Friday, November 28, 2008

Thanksgiving Turkey

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. Sheila, Max and I went to my parent's house in Orange, CT for Thanksgiving dinner. I really felt like cooking, so I volunteered to smoke the turkeys. There were going to be 12 of us, so I planned to do two 13 pound turkeys on the WSM.

Brined with apple juice, brown sugar, salt, oranges, pretty much the apple brine recipe from the Virtual Weber Bulletin Board. Spent 24 hours in the brine.



After the brine, the turkeys air dried overnight in the fridge, then it was into a cooler for transport to my parent's house.


Fired up the WSM's, got it up to 325, brushed the turkeys with melted butter and hit it with my seven spice poultry rub and in they went.


After about three and a half hours, pulled them off when the breast hit 160. Held in foil for about an hour, then it was carving time.


The meat was moist, flavorful, delicious.



Complimented with sides of mashed potatoes. sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, mom's sausage stuffing, cranberry sauce and pan gravy, it was an epic feast enjoyed by all. Oh, and we can't forget Cristiaan's appetizers. He made jalapeno poppers, scallops and bacon and baked brie in puffed pastry. Dessert was Mom's pecan and pumpkin pies, along with a killer apple pie made by my sister. It was all awesome, a true team effort. I ate way too much.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great looking turkey and impressive carving job too.

WhiteTrashBBQ said...

Sounds like you got a better result using that brine than I have. It always tastes to me that something's missing.

Look's great and a belated Happy Thanksgiving.

Ted Lorson said...

You know, I really love the flavor of the meat with this recipe, but I don't care for the way the skin comes out. Real rubbery.

I have another turkey in the freezer, going to try something different with it in a few weeks.

Anonymous said...

This turkey looks fantastic, interesting brine recipe!