. cans are not going to work. The cans are a little difficult to use, but do work for turkeys up to 14lbs. It may work for larger birds, but the largest I have used was 14lbs. Either using a vertical roaster or the can method, you want to place the vertical bird on a pie, cake or other small pan for better stability; don't use the disposable aluminum pans. Also double up the racks so there is less bend, and better balance.

If you are not worried about presentation, then separating the dark meat form the white, you can put them on different trays you can remove the breast before it over cooks.

[ragweed]

So many options, so little time.  Ain't this site great?  Welcome to it from Nebraska.

[wkahler]

I did 3 turkeys the other year, now granted i have a Traeger not a Bradley so space was not an issue.  I didn't do my vertically as they where two tall but i did 3 hours smoke then pulled them one by one and FTC them took them to the final destination and crisped them in the oven for presentation.  It worked out good but that was a lot of turkeys and three houses later!  Welcome to the forum and just let the smoke role and learn from your mistakes thats what i do!

[Indy Smoker]

Last year I made 2 birds. Used the Cajun injector marinade for both. Placed one on the grill, yes a weber propane grill outside. Placed the other in the smoker for 3 hours of apple then moved to the grill with the other bird to finish up.  They were done about an hour ahead of schedule so I did the FTC method and when I took them out of the cooler they were both outstanding. I will be repeating the same this year. This also keeps the inside oven free for other goodies.
Good luck!


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[Cybereyes]

Hmm, sounds like most are going with the smoke first and finish off in an oven tactic. I had not planned on doing this, but this will also be my first year smoking a turkey. I practiced on two Cornish hens and they turned out great and had a nice crisp skin from the smoker , so I had hoped the same would be true for the turkey.

[TedEbear]

I practiced on two Cornish hens and they turned out great and had a nice crisp skin from the smoker , so I had hoped the same would be true for the turkey.

Most people will say that the Bradley does not get hot enough to crisp the skin on a turkey and you should finish it in some other device like a regular oven or the skin will be rubbery.

[BBQ_Ben]

Thanks for all of the great advice!  I finally tackled the turkey today.  I went the spatchcocking route - even cooking, easier carving, and no risk of a hot turkey juice bath out of the cavity.

I used a general purpose rub all over.  This was a commercial bird and already juiced up, so more wet brining would have been a bad thing.  Applied the rub about 48 hours ahead.  Was going to cook her yesterday, but had the opportunity to do a little hunting which is where the goose breasts in the back of this before picture came from:


Reheated the smoker and. It got right to 250, but I had trouble hitting 200 after loading my Bradley up.  3 hours with smoke running for 2 then into a 425 oven for 20 minutes to crisp the skin.





I think my meat thermometer is off as the inner meat was too rare.  Carved half and put it in a 250 oven to keep it warm for 40 min put it on the table absolutely perfect.  My daughters aren't turkey fans, but both really enjoyed it once they were cajoled into trying some. 

Thanks again for the pointers!  These forums are a big part of why I picked a Bradley and the info here is just tremendous.


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[Saber 4]

Glad it turned out good, it looks good and the goose was a good extra bonus for you. Next time you spatchcock for the Bradley try splitting the turkey in half at the breast that would have allowed you to put each half on a separate rack which probably would have helped with heat recovery by giving more room for air to flow around the bird, that looks like a bigger bird than the two I did last time.