The Art of Smoking a Turkey: A Guide to Achieving Perfection

When it comes to smoking a turkey, there's no one-size-fits-all approach. Different smokers and methods can produce varying results, and what works for one person may not work for another. In this article, we'll explore the different options available and provide some expert advice on how to achieve perfection in your next smoked turkey.

**The Kamado Smoker: A Game-Changer for Smoking Turkeys**

For many smokers, the kamado smoker is the go-to choice when it comes to smoking turkeys. There's something special about cooking with charcoal and wood that simply can't be replicated by other methods. The kamado smoker allows you to achieve a rich, complex flavor profile that's unmatched by electric or pellet smokers. And while it may require more effort and attention than other methods, the payoff is well worth it.

When it comes to smoking turkeys, I'm a big fan of using my kamado smoker. There's something about the combination of charcoal and wood that just can't be beat. Whether you're looking for a rich, smoky flavor or a more nuanced, complex profile, the kamado smoker is sure to deliver. And with its ability to maintain consistent temperatures and produce a perfectly cooked turkey every time, it's no wonder that so many smokers swear by this method.

**Electric Smokers: A Convenient Option**

While electric smokers may not offer the same level of complexity and nuance as kamado or pellet smokers, they're still a great option for those who want to smoke turkeys without too much fuss. And with their ability to cook food quickly and efficiently, they're perfect for large gatherings or events.

One thing that's worth noting when it comes to electric smokers is the potential for uneven cooking. Because these smokers are sealed environments, air can become stagnant, leading to a loss of moisture and a less-than-optimal final product. However, with proper maintenance and attention, an electric smoker can still produce a deliciously smoked turkey.

**The Importance of Wood Selection**

When it comes to smoking turkeys, the type of wood you use is just as important as the method itself. Different types of wood impart unique flavors and aromas that can elevate or detract from your final product. For me, hickory and oak are always top choices when it comes to smoking turkey. The strong, smoky flavor of these woods pairs perfectly with poultry, while their subtle sweetness adds depth and complexity to the finished dish.

Of course, wood selection is a matter of personal preference, and many smokers swear by other types of wood like pecan or cherry. The key is to find the right combination that works for you and your taste buds. And with so many options available, it's easy to experiment and find the perfect blend for your next smoked turkey.

**Resting Time: A Critical Step in the Smoking Process**

One often-overlooked step in the smoking process is resting time. When you remove your turkey from the smoker, it's essential to let it rest for at least 30 minutes before carving or serving. This allows the juices to redistribute throughout the meat, resulting in a tender, flavorful final product.

While resting time may seem like an insignificant detail, it can make all the difference in the world when it comes to smoking turkeys. By taking the time to let your turkey rest, you're ensuring that every bite is full of flavor and moisture. And with so many delicious recipes out there, it's worth taking the extra step to get it just right.

