Smoked Turkey

This is not your usual smoked turkey recipe, this is a very slow-smoked cured turkey that will be the juiciest turkey you have ever had with a mellow smoky taste throughout, and not just on the surface. Your family and friends will rave about it.

This obsession started back in 1986 when my sister brought home a real smoked turkey for Thanksgiving and since that day we have been hooked on them. The first few years we did small birds for Thanksgiving on a cheap "Little Chief" smoker and have since moved up to a "Sausage Maker" 20# smoker that has been modified with the stainless steel base. We now do multiple turkeys ever year throughout the fall and winter for family and friends.

*When smoking at such low temperatures product safety is a MUST, always buy the freshest meats you can get your hands on, keep your brine below 38 degrees at all times and never allow the bird to warm towards room temperatures when prepping the meat and getting it ready for the brine. We always make the brine up a day ahead of time and keep it in the fridge for 24 hours to cool, just to make sure when we put the bird in there that we are not entering the danger zone which is anything above 40 degrees. Making the brine ahead of time also allows the sugars and salts to fully dissolve. We have found the best container for brining a turkey is a cheap plastic 5 gallon bucket from "Home Depot", just make sure you thoroughly clean and sanitize it before each use. The use of "Insta-cure" is mandatory in this recipe!!!

Turkey!!

Our first smoked turkey of the fall as we start into the winter smoking season!!

This bird started out at 18#, spent five days in a brine, rinsed, netted-up and allowed to drip dry before putting in the smoker at 170' for 28 hours, it turned out awesome!!!
As the season gets underway we will start posting the recipes and more pictures of the different products we smoke, including summer sausage and our "famous" smoked kielbasa sausage!!