Smoked Turkey

This last Thanksgiving was at the Los Angeles City Firehouse 61. 

My son-in-law, Stan, was on duty.  My wife, Kim, and our daughter, Katie, and I were invited to the pot luck.

Four of the guys at the firehouse and myself each cooked a turkey.  To give everyone some variety we all cooked them differently.

I've done a lot of turkeys over the years.  Usually they were baked in the oven and a few were even deep fried, but this year I decided to smoke one.

After defrosting the turkey in the refrigerator I gave it a wash then dried it with paper towels.  Now for the brine.

And not just any brine but one by Emeril Lagasse because I wanted to kick it up a notch.

In a large plastic bag I put one gallon of cold water, 2 minced jalapenos with their seeds, 2 oranges cut in half, 3/4 cup of fresh orange juice, 1 cup of lemon juice, 1 cup of chopped yellow onions, 1 cup of light brown sugar, 1 cup of kosher salt, 1/4 cup of chopped fresh cilantro leaves, 2 tablespoons of chopped garlic, 1 tablespoon of chili powder, 1 tablespoon of cumin, 1 teaspoon of dried Mexican oregano, and finally 1 tablespoon of Emeril's Original Essence.  BAM!

After mixing it all together I put mister turkey in the bag, sealed it up, and put it in the refrigerator for 3 days.  Twice a day I would turn the turkey over ensure it was evenly marinated.  I'm never really happy with the white meat on a turkey.  It's usually too dry with not much taste.  That's why I did the brine for 3 days.  Turkey skin is pretty thick and I wanted to make sure the marinate penetrated all the way in.

Thanksgiving morning I took the turkey out of the brine and wrapped it in bacon.  That's right, bacon.

I had planned to smoke it at home nice and slow for about 8 hours.  The problem is we were going to leave for the firehouse at 1:00 pm.  That means it had to go in the smoke at 4:30 am.  Gee, this sure sounded like a good idea the night before.

So there I am at 3:30 in the morning, a shot of Jameson in my coffee, getting the charcoal going.  I had one pan of cherry wood chips soaked in apple juice for the smoke and another pan of apple juice for the steam.

I had the smoke going the entire time and kept the heat between 200 and 225 degrees.  After 7 hours I took the bacon off and threw it away.  That was a heart breaker.  Throwing away bacon.  

For the last hour I increased the heat to 275 degrees.

At 8 hours and 20 minutes I had 165 degrees on my instant read thermometer.  I put the turkey in a covered roasting pan and we were on the road.



There was a lot of food.  Everybody brought something and it was all great.  All 5 turkeys got great reviews.  I was really happy with mine.  The white meat was very moist and had the flavor of the marinate and the smoke.

And, yes, twice during dinner the alarm went off and the guys headed out with lights and sirens.  But that's the nature of the business.