**Conclusion**

Smoking a turkey can be a challenging but rewarding experience, and with the right approach, you can achieve perfection every time. Whether you prefer the kamado smoker, electric smoker, or something else entirely, the key is to find a method that works for you and your taste buds. With attention to detail, patience, and practice, you'll be smoking like a pro in no time.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwhat's up everyone today we're going to be talking about smoked turkey that's right we've compiled all of our top questions and we've had plenty and that's what we're going to knock out today is answering your questions on smoking turkey let's get to it so kind of taking it from the top tony i guess one of the first ones would be how to prepare for smoking a turkey right you definitely don't want to rush a turkey because it's so large if you go you know if it is frozen there will be some thaw time and all that good stuff so you want to make sure you have your bases covered there you don't want to not be able to get the size turkey you want i'm just trying to think of some of the things that have happened to me over the years from having to rush again not being able to find the size that i wanted not being able to find it fresh or frozen depending on what i want you know all those things you don't want to rush it i guess is the the gist of that oh yeah and how about you anything other than that ma'am but you know aside from that portion of it uh you know i you definitely want to kind of make sure that before you apply any seasoning or anything like that definitely make sure it's dry uh but you know before you add a binder and your seasoning now now inside and out man i like i'll take some paper towels inside the cavity dry that out and also you know all over the exterior of it to make sure that skin's nice and dry from from water i'm with you on that and then also in that same regard and this is i'm i hardly ever get to do this but if you actually have the time and you want it to be as the best it can be then it's also cool to um after you've dried it out like that to set it on a platter uncovered in the refrigerator to let it air chill overnight you know 24 hours or so again i don't get to do that kind of thing frequently but if you have the time it certainly is the the best way to go you know what that helps with as well what's that that's going to help you get some extra crispy skin oh so so a lot i know that's kind of we've been asking that a bunch too yes absolutely we'll touch on that all right so another question we get asked a lot is about brining turkeys yeah man uh brining is a great way to come out with a very flavorful and juicy bird absolutely and there's a couple of ways to go about it like one of the first ones i heard of a long time ago now you want to make sure it's using a bucket now make sure that bucket is a food safe bucket however trying to fit a large bucket into a fridge uh might be a little hard otherwise you got to keep ice on it constantly keep a watch so it's a little bit more of a of a difficult thing nowadays they have these kind of specialized bags right that you could uh you know fit the turkey in and man that just makes it a lot more easier to be able to that's my go-to yeah to fit it into your fridge uh but but it's man brining is nice uh it does take some time uh some maybe suggested 12 to 24 hours yeah for a turkey yeah for for a large bird uh to sit in that solution right uh if you don't have that time now uh injecting it is kind of a way to go but i know that you've got like an awesome uh brining recipe and facts about that okay yeah so so i'll cover a little bit more on that um if the the only thing so people kind of freak out about brining if they haven't done it before just because there is a little bit of science uh to to brining but it is it's very it's very minimal honestly the only thing that really matters is your water to salt ratio that's that's the only thing that really matters the rest of the stuff however many herbs you do or don't put in there um if you want to add a little sugar to kind of cut that saltiness you don't have to and it also doesn't matter uh the main thing to keep in mind is uh well there's two things first of all you have to come up with how much brine you'll need and it's easier than it sounds what you'll do is take a container and take your unwrap like when your turkey has is still in the packaging and you haven't unwrapped it set it into the container and fill it with water until it goes over the turkey remove the turkey and that is how much brine you will need what whatever water is left in there so once you have that amount of water now we will talk about how you decide how much salt you need for the solution and the way you do that is you need to know the weight of the water and a gallon of water weighs eight pounds so you break it down that way you figure out exactly how many pounds of water you have and what you're looking for with your salt solution is that you want one to two percent of salt in your brine now if it's your first time i highly recommend staying around the one 1.2 percent of weight in salt because some people find a brined product a little too salty for them it it's right there on the on the border but it's definitely worth doing i mean it it holds a lot of moisture to the product it just the stuff really cooks up nicely especially when you're doing a smoked uh turkey it's definitely a great thing to do but but keep those things in mind and again if it's your first time or you're not really sure about it you want to stay towards the one percent of salt after that like i said you can add whatever amount of sugar you want to add um i like to throw in some of the herbs that i'll be seasoning with usually after so the other thing is after a brine i like to rinse off my turkey totally rinse it off for any of the excess salt that would be on the outside just so that it's not saltier than it needs to be that's important yeah i believe so um and then after i have brined i'm going to rub with strictly an herb blend no salt added to the blend for flavoring inside and out of my turkey i mean that that's the way i go with usually like a butter paste i like to go like the french do not everybody finds that to be the healthiest but i didn't know that you know we're not doing a health show here we're doing a how to have a delicious turkey show listen and look i do the same and and if you really want to get into it man i lift up the skin yes yes and i'll put that butter uh a blend under the skin as well and man inside the cavity the whole thing all over chef gerard was the guy who uh who i'll give a wink to for that he showed me how to apply lots of butter to things a french chef will do that for you i love it so look another big one that i hear a lot of uh is the best ways to season the