What wood to smoke a turkey?

I've always been a big fan of Apple wood, it is not to overpowering in my mind. If you could find Pecan chunks that might be good.

Def some sort of fruit wood. Apple, peach, etc

Bamafaninco1 said:

I've always been a big fan of Apple wood, it is not to overpowering in my mind. If you could find Pecan chunks that might be good.

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Apple is my preferred as well, then Pecan though Hickory can be good it tends to overpower

Even though apple is a lighter smoke, err on the side of using too little wood.

Here are a few ideas on the brine

http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/cook.html#poultry

AlistarWills said:

I’m afraid I’ve got a problem on my hand. My brother was given the turkey. I just got it this morning. Frozen solid. Thawing in the fridge for 3 days ain’t happening. I currently have it sitting in water hoping the water in the cavity will help thaw from the inside. It’s also been treated which I understand may not be the best for brining. I hope this water will get some of their solution out of it. This brining has to happen.

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So one of the subjects in the link above is on brining a self basting turkey which I guess is what you are talking about.

AlistarWills said:

I realize this isn’t the cooking board but this one gets more traffic. Mods feel free to move if you feel necessary.

I don’t eat turkey (except the turkey at the Garden Grill in EPCOT and I could eat my weight in that stuff. Can’t get em to tell me how to do the brine because they do so many birds at once.). So I’ve never cooked a turkey and sort of by hook or crook got saddled with doing so for Thanksgiving. I was going to brine it and smoke it. I’m wondering what wood to smoke it with. I have apple from a felled tree in the yard, and hickory, readily available. I can get some others if need be. I have smoked pork butts on my Weber grill but was considering bumming an electric smoker to do this turkey in. I’m out of lump charcoal and I’m not in favor of smoking over briquettes.
Also, this will have to be smoked on Wednesday so I need tips on reheating for Thanksgiving dinner.
I need the boards experiences here. Thank you in advance!

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so I will jump back in and say I disagree on the Briquettes, provided they are the right ones. I've switched to Royal Oak natural briquettes in my Big Green Egg and I love them. Won't use anything else. Unlike lump they burn very even and give me consistent heat without adding any flavor. I will do my 19 Pound Turkey in my XL BGE on Thursday using the Royal Oak along with AppleWood Chips. I tried years ago to do what you suggested and go day before but I wasn't happy with the reheat results. Sucks to get up early but I have the process automated enough now that I have a FlameBoss added to the BGE I can get up, get it started and then take a nap while it smokes

AlistarWills said:

In my case, briquettes = Kingsford I got on a good sale around Memorial Day. I like the Royal Oak product but haven’t seen it in briquette form in my area. It makes very little ash when it burns.

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I use lump now in my Kamado Joe, but I always used regular ole Kingsford when I had my Weber Smoker and never noticed an off taste or anything. It worked like a champ. Only issue was the amount of ash caused temp issues when running it for 12+ hrs. Lump is a cleaner burn.

I realize this isn't an answer to your question, but just wanted to mention I am probably going to get one of these in the near future for cooking a turkey - plus whatever other stuff I decide. I like the overall design, features, & associated benefits it provides.

There are a few different sizes available and looks like Lowes carries them as does Amazon, of course.


Good luck with your Thanksgiving dinner...hope it turns out well!

Bazza you just made my mouth water. Fried turkey is the best turkey. Locks that moisture in esp when brined or injected with butter....

2003TIDE said:

Bazza you just made my mouth water. Fried turkey is the best turkey. Locks that moisture in esp when brined or injected with butter....

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Yeah man...me too! Some of the other videos I watched show them injecting the bird all over before she gets dunked.

I like it smoked or fried the best.
I haven't tried this yet but a former pit master gave me two ideas when smoking pork/poultry:
1) take and soak pecan shells and throw them on the fire
2) take fresh picked apples and throw a few on at a time.
I'm gonna have to try it. In the meantime, I actually like mesquite smoke on mine. Cherry, pecan, peach and apple are good, too.

TIDE-HSV said:

I always injected mine. Fried turkey is the best of all. However, my wife was terrified of the boiler and sold it in a friend's yard sale.* I've done an end run. I've purchased a fried turkey from Tim's Cajun Kitchen here. I just hope it's as good as mine used to be. Your electric fryer looks much safer.

*What colored her opinion was, the first time we saw one fried, two guys bought a fryer to a tailgate we were at. It was their first time. The flame got loose and ran down the hose to the tank and the TFD came. The erstwhile fryers were trying to put it out with water, which is futile. The TFD threw an asbestos blanket over it and smothered it. So, I can't blame her much for being leery. Here's a past frying episode with my SIL supervising me:

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Great photo! Looks like a still from the world's funniest videos - with the "funny" part yet to occur.....

I usually sell smoked turkeys during Thanksgiving and have smoked dozens of them. I've recently sold my smokers so Im taking this year off. This is my process and have received very good reviews from customers over the years.

1) The key to a good turkey (smoked or roasted) is to use a good brine for about 6-8 hours. My wife does our brine and has her own recipe. For the sake of my life I will not share it here (as the poster was about to post said recipe a random red dot appeared on his chest. So, he thought it best not to share :biggrin2.

2) In terms of wood, Ive used a combination of apple, cherry, and hickory. Ive also used straight hickory. Regarding the later, if you know what you're doing it wont overpower it. But, Ive found the combination of the fruit woods with a little hickory to be the best.

3) I coat the turkey in softened butter and put an apple, onion, and butter inside the cavity. Gives it a good flavor. I make a tin foil bowl, place it around the turkey, and leave the top open.

4) Get you some type of meat thermometer. I recommend digital. Once the dark meat (test the thighs) hits 165* pull it off the smoker. It will continue to cook as you take it off due to the bones being the same temp. It often will go up another 10 degrees before it begins to cool down. This is true of chicken on the bone too. This will keep you from drying it out. There is nothing worse than a dry turkey. It's like eating saw dust.

My way is not necessarily the best way but one that I enjoy and have had many customers enjoy them too. Happy Thanksgiving and good luck!

rolltide_21 said:

I usually sell smoked turkeys during Thanksgiving and have smoked dozens of them. I've recently sold my smokers so Im taking this year off. This is my process and have received very good reviews from customers over the years.

1) The key to a good turkey (smoked or roasted) is to use a good brine for about 6-8 hours. My wife does our brine and has her own recipe. For the sake of my life I will not share it here (as the poster was about to post said recipe a random red dot appeared on his chest. So, he thought it best not to share :biggrin2.

2) In terms of wood, Ive used a combination of apple, cherry, and hickory. Ive also used straight hickory. Regarding the later, if you know what you're doing it wont overpower it. But, Ive found the combination of the fruit woods with a little hickory to be the best.

3) I coat the turkey in softened butter and put an apple, onion, and butter inside the cavity. Gives it a good flavor. I make a tin foil bowl, place it around the turkey, and leave the top open.

4) Get you some type of meat thermometer. I recommend digital. Once the dark meat (test the thighs) hits 165* pull it off the smoker. It will continue to cook as you take it off due to the bones being the same temp. It often will go up another 10 degrees before it begins to cool down. This is true of chicken on the bone too. This will keep you from drying it out. There is nothing worse than a dry turkey. It's like eating saw dust.

My way is not necessarily the best way but one that I enjoy and have had many customers enjoy them too. Happy Thanksgiving and good luck!

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well, you can just tell her to do like all respectable southern women do when it comes to recipes. leave out one crucial ingredient or small step. my grandmother and my wife's great aunt were notorious about doing that.