Happy Thanksgiving! An Idea for your Bird

This is a repost from last March.  I thought it would be helpful for those looking to smoke a turkey for tomorrow.  Some suggestions in addition to the following post:

If using a whole bird, I would stuff the body cavity with onion, celery, and carrot.  It adds a nice flavor to the end product.

Alternatively, you can just smoke your bird as you would bake it in the oven:

Rub with olive oil.
Season with salt and pepper.
Collect your dripping and make a really great smoky gravy.

DO NOT stuff your bird with a bread stuffing.  Bread stuffing will soak up too much smoke.  If you want stuffing, make it separately in the oven.

That is it.  I hope everyone has a great holiday!

Thanks for stopping by...

Bill

Click on the link below for the rest of the post...

Last Thanksgiving, I stocked up on the 99 cent whole turkeys and breasts for a rainy day.  Well, I was in a turkey mood last weekend, so I pulled one out of the freezer and threw it on the Baby.

First, I thawed the breast and prepared a brine.  Brines can be made of anything.  But, the main components are salt and sugar.  This brine had 3/4 cup of kosher salt to 1 gallon of water, along with 3/4 cup of brown sugar.  Don't worry about the salt.  Your bird will not get salty.  The salt acts to remove all of the bacteria and bad juices from the bird, making a nice, juicy and tasty piece of meat.  The other ingredients are up to you.  I added OJ, garlic, onion, and chili powder, along with some worcestershire sauce.  The basic recipe was given to me by BOS over on the Stumps Forum.  Here is a link:

Poultry Brine

Here is the breast in the pool...

After sitting overnight, I pulled out of the brine and discarded.  Then, rinsed the breast well and patted dry.

I also took 4 tbsp of the Weber Montreal Chicken rub and made a paste with 2 tbsp of olive oil:

With the paste, I pulled the skin back and rubbed on the breast meat.  Then, I put the skin back in place and gave the skin a nice coat of olive oil, then used the rest of the paste: 

Fired up the Baby to 325 with 50/50 apricot and hickory wood.  I placed the breast on the center rack:

Thin blue smoke rolling on the hill:

Cooked to 165 internal, about 2 hours and 45 minutes, then wrapped in foil to rest for 15 minutes.  Nice and crispy skin...

Sliced and served with asparagus and rice pilaf.  The bird was nice, tender, and juicy.

Enjoy,

Bill