turkey before we smoke it right i definitely my go-to is to take whatever seasoning blend i'll be using and the way that works is basically i am going to add salt to my seasoning blend if i haven't brined and if i have brined then it would be just herbs and spices and that type of thing because you saw because you took care of the salt within the brine right so that's kind of my move with that and then i'm going to blend it with a stick or two of butter depending on how much is happening there um and maybe a little shot of lemon juice mix that together and then spread the paste i usually try to depending on the size of the item but like but for a whole turkey i'm probably going to spread the paste and leave it in the fridge over you know cover it and leave it in the fridge overnight until the next day if not i'm trying to go at least maybe four hours or so depending again you know how it is it just depends on how much time you have um as to how well you're able to do something oh yeah but before you go to put it on the smoker i i definitely make sure the whole thing's coated if you're going with just a seasoning blend uh not a lot of people think about it but man all inside that cavity get in there because that's gonna it's gonna help to uh soak in from from all sides you know now now to me that's the way to go and look i wanted to tell you you mentioned lemon juice right uh the last couple of turkeys i was experimenting with right man i'm going full fruit in in citrus now oh heavy on the lemon yes uh i'm adding zest nice to that butter i i will add as well yeah smell butter paste oh man and and i'll even stuff it with like half uh apples i've done that too oh oranges peels and all uh all that stuff oh a citrus herb turkey is just phenomenal that and my only other um when speaking seasonings and turkey and pork and this is just a personal preference but i like to use some dried rub sage for some reason sage with turkey and with pork i again it's just me but i i have to have that in the mix for some reason that sounds amazing so another big question we've received is um tips for making and using injectable marinades yeah like so i i tend to not inject my bird if i kind of went through the brining process again brining takes a good bit of time so if you don't have that time ejecting is the way to go uh one of the bigger tips that i like to throw out there with this now uh whatever rub or kind of seasoning blend that you're using on that bird for the exterior of it make sure that a good portion goes into this injector so same here or into the uh into the marinade whatever you're putting that in whether it be a jar uh another good tip is to kind of go ahead and try to make that a good bit ahead of time so those flavors do have a chance to kind of meld and get together i'm with you on that oh it's also good practice to maybe run it through a blender or a vitamix of sorts just to make sure that there's no big chunky bits that may be caught up in that uh syringe or it happens too oh yeah yeah and that's just a pain to have to you got to stop cleaning out and when you're ready to go uh but but yeah that that is kind of somewhat some more of the bigger tips when it comes to injecting uh and of course we've got recipes for for those yeah we have plenty of that um to the only thing i would say um and i believe it's probably what you do but i don't know if we were clear on it after running the uh marinade through a blender i will then pass it through a coffee filter right right to make sure to remove any you know and you want to make sure it depends on the things that you use they may gel some and and that kind of situation it just depends on exactly like there's usually not much way to know that that's going to happen to you it has to do with the mucilage and the other things that are involved in the herbs you use but again running it through a coffee filter will extract all of your flavors but will keep all that other stuff out of your needle and should that may you know make it kind of quick and easy that's smart yep all right so next up we've been asked plenty of times about whether to go whole turkey or pieces well i i mean my mind comes first to basically i mean look if you've got a small family you know and you don't want a waste or have to freeze or tons of leftovers that may go to waste getting portions of just the breast or whatever portions of the turkey you want to smoke then that might be the route that you want to go i think that you get a little bit more of a robust flavor from a whole bird but again that's marginal you know something that that happened to me the other day i was at the store just craving turkey uh now what they had was just the upper torso section right no legs wings or anything like that uh and i was interested in it i picked one up and brought it home and uh almost immediately regretted of how uh difficult it was to cook so i mean it's it's a round or oval piece that that just wouldn't sit on a rack this or wait now in hindsight i could have spatchcocked it uh to a sense yeah and and we'll get into what that process is in a minute but uh that would have helped me uh to do that but that was kind of uh you didn't know off the jump right right right i didn't know that was what that was gonna look like but uh again uh so going with pieces or a whole bird with a whole bird oh man you just get the the whole mix you know that's ten tends to be the way that i go understood and you and i both have families large enough that it's kind of a no-brainer for us but you're right i mean somebody who you know may just be them and their significant other or two three four people peace is probably the way to go um also if you're from the family where you're going to fight over the legs or something like that and you need 10 legs you're not going to find one bird with 10 legs but you can find 10 legs right so that's probably a go-to option for you as well now what we're talking about spatchcock earlier um that's usually i wouldn't say my go-to but i i kind of prefer that method and honestly it's more just because it gets it all done and it gets it done faster and i'm always seems like i'm on a time crunch in life so uh i a lot of times we'll spatchcock and what that is for uh you guys watching is you're wanting to remove the the breastbone and then lay the bird out flat which is the the reasoning behind why it cooks faster a little bit more evenly and all that kind of good stuff so it's definitely something to look into if you're on a time crunch and uh you know like i said it's kind of my go-to i'd say 50 50 ish sort of but i use it pretty frequently when i'm smoking it i'm pretty much always spatchcocking it oh but talking about the size of the bird right oh you know you're smoking if you're thinking of smoking kind of on the lower end of the temperatures like around 225 i would like to say that you