Thanksgiving Turkey

This thanksgiving I smoked my mother in law’s 20.5 lb. bird. It was the first turkey I’d ever smoked, so I was a little nervous going into it. I cooked it on my new Traeger 075 pellet smoker. I wanted to get the breast to about 155 before pulling the bird off. The turkey would continue to rise in temp as it sat wrapped in foil.

I started with a simple sugar/salt brine. The big bird sat in the brine for about 14 hours. Out of the bine, I rinsed it off and applied injection of butter, Jack Daniels, apple juice, garlic powder, onion powder, and white pepper. The Slabs Kyle Style rub was my seasoning of choice. Michael and I bought a large shaker of it last weekend and liked it on the turkey breast the Sunday before. The cavity of the bird was stuffed with half of a white onion, two sliced apples, and fresh oregano.

The bird went in at 11:30pm Wednesday night with the cooker set at 225 degrees and a full hopper of pellets. A wonderful thing about pellet smokers like the Traeger 075 is that the temperature is regulated for you by the controller and fan. I was able to get 7 straight hours of sleep. Ten hours later, the results were great. The skin had become tough in the smoker as expected. The leather like skin created a barrier that the moisture couldn’t release from. It was like a pressure cooker. The turkey was more moist than even my best fried birds. The family enjoyed it and I was called back to do another turkey for Christmas.