We’ve now made this smoked turkey two years in a row for Thanksgiving to rave reviews both times and this year my friends from Bald Man Brewing in Eagan tested this recipe for their Thanksgiving. For all of my local Minnesota readers, we recommend their Tupelo Honey Brown Ale, the smoke from the turkey brings out the toasty malt of the beer. And this year more than ever, it’s important to support our local small businesses!
My boss is a master at his Traeger and I’ve been getting tips from him since we got ours, including how he smokes his Thanksgiving turkey every year. He has a favorite bottled sauce to inject into the turkey after brining – but you all know me and you know that I have to tweak and play with every recipe I get. So I took his basic method of brining and smoking and jazzed it up a bit but I definitely appreciate being set on the right track!
This smoked turkey spends a day in a homemade pepper and garlic brine; gets a nice herbed butter massage and then spends the night on a sheet pan uncovered in the fridge before going on the smoker for about a 3.5 to 4 hour session smoking (for a 14 lb turkey). The result is a smoky, tender, juicy turkey with a golden and crisp skin.
Here’s what you need:
Now let’s talk turkey before we get started. Since we’re going to brine this ourselves, if you can, try to find a turkey hasn’t had anything added to it in advance. You’ll know if something has been added because the label will say something like “containing approximately 9.5% of a solution of…..”. The only option I had at my grocery store was an organic turkey. I don’t normally buy organic for my own personal reasons but I wanted to try something without additives this year because I was using my own brine. If you cant’ find this, don’t want to, or don’t want to pay for it, the first year I made this we used a turkey that included this added solution and brined it anyway – it turned out great. After all we made it again this year. It’s hard to say how much of a difference this makes without making two turkeys side by side to test – maybe one day I will when I have a big enough crowd to eat it all. Until then, do what you feel like doing or what you can afford.
Before we start getting into the turkey, you need to plan ahead for when you want to eat and work backwards. Here’s what I like to consider:
- Time I want to eat
- Time to rest – 30 minutes
- Time to cook – 15 minutes per pound
- Time to sit in the fridge – overnight
- Time to brine – 8-24 hours
Keep these general times in mind, read through the rest of the recipe and then create your own timeline based on your schedule (there is some flexibility on brine time) and the size of your turkey.
The first thing you want to do is make and cool down the brine. Bring 1 cup of kosher salt, 4 cups of water, 4-5 cloves of crushed garlic and a ¼ cup of peppercorns to a boil. This year, I used half smoked peppercorns, because I was out of peppercorns and when I went to the store those sounded fun! You could also use smoked kosher salt if you want to up the smoked flavor.
At this point you can transfer the brine concentrate to a container like we did (once cooled) and keep refrigerated until you’re ready to brine. We made it the weekend before Thanksgiving. You can also make this right before brining but allow enough time for it too cool, you’ll be mixing with about 7 quarts of cold water later.
I also made my herbed butter the weekend before Thanksgiving. Allow 2 sticks of butter to soften on the counter and then using a fork mix in 2 tablespoons each of chopped fresh rosemary and chopped fresh thyme.
Not pictured (although you’ll see the result of this later on) we laid out some cling wrap on the counter, set the butter on it, formed it into a log and rolled it up.
The turkey wants to brine for a minimum of 8 hours or up to 24 hours. This time I did 24 hours, but the first time I only did 10 hours because I got a late start. Two evenings before you want to smoke the turkey, if you’re making this for Thanksgiving that will be Tuesday night, it’s time to brine the turkey. Remember to remove the neck and giblets if included with your turkey.
I like to brine the turkey in an oven bag in a cooler. This is because I don’t have a container that fits well in the fridge and also I usually don’t have the room. This year the temperatures were 25 to 35 degrees so I was able to use a playmate cooler which fit the turkey and brine perfectly with a couple cold packs on top and let it chill on the screen porch. If the weather were warmer or you had a bigger turkey, you can use a bigger cooler with a block of ice (this is what I did the first year).
I find that it’s easier to put the ice in the cooler, put the turkey bag in the cooler, add the turkey and then pour in the brine. Trust me, it’s just better if you don’t pick up the bag with all the brine. Take the base brine we made earlier and mix it with cold water to equal 8 quarts and then pour this over the turkey. You can add more water if you need to cover the turkey.
Twist the bag shut, squeezing out as much air as you can and then secure with a knot or twist tie. Now relax and let the turkey sit in its salty, garlicky, peppery bath.
The night before you plan to smoke the turkey set the herb butter on the counter to soften to room temp and then remove the turkey from the brine. Pat the turkey dry and carefully use your hands to loosen the skin covering the breast. You’re going to need to get your hands all the way up and in there to do this.
Slice the butter into rounds. It helps here to have someone else to hand the butter rounds to you so you don’t contaminate any butter you don’t use with your turkey hands. Remember we used 2 full sticks of butter? I only used about ¾ of a cup or a stick and a half for this 14 pound turkey. Don’t worry, the herbed butter is great to have on hand and if you have a bigger turkey you’ll probably want more.
Working with one round at a time rub the butter under the skin and over the breast of the turkey.
This turkey is ready to spend the night in the fridge. Note how you can see the butter and some of the herbs peaking through from underneath the skin?
Place the turkey on a sheetpan and place in the fridge to rest overnight. This dries the skin out from it’s bath in the brine and will help you get a nice crisp skin when you smoke it.
Now it’s time to smoke the turkey. The turkey wants about 15 minutes per pound. For my 14 pound turkey that means about 3 and a half hours. One thing about smoking is, it’s done when it’s done. Here in MN when it’s cold, sometimes the smoker struggles a little bit to stay hot and when we open to turn the bird it takes longer to recover. So plan for a little variance when planning your timing. We have successfully held the turkey at the “smoke” setting on our Traeger when our guests were running late.