might want to shoot for a bird that's kind of uh between like 10 and 12 pounds maybe even 13 would work but you're 14 16 17 pound birds smoking for that long of a time that it's going to need for that bird to be done at that lower temp you may run the risk of kind of having some spoilage that is why i go with kind of a smaller bird and also spatchcocking will definitely kind of help uh that issue to not be an issue so here's a big one uh in my eyes uh what temperature do we smoke the turkey oh what's our preferred uh temperature now they're gonna i think they're gonna have different results but what do you think on that uh so and and like like most of my answers they my answers are very time dependent you know uh how how far in advance i know i need to uh to smoke a turkey but um pie in the sky and i get to do whatever i want and i have no constraints i usually like to set my smoker somewhere in the 225 250 range but i have smoked as high as 325 so that's kind of my window and sure i find that 225 250 gives me a slightly more moist more tender just you know more well-rounded if you will smoked bird but at 3 25 it's also fully acceptable you don't get results where you're like this isn't very good so i haven't had you know i mean anywhere in that in that ballpark to me works so and i totally agree me uh i'm kind of the head cook in the family at home so come a day before or day of thanksgiving i got a lot going on i tend to go on that higher uh range uh shooting between three uh three if it gets as high as 320 i'm okay i let that roll uh but but man the the differences are highly i'm sorry marginally uh different of course i've spent the time to brine it so i know i'm i got some good moisture there so yeah i tend to run on that higher side again 300 to 320 325. i also find uh that going to those higher temperatures could uh help to get you a little bit more of that crispier skin absolutely that that is something that that you'll find um sort of a happy accident right you and i being rushed we push our temperature up a little bit as far as we can safely without messing up the smoking of the turkey itself but that's something to be said too because we get that question a lot is how do you smoke a turkey but also end up with crispy skin and that is basically the answer to that if you're smoking down 225 250 that's fine but when you when you go to finish off say your last half an hour or so if possible you definitely want to run your your smoker up to the 320 325 range to get that crispy skin that's a definite plus from that that helps all right so another thing that we get asked a lot randy um is when smoking a turkey how to baste during the smoking process sure and that's a legitimate thought like uh we look we've all heard uh you know if you're looking you're not cooking real statement yeah and and look man every 30 to 45 minutes if i if you you want to get a quick baste in that's okay you're not going to harm too much until you or unless you keep in mind of say the method that you're cooking in um if you're like say on a pellet grill and you go to raise that lid and you you go to baste keep in mind that that temperature reader is going to read that that they got some cooler air coming in so they're going to try to dump some pellets in there and compensate for that temperature difference so you just want to be a little hasty in your process of basting same thing with charcoal you go to lift that lid you're giving it a lot of oxygen to that to the coals or the fire um and that that temperature is going to go up so uh you know make sure that you're kind of going in quick get the job done get in and get out that's the main takeaway yeah get in and get out make it happen um from something we touched earlier about the crispy skin yeah if and and it just depends i'm not always that big on it has to have crispy skin it has to have great flavor as far as i'm concerned and be good and moist um but i will based with a mixture of fats and liquids probably apple cider apple cider vinegar and some herbs and whatnot if i don't care about the crispy skin if i care about crispy skin then i'm only going to baste with say melted butter maybe some palm oil but whatever it's going to be just fat maybe even baking you know clarified bacon grease that tastes great yeah yeah yeah that's about i think that's about it agreed so man here's a uh kind of an interesting one proper placement of the thermometer say you know when you're temping the bird right and proper way to use that would you say so my call on that is um you know i have a a super instant digital instant read type thermometer and that's gr i use that for all sorts of things and they're great um but when i'm doing something like a large turkey or a brisket or anything like that the best fail proof way to go is to have a dual probe thermometer that will allow you to have one of your leads inside the the smoking chamber so that you're able to place it in the food or say in the breast of a turkey or whatnot beforehand and have it sitting there the whole time so that you know exact you know a lot of them you can set alarms on them to alert you to when the internal temperatures hit the right spot i mean it that to me that's fail safe and again going back to like what we always say it's the time is always very very much at a crunch i'm trying to do all sorts of things in the kitchen anytime i can use a digital device to alert me to something being done is a plus 100 to me that's that's the way to go oh yeah and i kind of a rule of thumb that i go by is is hey like where you know the thickest to thinnest part you you know temping in the thickest part absolutely kind of make sure that the entire thing is done and make sure you keep the thermometer off the bone you want to make sure it's just in the meat uh in the center of that thickest part that you can find that'll get you success absolutely what is your go-to type of smoker and or method that you use uh specifically for smoking turkey like what would be you know everything else aside you get to make whatever decisions you want what's your go-to method sure and there's several out there i mean you got pellet you got uh you know your cabinet uh style electric smokers but for me uh man it's a kamado style okay i'm in the same boat yeah absolutely and and and take it from us guys like it's it's the way to go look you're cooking with charcoal and wood if you desire uh you're getting that extra flavor you got to give it a little bit of love to maintain the temperature that you're looking for it's not as easy as pressing a button and you're there but it's well worth it it is so well worth it uh that's my go-to uh for smoking a turkey or really for smoking anything kamato style grill is where it's at for me yeah and i i have to uh he pretty much just i think he kind of knew what i was gonna say and then stole that for me so