1st time smoking a turkey

Dave58

First time trial smoking a turkey and this forum helped me out a lot.  I was able to smoke the turkey to where everyone enjoyed it and ate it up.  The dark meat was perfect and the breast meat was a little over done but not dry.  It was a 12# turkey which I brined in a salt and spice solution for about 20 hours. I dried it for a couple of hours and applied a dry rub on it which is mostly paparika and brown sugar. Stuffed an onion and a some celery in it and smoked it for 4 hours at 275 degrees. I did face the bird legs to the back which I learned to do reading this forum.  I was advised who ate the turkey to smoke another one Thanksgiving. 

NorthPilot06

Looks like you nailed it!  It’s always a sign of success when you’re asked to repeat your cooks. 

And welcome to the forum!  

lousubcap

Welcome aboard and enjoy the journey.  Above all, have fun.
Way to jump right in with that turkey cook.  Most eggcellent.  

1voyager

Looking amazing. What wood chunks did you use?

WeberWho

Isn't that a great feeling when asked to do the turkey. It took a few years to convince my mom that I had the turkey covered. It only took that one time and now I'm on turkey duty. I made two turkeys for Thanksgiving last year as I wanted to inject one of them. I didn't want to make any turkey purists mad with injecting so I also smoked a plain one. The injected turkey was a carcass by the time everything was done. I'm thinking plain oven turkey is a thing of the past. 

Your bird looks fantastic and sound like you may be stuck cooking turkeys for years to come! Not like it's a bad thing. 

WeberWho

Welcome by the way!!!

Dave58

Thanks everyone. I used hickory chunks cause that’s what I had. 

rtgurley

Mad Max suggests taking a bag of ice and placing it on the breast of the turkey for about 20 minutes before putting on the egg.  This will give the dark meat a head start and keep the breast from drying out.  Alot of people here swear by the Mad Max method, I have not had the opportunity to try it yet.  IMO, if you have fans of the current method there is no reason to change for the sake of changing.

mEGG_My_Day

Well done and welcome to the forum. 

Mickey

I am retired and don't have 4 hours to do a turkey. I like direct / raised at 400/425 and your bird will be done in app 90 mins.  Oh, hold way back on the wood please.