First of all… NO, the turkey I used was not picked up off the side of the road. But after it had been spatchcocked and was laying there spread turkey (so to speak), the flattened bird reminded me of roadkill.
There was some leftover Alabama White BBQ Sauce in the fridge from a recent cook and one final turkey in the freezer from the Thanksgiving Day sales so smoked turkey sounded like a good idea.
Today was cold (40 degrees) and rainy but this is what you do when you are a BBQ Nut. Plus the smell of smoke always makes things better.
Start with the brine…
I always like to brine my turkeys when I smoke them. The brine helps keep them moist and adds a little flavor too. The following measurements are ballpark as I was making up this brine on the fly with stuff I had around.
2 Gallons of Water
1 Cup Kosher Salt
1 Cup Brown Sugar
2 Oranges (Halved, Juiced, Thrown in)
1 Lime (Halved, Juiced, Thrown in)
1 TBS Rosemary
1 TBS Thyme
Our 16+ pound bird soaked in the brine for 38 hours.
Then the spatchcock…
Would you like your turkey to cook faster? Would you like more flavor in your turkey? Would you like it moist and evenly cooked throughout? If so, then it may be time to spatchcock your next bird.
The first time you try this it may seem a little intimidating but I assure you after doing it once you’ll be an expert. TIP – Use a pair of strong/heavy duty/sharp poultry shears.
To spatchcock your turkey, first locate the backbone and cut down both sides. Then take the backbone out. Flip the turkey over and press down to snap the breast bone. Voila… you’re done!
Next the rub…
This particular bird got coated with spray butter and a healthy dose of Penzeys Northwoods rub. I made sure to get plenty of the butter and rub under the skin also.
The Penzeys Northwoods Seasoning is great on poultry. It is made from coarse flake salt, paprika, black pepper, thyme, rosemary, garlic and chipotle.
Then onto the drum…
The UDS was fired up and ready to go around noon. For this cook I kept the grate temperature around 275 degrees + or – and used a mix of hickory and apple wood to provide the smoke flavor.
Right at the 4 hour mark all the turkey parts had reached 170-180 degrees. At this point it was flipped over to put the skin side down for 30 minutes to crisp up the skin.
Time to eat…
Well not quite time to eat yet but a sample was required while my son and I waited for the rest of the family to return for dinner. We took off the wings and coated them with a healthy dose of the Alabama White BBQ Sauce.
The wing with the white sauce was tasty! It was hard to not keep eating just the turkey but we did and it was worth the wait as the whole meal came out delicious.
Despite the nasty weather this smoked turkey made it seem like it was sunny and 75 today!