that i wouldn't have anything to say but what i will say is um so that that's definitely my go-to uh but when i'm in a time crunch an electric smoker is pretty handy pretty easy and gets the job done without ever having to do anything but it can't hold a candle to the the full flavor and everything of a kamado smoked burner sure period and not to knock the other styles it depends on what you're trying to do like uh i mean if you got 50 people to feed you're gonna need you need five turkeys you know uh your cabinet electric smoker where you can just fill that thing up and let it go while you're making your other sides or entertaining you that could work for you you tend to get a little bit of difference in your finished product with going with say like an electric style smoker you're gonna it's gonna be a little bit more difficult to achieve that like crispy skin uh due to the uh different air flow that's going on they're sealed so well that not only is air changing over less but it's also keeping a bunch of moisture in there so if that's going to be your only method and you're not going to remove it from there and pop it onto a grill in the end to brown it or anything like that it's going to be tough to get a crispy skin it's doable but it's tough um it's still a great it's extremely moist turkey that comes off of there and you know it's it's great it will be tough for the outer skin to crisp it up in an electric style cabinet smoker well said the man another one that i get uh for smoking turkey is uh the smoking wood selection right to go with i i kind of almost feel like it's a preference thing it is uh you know but i mean i've got my favorites i'm sure you do yeah absolutely um i like to go with either hickory or oak with or half half hickory or oak and the other half is usually a blend of pecan wood and cherry don't know why that just happened a long time ago and i kind of stuck with it you know when something's not broke you don't fix it kind of thing right like so that's my go-to that i don't have any good scientific reasoning behind why it's just my approach yeah it's it's the flavor profiles that you feel you know that you want to go with um now me i tend to go with pecan as well maybe some apple right uh that i think pairs well with any kind of poultry or bird uh that's that's my go-to and same with pellets you know you can get that same variety mix and match all right so our final question randy is how long after smoking once you remove your turkey from the smoker how long do you let it rest yeah it's a good one so uh with something large like a whole turkey i would go to say it you know at least 30 minutes is good now look you don't want to leave it outside if it's snowing outside or anything like that but it's it's a little different from steak and other materials like that but but man for a whole bird resting 30 minutes you don't have to worry about it getting too cold to serve or anything like that it's going to be fine but you want to allow those juices to redistribute through the meat and for me that's the way to go man same here i think he uh said he took the words out of my mouth right yeah yeah look sip you some gin and tonic while you rest and look hey look gin and tonic if that's fine with you that's good for the holidays i'm more of a vodka and ice guy for the holidays or really for just any day but uh but you do you and i and and i'll do me and but but rest your bird for 20 to 30 minutes thanks for watching uh if there's anything we may have missed go ahead and post your questions in the comments we'll get to them right away and uh i'm getting to my gin and tonic sounds good to me let's do it youwhat's up everyone today we're going to be talking about smoked turkey that's right we've compiled all of our top questions and we've had plenty and that's what we're going to knock out today is answering your questions on smoking turkey let's get to it so kind of taking it from the top tony i guess one of the first ones would be how to prepare for smoking a turkey right you definitely don't want to rush a turkey because it's so large if you go you know if it is frozen there will be some thaw time and all that good stuff so you want to make sure you have your bases covered there you don't want to not be able to get the size turkey you want i'm just trying to think of some of the things that have happened to me over the years from having to rush again not being able to find the size that i wanted not being able to find it fresh or frozen depending on what i want you know all those things you don't want to rush it i guess is the the gist of that oh yeah and how about you anything other than that ma'am but you know aside from that portion of it uh you know i you definitely want to kind of make sure that before you apply any seasoning or anything like that definitely make sure it's dry uh but you know before you add a binder and your seasoning now now inside and out man i like i'll take some paper towels inside the cavity dry that out and also you know all over the exterior of it to make sure that skin's nice and dry from from water i'm with you on that and then also in that same regard and this is i'm i hardly ever get to do this but if you actually have the time and you want it to be as the best it can be then it's also cool to um after you've dried it out like that to set it on a platter uncovered in the refrigerator to let it air chill overnight you know 24 hours or so again i don't get to do that kind of thing frequently but if you have the time it certainly is the the best way to go you know what that helps with as well what's that that's going to help you get some extra crispy skin oh so so a lot i know that's kind of we've been asking that a bunch too yes absolutely we'll touch on that all right so another question we get asked a lot is about brining turkeys yeah man uh brining is a great way to come out with a very flavorful and juicy bird absolutely and there's a couple of ways to go about it like one of the first ones i heard of a long time ago now you want to make sure it's using a bucket now make sure that bucket is a food safe bucket however trying to fit a large bucket into a fridge uh might be a little hard otherwise you got to keep ice on it constantly keep a watch so it's a little bit more of a of a difficult thing nowadays they have these kind of specialized bags right that you could uh you know fit the turkey in and man that just makes it a lot more easier to be able to that's my go-to yeah to fit it into your fridge uh but but it's man brining is nice uh it does take some time uh some maybe suggested 12 to 24 hours yeah for a turkey yeah for for a large bird uh to sit in that solution right uh if you don't have that time now uh injecting it is kind of a way to go but i know that you've got like an awesome uh brining recipe and facts about that okay yeah so so i'll cover