New to smoking with pellet grill

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chewy49ers

Newbie
Original poster
Nov 11, 2015
2
10
I just purchase a Green Mountain Grill wood pellet.  This is my first time smoking a turkey this thanksgiving.  I need help on a good brine and rub recipe.  Also the site says 185 to smoke it.  do I keep it to that till the turkey temp goes to 160? Thank you for any help
 
I just purchase a Green Mountain Grill wood pellet.  This is my first time smoking a turkey this thanksgiving.  I need help on a good brine and rub recipe.  Also the site says 185 to smoke it.  do I keep it to that till the turkey temp goes to 160? Thank you for any help

For a brine , a simple Salt and Sugar mix is a good start , however you will be led to a lot of different mixes . As for a Rub , well , you'll probably get a host of those recipes also !
The temperature I disagree with ; my smoker temp. is 225*F to 250*F , but again there will be differences ...
The internal temp. in the Breast should be 165*F and 170*F in the Thigh , period . Your Bird will be tender and juicy ....

I hope you have a great Turkey cook , have fun and . . .
 
 
I just purchase a Green Mountain Grill wood pellet.  This is my first time smoking a turkey this thanksgiving.  I need help on a good brine and rub recipe.  Also the site says 185 to smoke it.  do I keep it to that till the turkey temp goes to 160? Thank you for any help
I've always been a fan of Tip's Slaughterhouse Poultry Brine.  Tip (Travcoman45) is a long time member here, and has been good enough to share his recipes with other SMF members.  This link will take you to 3 of his Slaughterhouse recipes:

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/a/tips-slaughterhouse-recipes-for-poultry

Like Stan already said, cooking at 185* seems too low to get poultry through the danger zone and get the skin cooked crispy.  It'd probably be OK to start out at 185* for an hour or so, just to get some more smoke on the bird, but then I'd crank it up to at least 250-275* until you reach your 165* internal temp.  I like to go even higher than that (say 300-325*) for the last 30 minutes to an hour, just to get a nice, crispy, bite-through skin.

Good luck, and congrats on that new Green Mountain!  
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Red
 
This is what I do with chicken/turkey.

Simple brine. For each gal of water, 1/3 cup salt, dark brown sugar. Tsp, granulated garlic, onion, and ginger.
Brine overnight, 24 hrs is better.
Remove, rinse, pat dry. Put in fridge uncovered overnight to help dry out the skin (helps w crispy skin).
I like a simple flavor profile on my turkey, so I sprinkle skin with bk pepper, garlic, and onion powder.
I lift skin off the breast and push a few pats of butter under the skin.

On my GMG, I smoke for 1 hr on the 150* setting. I also use a AMNTS for the duration of the cook to add more smoke flavor.
After 1 hr, I bump the pit temp to 250. When my IT hits around 155* I bump temp to 350* to crisp up the skin. When I reach a IT of 165* breast, 170* thigh I pull it and let it rest for 20 minutes before carving.

I highly recommend getting a good digital thermometer like the maverick 732, to monitor both pit and meat temp.
My Daniel Boone's meat temp probe is spot on. However, the temp in the pit is 30* higher than the set temp.
Its common for set temp and actual pit temp to vary, thus a good dual probe therm is mighty handy.

Good luck... and :welcome1:
 
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