So, I smoked a 9 lbs. turkey on Friday on one of those Brinkmann vertical charcoal grill/smokers.
The brine:
2 gallons of water
2 cups of canning salt
1/3 cup of brown sugar
1/4 cup of Worcestershire Sauce
1 tbsp ground black pepper
3 tbsp minced garlic
Sat in the brine for 24 hours.
The rub:
1 cup brown sugar
zest of 2 oranges
1/2 cup of olive oil
Rubbed thoroughly inside and out of the turkey.
I put the bird on about 9:15 AM Friday morning. Had the coals going well, and used hickory smoking chips. I used normal Kingsford briquettes (not instant-light). Kept an eye on it at first every 30 minutes or so, then pushed it back to 45 minutes to an hour. I added smoking chips every hour or so. One bad thing was that I needed to keep stirring up the coals every hour or so, to keep up temperature and make sure the burn was going smoothly. I was originally operating under the impression that at a 230-240 temperature, I should count on about 30 minutes per pound.
At 1:15, I lifted the lid to see how the water pan was doing. I had put in about 1/2 lbs. of black eyed peas in the water pan based on a co-workers suggestion. At this 4 hour mark, there was still plenty of water left in the pan.
At 3:15, I used the meat thermometer in the thickest part of the bird. Not quite done. The original coals were about done, so I added some more coals, smoking chips, and put the lid on while taking my daughter to go see Santa.
We got back at 5:15. I figured come hell or high water, it was going to get dark, and I was going to take the bird off. The water pan had dried up, burning some beans on the bottom, but there were still some salvageable.
The turkey was delicious. Great hickory flavor, though next time I'm thinking I'll use some kind of fruit wood as well (apple, cherry). My guess is that I probably cooked it an hour too long. I might do another one for Christmas, I don't know yet.
Thanks for reading.
Bookmarks