a little bit more on that um if the the only thing so people kind of freak out about brining if they haven't done it before just because there is a little bit of science uh to to brining but it is it's very it's very minimal honestly the only thing that really matters is your water to salt ratio that's that's the only thing that really matters the rest of the stuff however many herbs you do or don't put in there um if you want to add a little sugar to kind of cut that saltiness you don't have to and it also doesn't matter uh the main thing to keep in mind is uh well there's two things first of all you have to come up with how much brine you'll need and it's easier than it sounds what you'll do is take a container and take your unwrap like when your turkey has is still in the packaging and you haven't unwrapped it set it into the container and fill it with water until it goes over the turkey remove the turkey and that is how much brine you will need what whatever water is left in there so once you have that amount of water now we will talk about how you decide how much salt you need for the solution and the way you do that is you need to know the weight of the water and a gallon of water weighs eight pounds so you break it down that way you figure out exactly how many pounds of water you have and what you're looking for with your salt solution is that you want one to two percent of salt in your brine now if it's your first time i highly recommend staying around the one 1.2 percent of weight in salt because some people find a brined product a little too salty for them it it's right there on the on the border but it's definitely worth doing i mean it it holds a lot of moisture to the product it just the stuff really cooks up nicely especially when you're doing a smoked uh turkey it's definitely a great thing to do but but keep those things in mind and again if it's your first time or you're not really sure about it you want to stay towards the one percent of salt after that like i said you can add whatever amount of sugar you want to add um i like to throw in some of the herbs that i'll be seasoning with usually after so the other thing is after a brine i like to rinse off my turkey totally rinse it off for any of the excess salt that would be on the outside just so that it's not saltier than it needs to be that's important yeah i believe so um and then after i have brined i'm going to rub with strictly an herb blend no salt added to the blend for flavoring inside and out of my turkey i mean that that's the way i go with usually like a butter paste i like to go like the french do not everybody finds that to be the healthiest but i didn't know that you know we're not doing a health show here we're doing a how to have a delicious turkey show listen and look i do the same and and if you really want to get into it man i lift up the skin yes yes and i'll put that butter uh a blend under the skin as well and man inside the cavity the whole thing all over chef gerard was the guy who uh who i'll give a wink to for that he showed me how to apply lots of butter to things a french chef will do that for you i love it so look another big one that i hear a lot of uh is the best ways to season the turkey before we smoke it right i definitely my go-to is to take whatever seasoning blend i'll be using and the way that works is basically i am going to add salt to my seasoning blend if i haven't brined and if i have brined then it would be just herbs and spices and that type of thing because you saw because you took care of the salt within the brine right so that's kind of my move with that and then i'm going to blend it with a stick or two of butter depending on how much is happening there um and maybe a little shot of lemon juice mix that together and then spread the paste i usually try to depending on the size of the item but like but for a whole turkey i'm probably going to spread the paste and leave it in the fridge over you know cover it and leave it in the fridge overnight until the next day if not i'm trying to go at least maybe four hours or so depending again you know how it is it just depends on how much time you have um as to how well you're able to do something oh yeah but before you go to put it on the smoker i i definitely make sure the whole thing's coated if you're going with just a seasoning blend uh not a lot of people think about it but man all inside that cavity get in there because that's gonna it's gonna help to uh soak in from from all sides you know now now to me that's the way to go and look i wanted to tell you you mentioned lemon juice right uh the last couple of turkeys i was experimenting with right man i'm going full fruit in in citrus now oh heavy on the lemon yes uh i'm adding zest nice to that butter i i will add as well yeah smell butter paste oh man and and i'll even stuff it with like half uh apples i've done that too oh oranges peels and all uh all that stuff oh a citrus herb turkey is just phenomenal that and my only other um when speaking seasonings and turkey and pork and this is just a personal preference but i like to use some dried rub sage for some reason sage with turkey and with pork i again it's just me but i i have to have that in the mix for some reason that sounds amazing so another big question we've received is um tips for making and using injectable marinades yeah like so i i tend to not inject my bird if i kind of went through the brining process again brining takes a good bit of time so if you don't have that time ejecting is the way to go uh one of the bigger tips that i like to throw out there with this now uh whatever rub or kind of seasoning blend that you're using on that bird for the exterior of it make sure that a good portion goes into this injector so same here or into the uh into the marinade whatever you're putting that in whether it be a jar uh another good tip is to kind of go ahead and try to make that a good bit ahead of time so those flavors do have a chance to kind of meld and get together i'm with you on that oh it's also good practice to maybe run it through a blender or a vitamix of sorts just to make sure that there's no big chunky bits that may be caught up in that uh syringe or it happens too oh yeah yeah and that's just a pain to have to you got to stop cleaning out and when you're ready to go uh but but yeah that that is kind of somewhat some more of the bigger tips when it comes to injecting uh and of course we've got recipes for for those yeah we have plenty of that um to the only thing i would say um and i believe it's probably what you do but i don't know if we were clear on it after running the uh marinade through a blender i will then pass it through a coffee filter right right to make sure to remove any you know and you want to make sure it depends on the things that you use they may gel some and and that kind of situation it just