About a half hour before you want to start cooking, turn your smoker on and remove the turkey from the fridge. We’re going to smoke the turkey at 325 degrees.
It’s time to stuff the turkey, but not a traditional stuffing that you can eat, we using some aromatics that will give off moisture as they steam and also flavor. I chose a mixture of onion, lemon, apple, garlic and more of the rosemary and thyme.
You could also inject the turkey with some melted herbed butter at this point if you wanted to.
Stuff the turkey cavity – you want it full but not completely jammed in there to allow a little air and heat to circulate.
Next, rub the outside of the turkey with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Make sure to oil the bottom (back) of the turkey because that will sit directly on the grates.
The key to the perfect turkey is cooking it to the perfect temperature. And any baker or cook knows that whenever you open the oven – and the smoker is functioning like an oven here – you lose heat. So I love using a probe thermometer which means I don’t have to open the smoker up to check the temparature– my favorite is the Signals by Themoworks which connects to my phone via wifi and Bluetooth and can support up to 4 probes with a temperature alert. I put one probe in each breast. You want to be close to the bone but not touching it. You could put one in the thigh too because dark meat cooks to a different temperature but I didn’t this time – I can always use my Thermapen to check the thighs later to be certain.
Oil the grates on your smoker and place the turkey directly onto the grates.
Now it might be how I had the probes placed in the turkey or how my smoker cooks, but I noticed both years that the breast of the turkey near the front was cooking a little slower, so about half way to being done I used some silicone gloves and spun the turkey 180 degrees.
This is only half way to being done and look how good it looks! I’ve never seen a turkey in an oven get this beautifully golden this early.
The turkey is done when the breast reaches 165 degrees according to the FDA – although if you’re as much of a kitchen nerd as I am check out this article on Serious Eats about temperature. You can double check the temperature in the thighs too with an instant read thermometer if you didn’t use a probe. If you need more time to finish your sides because the turkey got done faster than expected or if, like us last year, your dinner guests are running late, you can hold the turkey at the “smoke” setting for a while – we held for 45 minutes last year.
Remove the turkey from the smoker – I find that thick silicone barbecue gloves work great – and set it on a sheet pan. This will keep any juices contained while it rests. Allow the turkey to rest for 30 minutes before carving.
I don’t have a big turkey sized cutting board with a groove in it (hint, hint to my family, lol!) so I put some paper towel under the cutting board and peaking out from the edges to catch any stray juices while we are carving.
It’s time to carve the turkey – I’m not a pro at this (as you can see from my final plating picture) but we do well enough. Feel free to google a video or images – I like America’s Test Ktichen’s method but you need a membership to access that.
We started by removing the thighs and drumsticks, then the wings, and then took the breasts off.
Slice the breast. You know, before I started smoking turkey, I used to hate this carving method. I preferred when my family would peel the skin off, then slice pieces off the breast while still on the turkey. This seemed more natural and rustic. Then I started cooking turkey in a way that gives you a beautiful, crisp, brown, seasoned skin – and suddenly this carving method made sense!
Plate your turkey up – serve and enjoy!
- Turkey, thawed (if frozen), neck and giblets removed
- BRINE:
- 1 c kosher salt
- 4 cups water
- 4-5 cloves crushed garlic
- ¼ c whole peppercorns
- HERB BUTTER:
- 2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
- Rosemary
- Thyme
- STUFFING:
- 1 lemon, cut into wedges
- 1 small apple, cut into wedges
- 1 small onion cut into wedges
- 7-8 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
- Olive oil
- Salt
- Pepper
- Make the brine by bringing the salt, water, garlic, and peppercorns to a boil, stirring until the salt dissolves. You are going to mix the bring with more cold water to equal 8 quarts. If you are ready to brine now, do that. Otherwise, save the brine concentrate in the fridge and mix with water right before brining (unless you have enough room in the fridge and a big enough container to hold 8 quarts until you are ready).
- Mix together the herb butter. Mix the butter and 2 tablespoons each of chopped fresh rosemary and thyme together with a fork. Lay the herb butter on a sheet of clingwrap and form into a log. Roll-up in the cling wrap and keep in the fridge until ready to use.
- Prepare the turkey to brine. I use a cooler with ice and an oven bag. Place the turkey in the bag and then pour the brine on top. Close the bag by twisting (remove as much air as possible) and then secure with a twist tie. Brine for at least 8 and up to 24 hours.
- The night before you cook set the herb butter on the counter to warm to room temperature then remove the turkey from the brine. Pat dry with paper towels.
- Loosen the skin over the breasts gently with your hands. Rub the butter under the skin and onto the breasts – I used about ¾ of a cup on my 14 pound turkey.
- Place the turkey on a baking sheet and place in the fridge overnight.
- Remove the turkey from the fridge and turn on the smoker to 325 degrees preheat.
- Stuff the turkey cavity with the lemon wedges, apples, onion and garlic and bunches of thyme and rosemary.
- Rub the entire turkey with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
- If you have probe thermometers, insert those into the breast, close to but not touching the bone so you measure the temperature at the thickest part.
- Oil the grates of your smoker and place the turkey on the smoker.
- Allow the turkey to smoke, plan for 15 minutes per pound) until the breast reaches 165 degrees. Spin the turkey 180 degrees about half way through if you feel it is cooking unevenly.
- Remove the turkey from the smoker and allow to rest, uncovered for 30 minutes prior to carving.
- Carve the turkey and enjoy.
This is almost the same as what Uncle Ray did. I put more herbs in the butter, though. He also made it a spatchcock Turkey this time.
Great minds think alike with the herbed butter! If it was summer and I had my herb garden going, I’d probably experiment more. I need to try doing a spatchcock Turkey sometime!