Smoked Turkey Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How to smoke a turkey and keep it moist? ›

You can baste or spritz with chicken broth while smoking the turkey to help keep it moist as well as help crisp up that skin. The butter of this recipe will really get that skin crisp, so the spritzing is more to keep it from drying out.

You can smoke your turkey anywhere between 200 and 275 F/95 to 135 C. There is no real benefit to cooking at a lower temperature than that. You can cook at a higher temperature, but anything above 275 F/135 C isn't going to give the smoky flavor and tenderness you would want from a smoked turkey.

To recap, the secrets to perfectly smoked turkey are: butterflying, dry-brining, adding baking powder to the dry rub, slow-cooking over indirect heat, and careful monitoring of the turkey's internal temperature.

Set the smoker to 225° F. Place the turkey on a cooking rack and cook for 8 to 12 hours or until the inner thigh temperature reaches 180° F. Check the temperature of your turkey after 3½ hours. Your turkey must pass through a critical range of 40° F to 140° F in 4 hours or less.

You only need to coat it with oil before placing it on your smoker or grill. However, if you wet brined the turkey, coat its dried body with oil before applying your dry rub. After covering the turkey with your seasonings, insert your oven-safe wireless thermometer into the thickest part of the turkey thigh.

Completely thaw meat or poultry before smoking. Because smoking uses low temperatures to cook food, the meat will take too long to thaw in the smoker, allowing it to linger in the "Danger Zone" (temperatures between 40 and 140 °F) where harmful bacteria can multiply.

Don't keep opening your smoker to check it

If this is your first time smoking a turkey you'll be tempted to open the lid every 5 minutes to check on it. But you need to let the turkey be, or it will never finish cooking.

Stuffing a Smoked Turkey

I DO NOT recommend stuffing a turkey with dressing before smoking. By the time the inside of the stuffing reaches a safe temperature, the meat of the bird is typically overcooked.

If your turkey's wings are baking too quickly, you can cover them with foil, but otherwise, there's no need. While you're letting it rest, you can tent your turkey in foil for about 15 minutes, but smoking it the whole time in foil is unnecessary and could lead to soggy skin.

Hickory is a classic hard wood choice for smoking turkey for several reasons. It has a distinct flavor that is robust and very forward and is familiar to those who enjoy smoky flavors.

Can you overcook a turkey in a smoker? ›

One of the benefits of smoking a turkey is that it's almost impossible to overcook anything in a smoker. The temperature remains low and the cooking is slow, resulting in perfectly moist and tender meat with a rich, complex flavor.

The best way is to place it on a pan in your refrigerator. A good rule of thumb in determining how long it will take to defrost is one day for every five pounds of turkey. Never defrost anything by just leaving it out at room temperature; it's just not safe!

Water is always important… especially when you are trying to achieve a nice smoke ring for your turkey. Humidity plays a key role in this process as well. You can always achieve the temperatures you are trying to smoke at even with water in the water pan.

I personally like to smoke my turkeys around 275 – 300 degrees for 3 hours. Also, I always recommend spraying the outside of your turkey with cooking spray. This also works to keep the skin crispy and give it that golden-brown color. But to start off with, I always BRINE my turkeys before I smoke them.

Depending on the size of the turkey and how well you control the temperature, you can expect a 14lb turkey to smoke for about 3.5 – 5 hours. The slow cooking and lower temperature help ensure the turkey is not drying out due to excess heat. Remove the turkey when the thermometer reads 155F/68C – 160F/71C.