depends on exactly like there's usually not much way to know that that's going to happen to you it has to do with the mucilage and the other things that are involved in the herbs you use but again running it through a coffee filter will extract all of your flavors but will keep all that other stuff out of your needle and should that may you know make it kind of quick and easy that's smart yep all right so next up we've been asked plenty of times about whether to go whole turkey or pieces well i i mean my mind comes first to basically i mean look if you've got a small family you know and you don't want a waste or have to freeze or tons of leftovers that may go to waste getting portions of just the breast or whatever portions of the turkey you want to smoke then that might be the route that you want to go i think that you get a little bit more of a robust flavor from a whole bird but again that's marginal you know something that that happened to me the other day i was at the store just craving turkey uh now what they had was just the upper torso section right no legs wings or anything like that uh and i was interested in it i picked one up and brought it home and uh almost immediately regretted of how uh difficult it was to cook so i mean it's it's a round or oval piece that that just wouldn't sit on a rack this or wait now in hindsight i could have spatchcocked it uh to a sense yeah and and we'll get into what that process is in a minute but uh that would have helped me uh to do that but that was kind of uh you didn't know off the jump right right right i didn't know that was what that was gonna look like but uh again uh so going with pieces or a whole bird with a whole bird oh man you just get the the whole mix you know that's ten tends to be the way that i go understood and you and i both have families large enough that it's kind of a no-brainer for us but you're right i mean somebody who you know may just be them and their significant other or two three four people peace is probably the way to go um also if you're from the family where you're going to fight over the legs or something like that and you need 10 legs you're not going to find one bird with 10 legs but you can find 10 legs right so that's probably a go-to option for you as well now what we're talking about spatchcock earlier um that's usually i wouldn't say my go-to but i i kind of prefer that method and honestly it's more just because it gets it all done and it gets it done faster and i'm always seems like i'm on a time crunch in life so uh i a lot of times we'll spatchcock and what that is for uh you guys watching is you're wanting to remove the the breastbone and then lay the bird out flat which is the the reasoning behind why it cooks faster a little bit more evenly and all that kind of good stuff so it's definitely something to look into if you're on a time crunch and uh you know like i said it's kind of my go-to i'd say 50 50 ish sort of but i use it pretty frequently when i'm smoking it i'm pretty much always spatchcocking it oh but talking about the size of the bird right oh you know you're smoking if you're thinking of smoking kind of on the lower end of the temperatures like around 225 i would like to say that you might want to shoot for a bird that's kind of uh between like 10 and 12 pounds maybe even 13 would work but you're 14 16 17 pound birds smoking for that long of a time that it's going to need for that bird to be done at that lower temp you may run the risk of kind of having some spoilage that is why i go with kind of a smaller bird and also spatchcocking will definitely kind of help uh that issue to not be an issue so here's a big one uh in my eyes uh what temperature do we smoke the turkey oh what's our preferred uh temperature now they're gonna i think they're gonna have different results but what do you think on that uh so and and like like most of my answers they my answers are very time dependent you know uh how how far in advance i know i need to uh to smoke a turkey but um pie in the sky and i get to do whatever i want and i have no constraints i usually like to set my smoker somewhere in the 225 250 range but i have smoked as high as 325 so that's kind of my window and sure i find that 225 250 gives me a slightly more moist more tender just you know more well-rounded if you will smoked bird but at 3 25 it's also fully acceptable you don't get results where you're like this isn't very good so i haven't had you know i mean anywhere in that in that ballpark to me works so and i totally agree me uh i'm kind of the head cook in the family at home so come a day before or day of thanksgiving i got a lot going on i tend to go on that higher uh range uh shooting between three uh three if it gets as high as 320 i'm okay i let that roll uh but but man the the differences are highly i'm sorry marginally uh different of course i've spent the time to brine it so i know i'm i got some good moisture there so yeah i tend to run on that higher side again 300 to 320 325. i also find uh that going to those higher temperatures could uh help to get you a little bit more of that crispier skin absolutely that that is something that that you'll find um sort of a happy accident right you and i being rushed we push our temperature up a little bit as far as we can safely without messing up the smoking of the turkey itself but that's something to be said too because we get that question a lot is how do you smoke a turkey but also end up with crispy skin and that is basically the answer to that if you're smoking down 225 250 that's fine but when you when you go to finish off say your last half an hour or so if possible you definitely want to run your your smoker up to the 320 325 range to get that crispy skin that's a definite plus from that that helps all right so another thing that we get asked a lot randy um is when smoking a turkey how to baste during the smoking process sure and that's a legitimate thought like uh we look we've all heard uh you know if you're looking you're not cooking real statement yeah and and look man every 30 to 45 minutes if i if you you want to get a quick baste in that's okay you're not going to harm too much until you or unless you keep in mind of say the method that you're cooking in um if you're like say on a pellet grill and you go to raise that lid and you you go to baste keep in mind that that temperature reader is going to read that that they got some cooler air coming in so they're going to try to dump some pellets in there and compensate for that temperature difference so you just want to be a little hasty in your process of basting same thing with charcoal you go to lift that lid you're giving it a lot of oxygen to that to the coals or the fire um and that that temperature is going to go up so uh you know make sure that you're kind of going in quick get the job done get in and get out that's the main