What do you need?
Ingredients:
• 1 turkey
• 1 tbsp
baking powder*
• 3
tablespoons kosher salt*
• 3 large
yellow onions, chopped
• 2 large
carrots, chopped
• 2 stalks
of celery, chopped
• 2 sprigs
thyme
• Freshly
ground black pepper
•
2
cups chicken broth, water or white wine (or a combination)
*The
dry brine produced in these proportions is enough to cover our 16-pound turkey,
but if you are cooking a larger turkey, you may need to double the recipe.
Tools
• A Kamado Barbecue
or smoker
• Propane
• Wood
pellets or charcoal, depending on the fuel needed by your grill or smoker
• 2 cups of
wood chips, such as Wildwood Grilling Smoking Chips Sampler Pack
• Probe
thermometer
How to smoke a turkey step by step?
Step 1: Marinate the turkey
Put
the turkey in the baking dish first, then wipe it with a mixture of baking
powder and salt. Although baking powder seems to be a strange ingredient, it
helps break down the protein in the turkey skin, making it crispy and brown
when cooked. Remember, you may not need all the salt mixture either; you can
use it no matter how sticky it is on the outside of the turkey. Put the
marinated turkey in the refrigerator without a lid and marinate for 12 to 24
hours or longer. But if you soak for more than 48 hours, to prevent the turkey
skin from drying out, you need to lightly cover it with plastic film. When you
are ready to smoke roast turkey, you do not need to rinse the salt water, you
can rub the skin of the turkey with oil and herbs, or you can throw it directly
into the smoker.
Step 2: Prepare the wood chips
Sawdust
needs to be soaked for about an hour. This step is not entirely necessary-you
can throw them directly from the bag on the smoker. But soaking them first will
produce higher quality smoke, because wet wood chips will smoulder rather than
burn. This will provide you with longer, denser smoke, and you don’t have to
reload them into the smoker multiple times during the smoking process.
You
only need about two cups of wood chips, and you can choose any type of wood you
like. We recommend choosing pecans because it has a sweet, bacon-like flavor.
Fruit trees (such as apples or cherries) are also good choices.
Step 3: Ignite the smoker
When
the wood chips are ready, it’s time to light the smoker. No matter what type of
smoker you use, make sure you have enough propane, wood pellets or charcoal for
three to five hours of use.
We
added lumpy charcoal to the kamado
bbq smoker and layered the soaked wood chips across the coal seam.
After using some starter cubes to start heating the coal, we waited until they
became hot and there was a layer of ashes on top. Then, we added a thermal deflector,
closed the lid, and adjusted the bottom vent to let just enough air into the
grill to maintain a temperature of 325°F.
Step 4: Add the turkey
If
you want to use turkey drips to make gravy, place the turkey in a large
roasting pan (first make sure the roasting pan is suitable for the smoker). Add
any optional aromatic ingredients to your gravy, such as onions, carrots, and
celery.
Finally,
insert the probe thermometer into the thickest part of the breast—near the
place where the meat connects to the breastbone, but do not touch the bone
itself. Place the turkey on the smoker and close the lid. When the thermometer
reaches 165°F (or 175°F, if you are probing the thigh), this turkey is done! At
these temperatures, it takes about 12 minutes per pound of turkey.
Step 5: Let it rest
This
is the hardest but most important part of meat cooking: After the turkey is
cooked, remove it from the smoker, let it sit for at least 30 to 45 minutes,
and then slice it. If you cut it right away, all those delicious internal
juices will not have a chance to redistribute in the meat and will overflow on
the cutting board.