Apple Sauced Butterflied Turkeys! Q-View too!

[davenh]

Well...tried the apple sauce with two chickens, so how about a couple turkeys! Butterflied them and hit them with my apple sauce injection and let them sit overnight.

Fresh turkeys (14lbs each), all natural and not brined (keeping things low sodium).

Instead of mopping with anything, I gave them a quick spray of butter flavored PAM after 2 hrs and every hour after. Worked great, quick and easy. Gave nice color.

Here's the injection (tweaked a little since the chicken), one batch went in each bird. I also wet the birds down with apple juice and a spray of PAM. Seasoned with Italian seasonings and lemon pepper (salt free).

Injection mix:

3/4C unsweetened applesauce
1 TBS cider vinegar
1-1/2 tsp lemon pepper (salt free)
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp brown sugar (Splenda blend)
1-1/2 tsp garlic powder
1-1/2 tsp onion powder
1 tsp chili powder

Now this seemed a little weird, I was getting the birds ready and guess what I see walking around the yard! Maybe he was planning to liberate his brothers from the smoker

. They like to visit the bird feeders.

On to the smoke.

Smoker set at 275°, used Cherry wood. Water in the pan for the first 3 hours, no water in the pan for the last couple hours. Wanted the temp higher to get things browned up. Here they are ready to go in.

After 2 hrs, internal temps 144.

After 3hrs, internal temps 153.

After 4hrs, internal temps 160.

After 5.5 hrs, done and resting!

 

[travcoman45]

Man do those look good, excellent job on the birds!

 

[desertlites]

I a fan of turkey and that looks great-WOW-gonna have to try that.

 

[sumosmoke]

Props on the prep and the q-vue that showed everything!! You can really see how rich the color got on those birds as they got towards finishin' time.

Can I request a sandwich to be mailed down my way??

 

[smokin' joe]

Looks awesome Dave, Stellar job!!!

 

[smokingrookie]

Looks Good, I like the butterflying idea and I like the sound of the applesauce injection definately need to try it thanks for the pics and the slobber that is now on my keyboard, Travis

 

[davenh]

Thanks guys..it was a busy weekend with my little MES

. I wanted some turkey for the freezer, like it for lunch during the week.

Makes great sandwiches sumosmoke, send ya one if I could

.

Sent half a bird over to my friend. Here's a couple pics of whats left. Nice and moist!

 

[kookie]

Great looking birds.................Love the color on them..................Good job...........Bet they were nice and tasty to..........

 

[capt dan]

Great job on the tutorial, and Q-view. Pic of the walkin bird was neet too!I need to try that applesauce injection!

 

[mdgoos]

This may be a dumb question but how do you butterfly them, I have never done it before, just smoked the tyrkey whole.

 

[brianj517]

BEEEYOOOOTIFUL! Points for presentation and creative applesauce injection idea!

 

[fireguy]

looks great dave, if that tom came walking through my yard im afraid he would be on the menu next week.

 

[dysartsmoker]

I did one one the weekend I used my hand meat saw to cut down the back bone worked fine. The only thing with my bird was the skin was rubbery. I mopped with evoo and apple juice every hour. The meat on the bird was moist and very very good.

 

[davenh]

Here's a link WD posted out here

. I did them pretty much the same way.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=wGQr8xmxR...related&search

 

[davenh]

Watching the birds walking around the yard is pretty cool. This one kept puffing up and fanning out his tail feathers. My stupid camera takes too long to charge the flash and he wouldn't hold the pose long enough. Couldn't ever get myself to shoot them with anything else but a camera

.

I like the applesauce mix, but thinking about some more tweaking

. It can go in a little thick straight up, making some deep pockets. Thinking of thinning it down a little with something sweet like some pineapple juice. I might also try and make it a little more clear colored . The brown streaks do look a little funky in the white meat

. They are tasty streaks though

. The pulp does do its job to hold moisture, just like to get it to spread out a little more.