Brining Turkey

[farmerwannab]

Hi everyone,
Got an early xmas present from the hubs and want to smoke our Thanksgiving turkey.  It says it in injected with 9.5% chicken broth and seasoning....should I brine this?  Also it is a 14ish lb turkey...closer to 15...how many hours of smoke....is 4 enough?
Thanks and Happy Thanksgiving

[Ka Honu]

Personally I'd dry-brine it for 24-48 hours (plenty of instructions available with a Google search). Dry-brining not only adds some flavor to the turkey but gives you a dry surface for best smoke adhesion.

If you're using a Bradley, 2-3 hours of smoke should be plenty.

Just sayin'...

[Habanero Smoker]

Hi farmerwannab;

Welcome to the forum, and Happy Thanksgiving to you also.

I agree that 2 - 3 hours is plenty of smoke. I lean more towards 2 hours. How many hours more to cook without smoke, I can't answer that. It's been a while since I fully smoke/roasted a turkey in the Bradley.

Since the turkey is already injected with chicken broth (if salt is not listed as an ingredient, then the broth is probably heavily salted), it is already brined. Additional brining will either have not benefit, or make it too salty. It all depends on how much salt was in the injected brine.

Air drying the turkey uncovered in the refrigerator 24 hours prior to placing it in the smoker, will help crisp the skin and also improve the smoke flavor. I generally will place the turkey on a rimmed cookie sheet with a wire rack underneath, and place it on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator. Many will finish the turkey in a hot oven to help crisp the skin.

I recently read and viewed an article on America's Test Kitchen on dry brining. They state to only use turkeys that haven't been enhanced (injected with a brine). So I'll be getting a turkey that is not enhanced, and doing a dry brined turkey for Christmas.

[farmerwannab]

Think I will just put a rub on it before I smoke...I had also read about letting the turkey dry in the fridge so that is in the Turkey timeline.
Thanks for the quick response guys!!

[MooManChu]

2X on previous comments not to brine a prebasted Turkey.  It will be rubbery and salty.  All broth has salt with bone broth the lower sodium content of the varieties


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