I brined the bird from Friday to Sunday in salt, sugar, soy sauce, garlic and rosemary. Unfortunately, the bird was still largely frozen when I got home on Sunday, but I made do anyhow. I heated the smoker to 225-250 and got to smoking. I smoked it for about 6 hours over hickory, then after half time of the Cowboys game, I put the bird in the oven at 350 to finish it off. It only took about 45 mins to 1 hr to get up to 165 in the breast and 180 in the thigh. I let it rest for a bit, then carved up half of it for a work luncheon. I basted the skin with butter a few times while smoking.
In all honesty, it wasn't nearly as wonderful as the chicken I did a couple weeks ago. It was good, but not particularly smoky, nor was it super-moist like the chicken had been. It too made great soup (tonight's dinner). I'll try this one again some time, but will allow the turkey to thaw more before the brine. Here's a pic of the final product.
with winter here again, I'm thinking of converting my charcoal smoker to propane to allow more heat control...
In all honesty, it wasn't nearly as wonderful as the chicken I did a couple weeks ago. It was good, but not particularly smoky, nor was it super-moist like the chicken had been. It too made great soup (tonight's dinner). I'll try this one again some time, but will allow the turkey to thaw more before the brine. Here's a pic of the final product.
with winter here again, I'm thinking of converting my charcoal smoker to propane to allow more heat control...
