Smoking a turkey!!


Heavy Metal

Recommended Posts

Water pan or not that bird will be dry. You may want to smoke it for a bit then drape with bacon to keep it from drying out. Also you say keep the heat low. Poultry should not be smoked at low temps. You only have a 4 hour window to get the meat to 140*. The danger zone for raw meat and poultry is above 40* and below 140*

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Water pan or not that bird will be dry. You may want to smoke it for a bit then drape with bacon to keep it from drying out. Also you say keep the heat low. Poultry should not be smoked at low temps. You only have a 4 hour window to get the meat to 140*. The danger zone for raw meat and poultry is above 40* and below 140*
I'm well aware of this, thanks.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Don't know if a water pan might not still be an option. Seems I have heard of folks using them on grills when smoking with the wood chip cans.

Only time I have smoked wild turkey, I breasted out the bird. Cooked it at like 225 for the first hour to hour and a half and then wrapped in foil for the remaining time until it reached temp. Turned out pretty good, was not at all dry.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Don't know if a water pan might not still be an option. Seems I have heard of folks using them on grills when smoking with the wood chip cans.

Only time I have smoked wild turkey, I breasted out the bird. Cooked it at like 225 for the first hour to hour and a half and then wrapped in foil for the remaining time until it reached temp. Turned out pretty good, was not at all dry.

Wonder if I couldn't just put a water pan to the left on the grill-closest to the fire box. This is what I have, check it out.

DSC06846.jpg

DSC06848.jpg

So like, water pan where the ribs are which is right next to the fire box and then turkey on the right where the chicken is?

I like the idea of draping bacon over it too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Turkey was very good!

Well, the bacon worked guys. I used 2/3 of a pack of store bought cheap bacon covered the breasts after taking out of the brine. Couple of unforeseen curve balls I had to swing around; the turkey was a beast and it's the first one that I could not stand up in the smoker and close the door, LOL! So I had no choice at this point but to lay it on its side (totally unconventional) or cut the bird in halves which is common practice when your smoking a bird over 14 lbs or so. Which this sucker was 18#. So I laid it on its side as the smoker was already hot and ready to go and I was already getting a late start.

Took it out at 166°

Finished product:

White meat was unbelievable! Moist....good flavor, the visitors (also owner of the tom) were very happy with the finished product and we sent them home with all the leftovers. So far...this was the best white meat of the 4 turkeys I've done. The other three were your basic store bought turkeys with skin.

Dark meat....not so much. I didn't have toothpicks to "sew" the bacon on so I did not cover the dark meat sections and drums with bacon. They dark meat oddly enough dried out and none of us ate it nor did we save the leftovers. Which is so contrary to normal. Normally you can't hardly screw up the dark meat. It almost always comes out moist even if you torched the breasts. But....nobody cared because the white so delicious.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.