BBQ Smoked Turkey Recipe
Smoked Turkey seasoned with Killer Hogs The BBQ Rub, glazed with barbecue sauce and served with a White BBQ Sauce. For this BBQ Turkey, it’s not about those traditional Thanksgiving Flavors… it’s all about creating juicy, flavorful, delicious BBQ pulled turkey. Then I make a white BBQ sauce to serve alongside. This is one turkey recipe that’s great year round. I brine a whole turkey for 48 hrs in my Bird Brine combined with Killer Hogs The BBQ Rub and apple juice. After a 2 day soak the skin is air dried for an hour in the refrigerator then I stuff the cavity with citrus fruit and green apples. The skin gets a light coating of peanut oil and dusted with The BBQ Rub. It’s a lot like smoking a whole chicken but on a much larger scale!
You can smoke the turkey on any pit, but my Traeger makes a beautiful bird; so I fired it up running at 300°F with apple pellets for smoke flavor.
Once the Traeger was ready, the bird goes right on the center rack. It takes about 3 1/2 hours for a turkey this size to smoke, so kick back and enjoy the process. After an hour I start basting the outside with melted butter, and I start monitoring the internal temperature. For this I use a Themoworks DOT Meat Probe into the thickest part of the breast.
First the Thermoworks DOT is set for 155 and when the temp alarm goes off its time to glaze the turkey. Use a silicone brush and drizzle the sauce over the skin without touching the turkey too much. Close the lid and keep cooking until the internal reaches 165°F in the breast. It should take about 30 minutes to get there.
The turkey is done at this point but needs to rest for at least 15 minutes before carving. To serve it I like to pull the whole bird.
Fist I remove the legs, carve off the breast and finally the thighs and wings. Use a pair of cotton gloves underneath nitrile gloves and pull the meat apart by hand just like pulled pork. You’ll end up with about 4-5lbs of pulled meat.
I serve it with my White BBQ Sauce buy it’s great with any bbq sauce. It goes great with pulled pork as another option and it gives you an opportunity to cook turkey year round!
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BBQ Smoked Turkey Recipe
Description
Smoked Turkey seasoned with Killer Hogs The BBQ Rub, glazed with barbecue sauce and served with a White BBQ Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 whole turkey 12-14lbs
- 1 cup Malcom’s Bird Brine
- 1 cup Killer Hogs The BBQ Rub
- 1 gallon Apple juice
- 1 green apple
- 1 orange
- 1 lemon
- 1 lime
- 2–3 Tablespoons Peanut Oil
- 1 stick butter melted
Malcom’s White BBQ Sauce Recipe:
- 2 cups Mayo
- ½ cup Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1 Tablespoon Course Ground Black Pepper
- 1 Tablespoon Granulated Garlic
- 1 Tablespoon Sugar
- 1 teaspoon Horseradish (optional)
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- ½ teaspoon Ground Cayenne Pepper
- Juice from 2 Lemons
- Whisk the ingredients in a large bowl and store in the refrigerator for a few hours before serving.
Instructions
- Remove neck and giblets from turkey and place in a meat bag or large container. Pour in 1 cup of Bird Brine and 1 cup Killer Hogs The BBQ Rub. Add apple juice and extra water if necessary to cover bird. Squeeze air out of bag and secure. Place in refrigerator for 48 hrs.
- Remove turkey from brine and rinse under cool water, pat the skin dry with paper towel and place bird on a raised rack over a sheet pan to air dry for 1 hour in the refrigerator
- Prepare Traeger pellet smoker or other grill for indirect cooking at 300 degrees using apple pellets for smoke flavor.
- Stuff the cavity of the turkey with the fruit cut into quarters. Tie the legs together with butcher twine.
- Coat the skin with peanut oil and season the turkey with The BBQ Rub on all sides.
- Place the turkey breast side up on the pit and cook until internal temperature hits 155°F in the breast. Baste with melted butter as needed.
- Once the breast internal hits 155°F glaze the outside with The BBQ Sauce and continue to cook until internal temp hits 165°F in the breast about 20-30 minutes.
- Rest the turkey for 15 minutes before carving. For bbq turkey I like to serve it pulled but you an also serve it sliced.
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The best time and be happy.
Thank You!
Just started watching today! Love what I’ve seen– learned so far. Will be following ????????????????????⚘
This sounds really great will t
Sounds really great will try this on my next bird
Hi Malcom,
Again, great recipe!
Love to watch and copy your work.
On a home made UDS, weber or Bastard: everytime succesfull.
This weekend pork belly, low&slow.
Cheers, from the other side of the ocean.
Stay safe!
Stef
The Netherlands
★★★★
I’ve tried roasting a turkey and whole chickens a few times in my BGE. I always pull the bird off at around 165-175 in the breast. Any ideas why the texture of the meat is rubbery?
Flavour is always top notch and moisture too. The same thing happened when I did wings one time.
Hi Malcom. Just bought my first smoker(OK Joe’s Bronco) and have been searching the interweb for how to’s and recipes. You popped up and are from my growing up area. I grew up in Horn Lake. I will be sure to follow you and get tips from you. I’m going to try your smoked turkey recipe on my next smoke and I’ll let you know how it turns out.
Bird brine ?? Please explain ?
Okay didn’t see any comments on here vouching for this recipe, just that they want to try it.
I just made this our Thanksgiving bird and hands down it’s the best turkey we’ve ever had. This plus the sauce blew everybody away.
Don’t have a Treager, but kept a charcoal and apple wood log pit going in the 275-325 range. Done in about 4 hours.
For the sauce I used a few cloves of freshly roasted garlic that I blended in with the rest. Don’t know how it compares to the original, but I was in love with this recipe.
Doing everything exactly the same next time.
★★★★★