Smoked Maple Barbecue Turkey

What You’ll Need

• 11-12 lb turkey (minimally processed with 8% or less solution added)
• Maple turkey brine (recipe below)
• Brining container or zip top bag
• Maple Syrup
• Jeff’s rub (purchase at smoking-meat.com)
• Maple barbecue mop sauce
• Shallow foil pan (optional)

Brine the Turkey
Without going into a lot of science about why you should ALWAYS brine poultry and especially the Thanksgiving turkey, let me just say that if you ever try it one time, you will probably never skip this step again.

Meat tends to dry out some as it is being cooked. Brining adds extra water into the meat causing the end result to be less dry/more juicy than it would be if you decided to skip this step.

What is brining?
Brining is simply soaking the meat (turkey, chicken, etc.) in a salty solution for a certain amount of time. Some sort of chemical reaction happens and the water is drawn into the meat where it gets trapped within the protein strands. This process results in a product that is a lot more juicy and if you happen to add other things into the water such as maple syrup, juices, wines, flavorings, herbs, etc, the essence of each ingredient gets pulled into the meat with the water affecting the flavor in a very good way.

How to Brine the Turkey
First, make the brine

Maple Turkey Brine Recipe
Note: you may need to double or triple this recipe depending on the size of your brining container. As long as your turkey fits, the smaller the better in my opinion.

• 1 gallons water
• 1 cup of kosher salt (coarse)
• 12 oz of real maple syrup
• 2 TBS of Jeff’s Rub (purchase recipes here)

Place a quart of the water in a pot over medium heat and add the maple syrup and rub to the water to help it melt and mix together better. Stir for about 3-4 minutes then remove from the heat and let it cool to room temperature.

Tip: do this step ahead of time so you’re not stuck waiting on it.

Put the 3 quarts of cool, unheated water into a gallon sized pitcher and mix in the salt. Stir until the salt has completely dissolved.

Add the heated mixture to the salted water

You need a food safe plastic/glass or other non-reactive container large enough to hold the turkey and enough brine to cover.

Remove the turkey from it’s packaging and remove any “gifts” that are stuffed down inside of the cavity.
Ingredients

• 11-12 lb turkey (minimally processed with 8% or less solution added)
• Maple turkey brine (recipe below)
• Brining container or zip top bag
• Maple Syrup
• Jeff’s rub
• Maple barbecue mop sauce (recipe below)
• Shallow foil pan (optional)

Directions:

Brine the Turkey
1. First, make the brine
2. Maple Turkey Brine Recipe: 1 gallons water, 1 cup of kosher salt (coarse), 12 oz of real maple syrup, 2 TBS of Jeff’s Rub
3. Place a quart of the water in a pot over medium heat and add the maple syrup and rub to the water to help it melt and mix together better.
4. Stir for about 3-4 minutes then remove from the heat and let it cool to room temperature..
5. Put the 3 quarts of cool, unheated water into a gallon sized pitcher and mix in the salt. Stir until the salt has completely dissolved.
6. Add the heated mixture to the salted water
7. You need a food safe plastic/glass or other non-reactive container large enough to hold the turkey and enough brine to cover.
8. Remove the turkey from it’s packaging and remove any “gifts” that are stuffed down inside of the cavity.
9. Place the turkey in the brining container
10. Pour enough brine over the turkey to cover it. If the turkey tries to float, put a heavy plate on top of it to hold it under the water.
11. I recommend using a smaller container if possible and placing the container in the fridge for optimum cooling. Add a bag or two of ice to help keep the water at less than 40°F if it will not fit in the fridge.
12. Leave the turkey in the brine for 10-12 hours or overnight.
13. When the turkey is finished brining, rinse it well under cold water to remove any residual salt on the surface of the meat.

Season the Turkey
1. Since we are going with a maple theme this year, it only seems fitting to use maple syrup as our base to help the rub to stick.
2. I placed the turkey in a baking pan to catch the mess.. yep, I don’t like cleanup!
3. Pour the maple syrup all over the turkey.
4. Use a silicon brush or your hands to get it all over.
5. Sprinkle Jeff’s rub all over the turkey
6. For a little extra flavor, work your hands down under the skin of the turkey and try to get some maple syrup and rub in there.
7. At this point the turkey is ready to go in the smoker.

Get the Smoker Ready
1. You can use practically any smoker (even the grill) to cook the Thanksgiving turkey this year as long as you can maintain a range between about 220 and 250°F using indirect heat.
2. Preheat the smoker/grill and once it is maintaining about 240°F , you are ready to smoke!

Smoke the Thanksgiving Turkey
1. Place the turkey directly on the grate breast side up, or if you want to keep the smoker a little cleaner, you can leave the turkey on the baking sheet.
2. If you are using a smoker that has multiple levels, you can place the turkey on a Bradley rack to make it easy to transport it to the smoker and then back into the house once it’s finished. Multiple levels allow you to place a pan on a lower rack to catch the syrup and turkey juices.
3. I used pecan wood for this turkey but almost any fruit wood or a mix of pecan and fruit wood such as apple, plum, or cherry, would be great.
4. Let the turkey smoke for about 2 hours without touching it.
5. At the 3 hour mark begin mopping the bird with the maple barbecue mop sauce every hour
6. Maple Barbecue Mop Sauce: 6 oz maple syrup, 2 heaping TBS of Jeff’s original rub
7. Heat the maple syrup in the microwave then add the rub. Mix well then continuously mix while using.
8. Use a silicon brush or basting mop to apply the mop sauce to the top, sides, legs and wings of the turkey.

When is the Turkey Done?
1. I highly recommend using a good digital probe meat thermometer to monitor the temperature of the turkey while it cooks.
2. Turkey breast which is white meat cooks a little differently than the darker meat found in the legs and wings and it is important to find the happy medium between getting the two meats perfectly done.
3. I usually go with the breast temperature and as long as both the white breast meat and the legs are at least 165°F , I call the turkey done.
4. I recommend 165°F simply because I believe that’s the optimum temperature based on my experience.

Rest the Turkey
1. I recommend allowing the turkey to rest after it is done cooking. During this time, the juices settle back down in the meat and are less prone to spurt out when you cut into it.
2. When I go out to get the finished turkey, I usually take a large roasting pan lined with foil and a lid. The turkey goes from the smoker into the roasting pan and the lid is quickly placed on top to preserve the heat.
3. When I get it into the house, I allow it to sit on the cabinet for about 20-30 minutes before removing/carving the meat.

Carving the Smoked Turkey
1. I start by removing the legs and wings.This gives me good access to cut slices of the breast meat.
2. I recommend placing the dark meat and white meat in separate piles so folks can get what they want without having to dig around for it.