Have a drink on me, ladies and gentleman… I just lost my turkey virginity! Yes, yes – a tad vulgar, but what a wonderful experience it was. This is the very first turkey I’ve ever cooked: smoked, deep fried, roast, what have you ….
My wife decided that she’d like to celebrate the Inauguration with an Inaugural Turkey. So without looking back, I purchased a 12.31 lb. Nature’s Choice frozen turkey.
After playing a game of catch with the frozen turkey with my son in the backyard (“go long!”), I started the defrosting process. Shall I bore you with the day to day details of this process? Here ya’ go:
Day 1: Frozen
Day 2: Still frozen
Day 3: Still freakin’ frozen
Day 4: Unbelievable.. this turkey is one solid hunk o’ turkey ice…
Day 5: Take a guess….. Bzzzzzzz.. Wrong: still frozen
Day 6: Getting a tad mushy
You get the picture. I think I could have repainted the Sistine Chapel in less time than it took for this bird to “chill-out” (so to speak).
I devoured the Turkey 101 page (Thanks, Smokin’ !!) and decided to try the “J Appledog” turkey brine recipe. Wow…ummm… what an..ummm…”aromatic” brine solution. I ended up brining the turkey for just over three days. I believe I must have forced the evacuation of the mouse population in my garage during this time. With this wonderful frigid weather we’ve been having in the Washington, DC area , it was easy to keep the bird cold in the garage, soaking away in my official turkey brining plastic bag (thanks, Amazon…).
Rub: I didn’t get too adventuresome with the rub. I ended up using the Cookshack Spicy Chicken rub. I was able to figure out how to get the spice *under* the skin – that was kinda neat.
Injection: I followed one of the simple recipes that Smokin’ outlines on the Turkey 101 page: butter, honey, white wine and garlic powder. My daughter commented on how good that smelled as I was heating it up. (Hmmm.. would a fifteen year old daughter be *sarcastic* to her old man?.. Hard to tell. ) … Actually… it did smell very good.
I coated the skin of the turkey with some butter and then layed a butter-soaked cheese cloth over the bird.
All set.
I loaded up my new SM009 with 4 ounces of apple and set it to 250 degreees.
Four hours and thirty-six minutes later, I pulled the bird from the smoker when it reached 162 degrees (in the breast). Boy… talk about some kind of wonderful. Whoo whee!! The dogs were going nuts when I pulled it from the smoker. They tried weaseling their way in to lick up some of the frozen fat drippings. (Is it stalagtite ? Or stalagmite … I can never remember).
The turkey was ridiculously good. As I was carving it up, my seventeen year old son was hovering, snagging bits and pieces. He must have had two servings of meat just standing there at the counter.
Thanks to the group for all the wonderful directions, recipes and insight!
Joshua in Laytonsville, MD
SM009
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