So Halloween is Over, I have way more candy (thanks to my 4 cute kids) than we can possibly eat before Christmas. Now on to my favorite Holiday.....Thanksgiving! Is there a more perfect Holiday tradition than Family, Food, and Football? To top it off there isn't even a huge financial hardship once the tryptophan wears off. Truly my favorite Holiday.
Last year I was convinced that I needed to buy a smoker to properly smoke meats, with Turkey as one of the primary focus of my soon to be purchase. While looking on the internet to search out the best smokers for the best price, I tripped over a few Weber sites that were promoting various Weber kettle conversions. Since I already had a Weber Kettle and some coal baskets I figured I could do basically the same thing as an experiment. Something you should know about me before I continue is that I take Turkey seriously, I don't like deep fried turkey and I have tried it several times with several promises of "it will be great the way I do it".
So for my experiment-
-I have a Weber performer kettle, but a typical kettle will work as well.
-I have two coal baskets like
these.
-I have a Turkey I'll let you decide what is your favorite type/ brand (I have my opinion).
-1 Aluminum Lasagna dish and aluminum foil.
-mesquite coal or similar hard wood coal + smoking wood (apple, hickory, etc..)
- apples, onions, olive oil, rosemary(fresh is best)
How I do it, I fill the coal baskets with lump mesquite and place them on one side of the kettle, I have the top vent on the opposite side of where my coal is stacked. I get the coals going, on my Kettle it has gas assisted start but you can use a chimney starter as well. The best idea is to get a small amount of coals going and place them on top of the unburned coals in your baskets. I also make sure my top rack of my kettle has the lift gate on the side where my coals are so that I can add coal later. Preheat the kettle to 250-300F.
Turkey prep (thawed):
1. Take all the gizzards,giblets etc. out, place turkey in lasagna dish.
2. mix Olive oil, Rosemary, thyme (if you have any) in a bowl and brush on the skin.
3. Put sticks of fresh rosemary just under the skin at various places.
4. chop onions and Apples and place them in the cavities and around the turkey.
5. put a Turkey Thermometer and a pop when its done indicator in the turkey, you will completely cover the turkey in the dish with Foil for the first couple hours and you can decide whether to have the indicators visible over the foil or not.
Cooking/smoking:
- Place turkey just under top vent and on opposite side of coal baskets of your smoker setup, place smoking wood in your coal baskets and fill rest of basket with any coal. You will need to fill you coal baskets every hour while cooking and add one to two chunks of smoking wood as needed. I find every other hour best. Keep the temperature at around 300F up to at most 350F if it goes above or below adjust your vents slowly. It should take about 4-6 hours depending on the size of your turkey. Don't trust the time as much as the Temperature, use the pop out and thermometer more than any visual que. Make sure to baste (I believe in basting) and remove the aluminum foil cover for the last 2 hours, this gives the skin that great color along with the Rosemary and thyme bits on the skin. Also the Onions and Apples should be discarded they only are there to add flavor.
The results- Last Year I was requested to make 3 more Turkey's like this and everyone of them was amazing. Give it a try and see if it doesn't become your tradition. If you're a vegetarian try it with some tofurkey make some adjustments and let me know how it goes.
