Smoking a turkey is not rocket science. In fact, once you discover how easy it is and you take your first bite of that smoked bird, you'll want to make it a tradition every holiday season! Stay with us as we take you through eight easy-to-follow steps of smoking a turkey in a barbecue smoker with charcoal. In a few minutes you can be ready to smoke that delicious, mouth-watering turkey you've been dreaming about.
Choose Your Turkey
First of all, you'll want to choose a turkey that's about 12-14 pounds. We don't recommend going over this size, because it's just asking for trouble. When it's too large, it's much harder to smoke and it stays in the danger zone longer than we recommend. So make it easy on yourself and stay under 14 pounds.
Prepare the Turkey
If your turkey is frozen, let it thaw. The safest way is to let it thaw in the refrigerator, which can take up to several days for a 12-14 pound turkey. To speed up the process, you can submerge it in cold tap water; you can thaw your turkey this way in eight hours or less. However, we recommend wrapping it securely to keep any water from leaking through the wrapping. Also change the water every 30 minutes or so. Next, you'll remove the wrappings and take out the giblet bags. Cut off any loose skin or meat around the edges. Then rinse the turkey thoroughly. Now is a good time to season the turkey. Generously sprinkle BBQ seasoning all over the surface of the turkey and into the cavity. You may wait to season the turkey until later if you'd like, but we recommend giving the seasoning some time to cook into the meat.
Start the Fire
After you prepare the turkey, it's time to start the fire. Open all the vents in the firebox and load it with charcoal. The amount of charcoal will depend on the size of your smoker, so you may have to consult your owner's manual. Use a propane torch or kindling to light the charcoal. A propane torch gets the fire going quickly. Once the charcoal is lit, shut off the torch and close the firebox door.
Load the Turkey
Next, open the smoker door and lay your turkey on the grate and close the door.
Get the Smoke Rolling
If you'd like to make more smoke, we recommend throwing some wood smoking chips on the fire. After you load the meat is a good time to do this. But keep in mind it's easy to overdo the smoke and too much smoke will make your meat dark. It's better to have a light smoke flavor than an overpowering one. The level of smoke and the intensity of the smoke flavor is a personal preference and one that you should experiment with.
Bonus smoker tip: We used to wonder why the surface of our meat turned out so dark. We'd turn down the heat to keep the meat lighter and that made it difficult to get the meat hot enough. Then we realized we were using too much smoke! If you find you're using too much smoke, just cut back on the smoking chips.
Maintain the Temperature
Once the temperature reaches 225 degrees, adjust the stack and firebox vents to maintain temperature between 225 and 250 degrees. Weather, barometric pressure, and outside temperature affect the temperature inside your smoker. If it's too low, open the vents more; if it's too high, close them accordingly. Occasionally check the thermometer, making adjustments to the vents as necessary to keep the temperature between 225 and 250 degrees.
Check the Turkey Once an Hour
An hour after the turkey is on, open the smoker and spray apple juice on the turkey. Also dump some juice into the water pan. Once an hour spray the turkey with apple juice and check the juice in the water pan. You may also want to sprinkle seasoning on the turkey more than once for extra flavor.
Check the Internal Temperature
After 4 hours, check the internal temperature periodically with a probe meat thermometer. A turkey is safe to eat once the internal temperature reaches at least 165 degrees. Check the innermost part of the thigh and wing and the thickest part of the breast. So how long does it take to smoke a turkey? You can plan for it to take approximately 30-40 minutes per pound to smoke a turkey. Temperature and other factors can make a difference in the time it takes to smoke your turkey. However, internal temperature will tell you when it's ready.
Remove the Turkey
If your turkey gets done early and you want to keep it warm for a while, you can wrap it in heavy duty aluminum foil and put it in an ice chest. It will stay warm and fresh for hours. Let the turkey sit for at least 15 minutes before carving it. This gives the juices some time to redistribute and the turkey will carve more easily.
Enjoy Mouth-Watering Barbecue!
Now you're ready to enjoy your delicious, smoke-flavored turkey! Smoked turkey is great any day of the year, but especially wonderful on holidays. Today is a good day to start learning all the secrets to smoking mouth-watering turkey that will make you a hero among your friends. We'd like to help you make a yearly tradition of precious memories with family and friends.
