There are many ways of preparing your turkey however the most delicious and tasty way is smoking it. Surprisingly, many people do not seem to be used to this technique due to their perception of the food smoking process being long and complicated.
To start with, smoking a turkey is a quite easy task to accomplish as the processes involved are quite basic and easy to implement for anyone.
Don’t worry; you don’t have to be a chef to pull this through! When it comes to smoking your turkey, you have a variety of options as you could make use of a fresh turkey or a frozen turkey; although in the case of a frozen turkey, it is advisable to thaw it before use.
Whether you are celebrating Thanksgiving or a regular get together for family and friends; knowledge of how to prepare smoked turkey always comes in handy.
Contents
How do I begin?
The first step is getting prepared to make things easier and I collect ingredients first.
Source: YouTube
Ingredients to use
The following are the basic ingredients that would be necessary for use in preparing turkey marinade.
- 13 pound thawed the whole turkey
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic
- 2 tablespoons seasoned salt
- 1/2 cup butter
- 24 ounces of coca cola
- 1 large apple (quartered)
- 1 large onion (quartered)
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon ground pepper
- 1 tablespoon salt
Clean and dress the turkey
The first thing to do is to clean up the turkey that would be used. Whether you will be using fresh or frozen turkey; this is a necessary hygienic precaution to take to ensure the turkey is hygienic and rid of any dirt on and within it.
While cleaning, ensure to remove the gizzard, neck and internal parts of the turkey as this is not to be smoked with the turkey.
These parts can be disposed of or may be used for gravy depending on your preference. When this is done, clean the turkey and make it dry.
The essence of this is to ensure that the season that would be added to the turkey when it is placed in the electric smoker will stick to it and marinate well with the turkey.
Source: Leite’s Culinaria
Seasoning
This is a very important aspect of the preparation. If you get it right here, there is a chance smoking turkey might join your list of hobbies.
Creativity is welcomed when it comes to seasoning, as you will use different seasoning for the outer and the inner parts of the turkey.
Minced garlic and seasoned salt are great additives to use for the outer parts of the turkey. Minced garlic and seasoned salt are recommended for their refreshing taste when applied when baking meat products.
The real creativity mentioned earlier comes into play with the seasoning for the inside. Apple, onion, butter is to be added to the internal parts.
Apple or cola are optional as they only exist as sweeteners. Butter and onion, on the other hand, provide oils and a ravishing smell to the turkey while also improving the taste of it.
Smoked turkey is bound to taste good on its own hence you do not need a whole lot of seasoning just to make it sweet. The more conservative you are the better it is when it comes to getting a great taste from your turkey.
If you want to test your creativity and add more spice to your smoked turkey, you might want to consider using spices such as oregano, parsley, thyme, and kosher salt, black pepper and paprika.
You do not have to add all of this to the turkey as it may be excessive hence you may select from the list and create a new recipe with them.
Source: Home Is A Kitchen
Have an Electric Smoker?
When it comes to smoking your turkey, an electric smoker is the best. The best temperature to properly cook a turkey is 250 degrees Fahrenheit.
It is difficult to stipulate a specific duration for the cooking of a turkey as the size of the turkey is the major determining factor. The best formula to ascertain the duration for the cooking of a turkey is to devote 30 minutes per pound, hence how many pounds the turkey weighs multiplied by 30 minutes will be the right duration it should spend in the smoker although you may check it at intervals to turn it or to ensure it is cooking appropriately.
While checking on the turkey, you can baste with butter or vegetable oil just to ensure that it doesn’t lose its moistness while in the cooker.
Preheat the smoker
It is helpful to preheat the smoker to be used as it presents the right conditions for the turkey to be properly cooked. Furthermore, it is necessary to oil the pan or the foil paper that the turkey will be placed on prior to its placement in the smoker. This will make it easy to remove from the surface when it is done and prevent it from sticking.
Source: Away From the Box
Basting the turkey
Let’s be frank, it’s not easy to smoke turkey without checking on it at intervals to add oil to it to prevent it from drying up. Curiosity would not let you leave it alone for the entire duration that it is meant to cook especially when you are preparing a meal for several people.
Oil spray and chicken stock are great for basting or you could make use of apple juice. The essence of putting a considerable time gap between basting the turkey is that opening the smoker incessantly tends to make the temperature of the smoker to drop by about 10 degrees and this could elongate the specified time by which the turkey is naturally expected to be done.
However, it is best that you set a time interval at which you baste the turkey. You can check on it after one hour after it was placed in the smoker for the first time then subsequently you can check on it after 50 minutes to baste it till it is done.
Get to know more about food smokers and the recipes, click here.