takeaway yeah get in and get out make it happen um from something we touched earlier about the crispy skin yeah if and and it just depends i'm not always that big on it has to have crispy skin it has to have great flavor as far as i'm concerned and be good and moist um but i will based with a mixture of fats and liquids probably apple cider apple cider vinegar and some herbs and whatnot if i don't care about the crispy skin if i care about crispy skin then i'm only going to baste with say melted butter maybe some palm oil but whatever it's going to be just fat maybe even baking you know clarified bacon grease that tastes great yeah yeah yeah that's about i think that's about it agreed so man here's a uh kind of an interesting one proper placement of the thermometer say you know when you're temping the bird right and proper way to use that would you say so my call on that is um you know i have a a super instant digital instant read type thermometer and that's gr i use that for all sorts of things and they're great um but when i'm doing something like a large turkey or a brisket or anything like that the best fail proof way to go is to have a dual probe thermometer that will allow you to have one of your leads inside the the smoking chamber so that you're able to place it in the food or say in the breast of a turkey or whatnot beforehand and have it sitting there the whole time so that you know exact you know a lot of them you can set alarms on them to alert you to when the internal temperatures hit the right spot i mean it that to me that's fail safe and again going back to like what we always say it's the time is always very very much at a crunch i'm trying to do all sorts of things in the kitchen anytime i can use a digital device to alert me to something being done is a plus 100 to me that's that's the way to go oh yeah and i kind of a rule of thumb that i go by is is hey like where you know the thickest to thinnest part you you know temping in the thickest part absolutely kind of make sure that the entire thing is done and make sure you keep the thermometer off the bone you want to make sure it's just in the meat uh in the center of that thickest part that you can find that'll get you success absolutely what is your go-to type of smoker and or method that you use uh specifically for smoking turkey like what would be you know everything else aside you get to make whatever decisions you want what's your go-to method sure and there's several out there i mean you got pellet you got uh you know your cabinet uh style electric smokers but for me uh man it's a kamado style okay i'm in the same boat yeah absolutely and and and take it from us guys like it's it's the way to go look you're cooking with charcoal and wood if you desire uh you're getting that extra flavor you got to give it a little bit of love to maintain the temperature that you're looking for it's not as easy as pressing a button and you're there but it's well worth it it is so well worth it uh that's my go-to uh for smoking a turkey or really for smoking anything kamato style grill is where it's at for me yeah and i i have to uh he pretty much just i think he kind of knew what i was gonna say and then stole that for me so that i wouldn't have anything to say but what i will say is um so that that's definitely my go-to uh but when i'm in a time crunch an electric smoker is pretty handy pretty easy and gets the job done without ever having to do anything but it can't hold a candle to the the full flavor and everything of a kamado smoked burner sure period and not to knock the other styles it depends on what you're trying to do like uh i mean if you got 50 people to feed you're gonna need you need five turkeys you know uh your cabinet electric smoker where you can just fill that thing up and let it go while you're making your other sides or entertaining you that could work for you you tend to get a little bit of difference in your finished product with going with say like an electric style smoker you're gonna it's gonna be a little bit more difficult to achieve that like crispy skin uh due to the uh different air flow that's going on they're sealed so well that not only is air changing over less but it's also keeping a bunch of moisture in there so if that's going to be your only method and you're not going to remove it from there and pop it onto a grill in the end to brown it or anything like that it's going to be tough to get a crispy skin it's doable but it's tough um it's still a great it's extremely moist turkey that comes off of there and you know it's it's great it will be tough for the outer skin to crisp it up in an electric style cabinet smoker well said the man another one that i get uh for smoking turkey is uh the smoking wood selection right to go with i i kind of almost feel like it's a preference thing it is uh you know but i mean i've got my favorites i'm sure you do yeah absolutely um i like to go with either hickory or oak with or half half hickory or oak and the other half is usually a blend of pecan wood and cherry don't know why that just happened a long time ago and i kind of stuck with it you know when something's not broke you don't fix it kind of thing right like so that's my go-to that i don't have any good scientific reasoning behind why it's just my approach yeah it's it's the flavor profiles that you feel you know that you want to go with um now me i tend to go with pecan as well maybe some apple right uh that i think pairs well with any kind of poultry or bird uh that's that's my go-to and same with pellets you know you can get that same variety mix and match all right so our final question randy is how long after smoking once you remove your turkey from the smoker how long do you let it rest yeah it's a good one so uh with something large like a whole turkey i would go to say it you know at least 30 minutes is good now look you don't want to leave it outside if it's snowing outside or anything like that but it's it's a little different from steak and other materials like that but but man for a whole bird resting 30 minutes you don't have to worry about it getting too cold to serve or anything like that it's going to be fine but you want to allow those juices to redistribute through the meat and for me that's the way to go man same here i think he uh said he took the words out of my mouth right yeah yeah look sip you some gin and tonic while you rest and look hey look gin and tonic if that's fine with you that's good for the holidays i'm more of a vodka and ice guy for the holidays or really for just any day but uh but you do you and i and and i'll do me and but but rest your bird for 20 to 30 minutes thanks for watching uh if there's anything we may have missed go ahead and post your questions in the comments we'll get to them right away and uh i'm getting to my gin and tonic sounds good to me let's do it you\n"