Cookaholics Bulletin Board

I have eaten my fair share of turkey and cooked a few along the way. But last weekend I made what was very likely the best turkey I've ever eaten. As most of you know, I'm not a culinary genius of any sort. But a couple of different techniques have produced the tenderest turkey breast I've ever had on a dinner plate in front of me.

I smoked 3 turkeys recently. Two for Thanksgiving, and one for last weekends Christmas party. I used my Weber kettle with a Smokenator insert. Smaller turkeys are done in 3 to 3 1/2 hours. Medium turkeys in the 15 to 16 pound range take about 5 hours.

I injected the turkeys with compound butter, about 1 1/2 to 2 ounces per side. I made the compound butter with rosemary and a bit of sage. This was injected and the left over rubbed over the turkey under the skin. The turkey's cavity was stuffed with rough chopped onions, celery, and apples. The skin was rubbed with my "Turkey Powder" that consists of 2 teaspoons of salt, 2 tablespoons of corn starch, freshly cracked pepper, and 1/4 teaspoon of sage.

I use two "rib racks" that are reversible, turning into roast or turkey racks. For the last hour or a bit longer, I flip the turkey over so it will cook breast side down. Using the second rack inverted over the turkey let's me flip it over with a minimum of mess.

The bird flipped over:

It sure looks like the work of a culinary genius. Yum!

Mary

That looks great!!!!!! I may have to try that...

Now I'm craving smoked turkey...

Looks fabulous Steve!

Amy

The turkey loose fabulous! YUM

Laurie

Thanks folks, it was a lot of fun to make and even more fun to eat!

I may have to smoke something in my big wok soon, after all this talk. I keep one just for smoking, as there's no seasoning to ruin if I just use it for that!

If you decide to smoke one, my experience from Thanksgiving is that they hold the "smoke" more than pork or beef, so you want to smoke lightly. My first turkey was smoked with a mix of apple and hickory. It was definitely a "smokey" bird. I backed off the hickory and used only apple for the second bird on Thanksgiving and again for the Christmas turkey. I used wood chips, about a baseball sized amount, split into two foiled packs. Since apple is pretty light, you could probably do more, but I wanted my turkey to be acceptable to a range of taste buds, most of which have not had truly smoked meat in years, if ever.