Trying to smoke a turkey on Thanksgiving. I didn’t do anything special. I smoked it. And it came out SUPER juicy and the taste was amazing.
I put my 16lb turkey in a simple brine for 1 1/2 days (water, kosher salt, minced garlic, black pepper, brown sugar—didn’t heat up, boil, etc.). Pulled it out, dried it off, and let sit uncovered in a secondary fridge for the next 24 hours. This morning I pulled it out of the fridge, dried off any remaining wetness, stuffed the inside (with chopped apples, celery, carrots, onions, and fresh thyme), spray Pam cooking spray on the whole outside, followed by Killer Hogs AP seasoning. Put it on the pellet grill at 350-380. Rotated it every hour and added some margarine spray when I turned it. Let it cook for just over 4 hrs—internal temp about 160. Was amazing. I’m not sharing this to brag, rather just the opposite—if I can do it, thisss vs should give you hope. Maybe I got lucky, but I don’t think so. I think keeping it simple helped and the end result didn’t taste like it was a simple turkey.