How to smoke the Thanksgiving turkey in 5 hours. So easy, and frees up the oven so you can get the rest of the meal done on time!
I actually smoked this the day before Thanksgiving, since we’re eating so early this year. (Didn’t want to start the smoker at 5 am.) Smoked meats are GREAT the next day, so don’t be afraid to cook yours a day early. Keep it loosely covered in the fridge until ready to serve or reheat. Good luck getting it to the table without a few missing pieces though – everyone will want to sneak a sample.
With a forecast high of 87°F for Thanksgiving this year, I decided it was a great time to try smoking our bird. No special prep, no brine, no crazy rub recipe. Just a nice fresh 20 pound hen with a simple rub of salt, pepper, paprika, brown sugar and poultry seasoning.
It got too dark to finish the video in one take, so check for part 2, which will show the finished turkey and show how I used the drippings and removed fat to make 2 different gravies.
Of course we all cheated and sampled a little meat as soon as it came out of the smoker – it was delicious. The cherry wood gives it a smooth, subtle smoke flavor that pairs very well with an otherwise traditional Thanksgiving meal. Any fruit wood, like apple, apricot, plum, etc. would be a good choice.
Directions: Fire up smoker to high and allow it to pre-heat while you season the turkey. Trim extra skin / fat from the bird, which can be cooked down in a pan on low heat and used in roux for gravy. Load the seasoned bird into the smoker, fill the water pan, and watch the temp as it drops – you want to settle in right around 325°F so adjust the burner as necessary to maintain this temp. Load the wood now – loading it while preheating will just make a ton of smoke. Keep the water pan full at all times and check smoker temps at least every half hour. About an hour in, the turkey will really start to drip – this is a great time to throw in an extra water pan to catch the drippings for gravy. Add some water to this pan first, so the drippings won’t burn. (The main water pan is usually too dirty and too close to the flame, so just use a 2nd pan.)
At 325°F, the turkey should take about the same amount of time in the smoker as it would in your oven. My 20 pound un-stuffed bird took about 5 hours. If you used sugar in your rub, the skin may look pretty dark at this point, but will NOT be dried out or burned at all as long as you’ve kept an eye on the temperature and water pan. I used a meat thermometer starting about 3.5 hours in to check the temps. I pulled the bird when it reached 180°F in the thickest part of the thigh, but anything over 165°F should be safe. Allow the turkey to sit an hour (or overnight) before carving and serving.
For gravy, make a giblet & vegetable stock and use the drippings from the 2nd water pan (smoky gravy) or the fat you cooked down from the extra skin removed before smoking (not smoky gravy) in your roux. Or, like me, you can use both fats to serve 2 different gravies.
Happy Thanksgiving!
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