Monday, October 15, 2012

Brian's Smoked Turkey Experiment

 Ever since Brian got a meat smoker for his birthday he's been wanting to try to smoke a turkey in it.  So he bought a thawed bird from the grocery store, prepped it, and stuffed and seasoned it.  The kids enjoyed it when he flapped the turkey's arms and legs as if it were alive.

Then he got his smoker ready and placed the bird in it.  You can see the seasoning on it.

He put in hickory wood and smoked the turkey for 5 hours.  It made lots of yummy smelling smoke.  It cooked at temperatures between 200 and 250 degrees that whole time.  After 5 hours it was 10-20 degrees shy of the recommended 165 internal temperature.

So then he brought it inside and cooked it another 30-45 minutes until it got up to the proper internal temperature and the red button popped out.  The kids were amazed that turkeys grow up with a red button in them (Brian didn't exactly tell them the truth).

The outer skin of the turkey got fairly burnt while in the smoker but once you peeled it off the meat itself was just fine.

Here's the turkey meat he managed to strip off of the bones.  It wasn't a large turkey so there wasn't tons of meat to extract.  It was quite good Brian thought.  Angela liked it but not as much as Brian did.  He thinks he'd need to tweak the seasoning a bit the next time he tries it.  He's been dreaming of cooking the Thanksgiving turkey in his smoker.  Maybe someday...

1 comment:

Mary said...

Kent got a smoker grill a year ago in a business trade. We both love the idea of a smoked Thanksgiving turkey, but I will have to be the one to figure out how to make it as he will be eating smoked carne asada in Mexico (his favorite Thanksgiving meal)!