Smoking my first turkey!

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smokedpig50

Newbie
Original poster
Jun 25, 2015
2
10
Eastern NC
I am going to smoke a turkey tomorrow evening in my Masterbuilt 40" Elite smoker.  I am planning to spatchcock the bird and use peach wood for smoke with a cajun spice rub.  My concerns lies in the thawing process.  I have a 15 lb bird and I am planning to do the cold water thaw method to thaw the bird out this afternoon since it should take approximately 7 hours for it thaw using that method.  I was wondering if I could use a brine solution to thaw the turkey.  What I mean is, could I mix up enough brine to cover the bird thus brining the bird as it thaws.  I plan to brine the bird for at least 12 hours anyway but I did not know if I could count the 7 hours of thaw time as part of the brine time.  

I am a rookie smoker so take it easy on me.  It is the first time I am using this smoker as well.  I will be using my iGrill2 to monitor the process.  Any advice that you all would like to give, I will try to absorb like a sponge.  Thanks in advance.
 
Welcome from SC. It's really good to have you on this great site. I would not try to brine the bird while thawing it by the water method. It would take an enormous amount of brine. The idea of thawing by cold water is to replace the water every 30 minutes. The water will add heat to the frozen bird and will equalize the temps. The idea of changing the water every 30 minutes is to continually be adding fresh heat to the ice.

Good luck with your turkey. Try to post some pics of the cook. Joe
 
Thanks for the reply. I have decided to put the turkey off until next weekend so that I can thaw the bird properly in the fridge. Hopefully I'll have a nicely cooked bird next weekend. I will post pictures when I'm done.
 
I really hope you have good luck with your turkey. I'm glad you're going to spatchcock it. I will probably never cook a turkey or chicken whole again. A spatched bird will cook quicker and will cook more evenly. After I have cleaned mine up and spatched it, I pat it dry and put it back in the fridge for a couple of hours to dry the skin. When I get ready to rub it, I will sprinkle the inside with SPOG, then turn it over. I will work my hand under the breast and thigh skin as much as possible and rub the inside with a butter, garlic and chive compound (Jeff's recipe). After the skin is back in place, I rub the outside with the butter compound and sprinkle with SPOG. Then I will sprinkle with a little of Weber's Kickin' Chicken.

I get my smoker up to 300*+ or as high as you can and put the bird directly on the grate or on a Bradley rack. Your 15# bird will take probably around 4 hours depending on the heat. Take the breast to 165* and the thigh to 175*. I try to let it rest about an hour for a better shot at slicing. Another good thing about spatchcocking is that you can simply pull the half breast off and slice. It's much easier than the conventional slicing method.

I'm sorry for the length of this, but I really believe in spatchcocking. :beercheer:
 
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