Smoked Turkey Recipe

Ingredients

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12 pound whole turkey
Wood chips (any fruitwood is good but I like apple wood)
Butter spray

64 ounces apple juice
Water

Nutritional

Serving Size: 1 (725.8 g)
Calories 696.7
Total Fat - 10.7 g
Saturated Fat - 2.5 g
Cholesterol - 364.7 mg
Sodium - 642.3 mg
Total Carbohydrate - 23.2 g
Dietary Fiber - 2.4 g
Sugars - 18.7 g
Protein - 123.7 g
Calcium - 68.9 mg
Iron - 4.8 mg
Vitamin C - 7.3 mg
Thiamin - 0.3 mg

Step by Step Method

Step 1

Remove turkey from package and take out the giblets and neck bone and reserve for giblet dressing (recipe posted). Rinse the turkey well and pat dry with paper towels. Fold in the wings and tie the legs together or use the metal holder, spray out side of turkey with butter spray and set aside.

Step 2

Put apple juice and enough water into your water pan to fill it up to about 3/4 full. Fill wood chip tray with chips and light the smoker. Once the smoker is holding between 225°F and 240°F and producing light smoke, place the turkey directly on the grate breast side up. Close smoker and keep adding dry wood chips for the first 3 hours for that nice smoky flavor.

Step 3

If you are cooking a 12 pond bird which is the recommended size for smoking, it will take around 6 hours at 225-240 degrees +-30 minutes.

Step 4

Use a digital probe meat thermometer to tell you when the turkey reaches 165°F in the thickest part of the breast or thigh. Don't use the little red popup to tell you when it 's done, it is normally set to 180°F and that's overcooking the bird. I remove and discard it.

Step 5

Once the turkey has reached it's goal temperature, remove it from the smoker and set it aside with foil tented over the top for about 20-30 minutes before carving. This allows the juices to redistribute through out the meat. If you cut it early, the juices will all run out onto the cutting board. It's worth the wait.

Tips

No special items needed.

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WiggiesStickeyRibs

I used a wood smoker instead of gas. I used a thermometer and tested every so often, cooking until bird was up to temp. The end result was a juicy bird that tasted great with meat falling off the bone. It had a great apple smoked flavor. We had it as part of our Thanksgiving celebration and we loved our meal.