Smoked Butterflied Turkey – 1st time

Posted on by February 18, 2018

November 22, 2015, Sunday – Weekend before Thanksgiving

11/21/15, Saturday. 4 pm – Butterflied the 11 lb. 9 oz. bird (weight includes neck, internals and fat) and seasoned under the skin and on the olive-oil-coated skin with Meathead’s Simon and Garfunkel rub sans the dried basil–we did not have the basil.

Still do not have grate-and-meat remote reading digital thermometer. Christmas will be here soon. So, below used bi-metalic grate oven thermometer and ThermoWorks instant-read meat thermometer.

11/22/15

  1. 20151122_180123 (1)Lite half a chimney of Blue Bag briquettes and place them in the SNS spread evenly. Poured in more up to near the lip. Added very hot tap water to the slot. Placed three smallish pecan chunks on top of the un-lite briquettes pushing two down to the lite ones. Put the lid on for about 15 minutes until the lid bi-metallic thermometer read 300. [Forgot to put foil over the lower grate to make the air go through the SnS.]
  2. 2:45 pm – Put the turkey on with foil wrapped on the leg ends and the wings below the small drum stick. The wing tip had already been removed. Bottom vent at a crack and top vent at 50%.
  3. 3:30 pm – Checked internal temp with instant read and it rose steadily until it top out at 300 degrees. As no sign of smoke, removed lid and pushed chunk into burning coal. Light wiff of blue smoke began coming from top vent.
  4. 4:00 pm – Dome thermometer would not get back up to 300 so inserted foil on the lower grate that I had forgotten to install.
  5. 4:45 pm. 2 hours – Thighs, with instant read ThermoWorks thermometer, were at 170 and breasts at 145. Rotated the breast toward the SnS. Should have rotated it sooner–maybe at 1.5 hours.
  6. 5:10 pm – No smoke and breasts at 150. Pushed briqettes together.
  7. 5:30 pm – 2 hrs 45 minutes – Legs at 170 and breasts at 155-165. Removed and covered with aluminum foil.
  8. Put chicken thighs on. See separate journal entry.

Notes:

  • Mary liked her thigh and my drumstick was good but seemed a bit dry.
  • Not having the foil over the lower grate to channel the air to the SnS caused it to not get up to 325 early on. So, it was on the grill for 2 hrs and 45 minutes that could have dried it out.
  • Having the grate and full time meat thermometer should make the meat more moist.

 

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