Smoking A Turkey

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I have a Pellet Grill.

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That's basically an oven, so just turn it on and place the turkey in as you normally would.

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Thinking about smoking a Turkey this year for Thanksgiving. I have a Pellet Grill. If you have any advice for this I’d love to hear it!

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If you are going to smoke it, dry brine it. Plan 24-36 hours before you throw it on to do a mix of 3:1 kosher salt to baking powder.

I wet brine, use a non sugar based rub and smoke hot around 300-325 so the skin gets nice and crispy and you don’t have to worry about burning sugar.

I don’t think you can do it on a pellet but I have an offset and place the legs towards the heat so that they breast hits 155 internal temp about when the dark meat hits 165. It keeps the breast meat real juicy and doesn’t dry it out.

I spatchcocked one last year put it on the pit basted with butter came out great

I spatchcocked one last year and it came out fine.

I want to do one without spatchcocking so that I can cook the stuffing inside the bird. Has anyone ever smoked a turkey with stuffing inside? Any feedback?

I used this Meatchurch method last year with my Traeger and the turkey was a hit but now I’m expected to do it every year.

Meat Church spatchcock turkey

Passed along to me from a buddy. It's a smokin brothers recipe. It's solid. I've used it quite a few times with outstanding results.

10-12lb Turkey
1/2-3/4 cup dry rub of choice
2T olive oil
1 cup Kosher salt or tender quick
2 cups dark brown sugar
1-2 gallon apple juice
2-3 apples
2-3 oranges

1. mix salt, 1 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup dry rub and 1 gallon apple juice in a container large enough to submerge the turkey

2. put the turkey cavity side up in the container and cover turkey with brine completely. I limit to one gallon apple juice and add water as necessary, but you could use the 2nd gallon here if you want to.

3. refrigerate 4 hours to 4 days. rotate turkey daily in the brine. the longer the soak the sweeter the turkey

4.remove turkey from the brine and drain

5. coat turkey with olive oil an season with remaining dry rub

6. quarter apples(remove seeds) and slice oranges leaving peel on

7. place apples and oranges in a mixing bowl and combine with one cup brown sugar then fill cavity of the turkey with fruit/sugar mixture

8. let stand at room temperature for 30-45 min

9 smoke cavity side up for 2 hours at 180-225 degrees.

10. Increase heat to 250-275 and cook until done. I pull when the breast is around 160

11. remove turkey, wrap in foil and rest for 30 min then slice.

This is my go to the last 5 years now. It is a family favorite. You really need to monitor this cook. It can go quickly. I use a wire rack over a pan.

Something like this



I just do a couple of more steps like make exira butter and maple syrup for mopping but I add thyme and sage while i heat up the butter and syrup. I also cook at 300 degrees and pull at 155 degrees and let it rest and finish to 165 degrees. I use Maple pellets

Maple Bourbon Spatchcock Turkey

This is a delicious bird. It's on the sweeter side but tender, moist and flavor all throughout.

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If you are going to smoke it, dry brine it. Plan 24-36 hours before you throw it on to do a mix of 3:1 kosher salt to baking powder.

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I dry brined and smoked a spatchcocked turkey last year over high heat (325 or so degrees). I did not use a water pan. I only used kosher salt (make sure to get up under the skin) for the brine and then rubbed with a non-salt standard BBQ rub. It turned out incredible. The skin was crispy and the meat was succulent.

Yeah I’m thinking the breast may be too dry by time the stuffing is 165F. I may go back to the spatchcock like I did last year, possibly doing what Prof mentioned above.