Smoked Turkey Recipe

This Thanksgiving we are going to try smoking a turkey. If you have read my posts previous to this one, you will see I talked about using Ibotta for purchasing your groceries leading into the holiday. Through this app you can usually earn some type of incentive for the holiday food purchases, last year you were able to earn an entire meal for free with chase back purchases. Obviously we took advantage of it. This year it is a bit different, if you make a certain amount of purchases that qualify through the app you can earn a free turkey, we figured why not try to obtain this free turkey. We spent time, and by we I mean my wife, looking through all of the qualifying purchases to make sure we were buying items we would actually utilize in our lives instead of wasting money. If you do this by buying items you do not need, is the turkey really a good deal? However, if you are going to buy these items that qualify anyway, then the turkey becomes a great deal.

Needless to say, we earned our free turkey. Every year we have a family Thanksgiving, just my wife, the kids and myself, before we go traveling around to all the other family members' houses. In the past we made a traditional meal, in the oven as you usually would. However, this year I am going to try smoking a turkey and doing something different. As the page grows and if you start to follow me on other social media platforms, you will quickly learn I am a huge fan of grilling and smoking, really cooking outside in any fashion. So this is going to be a real challenge and treat for me to get to do.

However, this will be my first time ever doing it, to say I am nervous is an understatement. The whole meal rides on the presentation and taste of the bird. Thankfully I found a recipe that I am going to try and follow, but tweak a little to suit my needs as well. A gentleman named Malcom Reed, owner of How to BBQ Right has posted a smoked turkey recipe that caught my eye, and I want to share some of it with you. I am going to share the part of the recipe I will be following and the tweaks I will be making as well. If you want the true recipe follow Malcom on instagram @howtobbqright and you can get the step by step direction for your cook.

To start Malcom creates a brine, however I am going to skip this part. I know it will enhance the flavor of the bird and give it all the juicy goodness you want, but for me it just does not fit what we are looking for. Instead I am going to coat the whole bird lightly with Extra Virgin Olive Oil and some BBQ seasonings. Then put it right on the smoker. The creation I am utilizing from Malcom’s recipe is the herb butter.

Herb Butter:

2 sticks melted butter

1 tablespoon dried rosemary

1 tablespoon dried parsley

1 tablespoon dried thyme

I will let this herb butter render and melt on the smoker while the bird is cooking and use this to baste the turkey throughout the cooking process. A few extra tips and steps from the recipe:

1. Get your smoker up to 300 degrees

2. Stuff your bird with some celery, lemon, garlic and herbs and a stick of butter tie off the back legs with butcher's twine

3. Place your bird on the smoker when it reaches the 300 temperature mark

4. Smoke for one hour untouched then start basting every hour with the butter, cover the whole bird

5. At the 2 hour mark start checking your temps and continue cooking until your bird reaches internal temp of 165

6. Rest the bird for 10-15 minutes after removing from the smoker

****Cover your bird with foil when the skin gets to a doneness and color you are looking for.

This is just a basic outline of the recipe, what I am going to follow and try to create on my own. If you want the true recipe and directions for this recipe follow @howtobbqright on Instagram or watch him create this dish on YouTube at How to BBQ Right. Trust me he will create this dish better than I will, but I am excited to give it a try!