Ultimate Thanksgiving Turkey Recipe

Introduction

Turkey, often the staple of family & holiday gatherings the world over, need not be the hassle that the term “turkey dinner” may bring to mind. No all-day oven bakes, no risky turkey deep fryers. No overcooked cardboard turkey meat. Turkey shouldn’t have to be drenched in gravy to be edible. Juicy breast meat (yes, believe us, it’s very possible and very easy), crispy skin, and juicy-yet-not-slimy leg and thigh meat. With your kettle grill and two-zone cooking (the Slow ’N Sear makes it set-it-and-forget-it) you can easily have the most perfect tasting turkey you’ve ever made. And you don’t even have to smoke it, but you sure can if you choose to.

Ultimate Turkey Frequently Asked Questions

 

Practice makes perfect. Before you get started, we suggest one of two things:

We suggest one of two things:

1) Practice cooking a turkey now, before your big day or

2) Practice on a whole chicken if you haven’t already. Chickens are relatively inexpensive and oh so delicious when done properly. To see our whole chicken technique page, click here.

Prep Turkey For Thanksgiving

To begin with, we’ll refer you to the outdoor cooking encyclopedia that is AmazingRibs.com and let you soak up some ‘knowledge gravy’ on Meathead’s Ultimate Turkey page. Here you’ll learn how big of a turkey to select for your dinner, how long and how best to thaw a frozen turkey, how to prep the turkey and salt it, what it means to “spatchcock” and how to do it, what to put on the skin, how to use the drippings to make a gravy, as well as numerous other tips, tricks and ideas. Then come back here and we’ll tailor your cook to your kettle and Slow ‘N Sear.

How To Brine A Turkey

Salting the meat is a huge step that cannot be skipped. Salting obviously adds flavor, but it helps the meat hold onto more moisture as it cooks. Turkey breasts tend to be dry since the meat is so lean, so we want to make sure we give it all the help we can to be a juicy pleasing meal.

Important: Look for the sodium content on the Nutrition Facts label. If the sodium content is 200mg or below, proceed with dry brining (discussed below). If it’s 300mg or higher, skip the dry brine. Especially if the package says it’s “enhanced”, “moisture enhanced”, “injected”, “basted”, or “self-basting”, make sure to check the sodium content before salting!

“Basted”, “self-basting”, “enhanced”, etc. are terms that mean it’s been salted at the processing plant, and they can legally be injected with a salt and water solution of up to 9% or more of the turkey’s weight. Just how much of that 9% solution is salt, no one knows. This is why we recommend checking the sodium content on the label.

Even if your bird is labeled “all natural” (as we see above) or “organic”, they could still be pre-salted, since after all salt & water are natural! If you find this to be the case in your supermarket, as many do, limit the dry brine or wet brine. You can add some salt to the surface of the meat, but it’s best not to risk over-salting your turkey.

Now, if we find a turkey that’s not been injected with a salt solution or has a sodium content under 200mg then we can proceed with a brine.

Dry Brine

We like to dry brine the bird generously, at least overnight if not 24 full hours. Dry brining is less messy, less wasteful, and just as effective. Cover the bird inside & out with up to ½ teaspoon of coarse Kosher salt per pound of meat. If you need a low sodium turkey cut that # at least in half. If your turkey is 12 pounds, this means you’ll use 6 full teaspoons of coarse Kosher salt spread evenly over the entire turkey inside and out. Create a safe zone in your fridge so there’s no cross-contamination. Let it sit in the refrigerator uncovered. This will aid in drying the skin and lead to a crispier final product. If you do not have access to coarse Kosher salt, you can use regular table salt, but use half the amount, ¼ teaspoon table salt per pound of meat. There is no harm in letting the turkey sit longer once dry brined. The salt you add to the surface of the meat is the only salt that will be in the meat. You could let it sit in the fridge for 2 days if you choose to. Watch for and prevent drips so as not to contaminate other foods. Setting on a rack in a pan to allow for airflow yet catch drips is a great way to dry brine in open refrigerator air safely.

Wet Brine

A wet brine is also an option, but can be more cumbersome with a large turkey. If you’d like to do a wet brine, we suggest a very simple & delicious poultry brine of 1 gallon fresh cold water, 1 cup table salt, and 1 cup white sugar. Stir to dissolve. Don’t worry about adding herbs to the wet brine, they will do nothing at this stage. We’ll add them later where they’ll actually do some good. Use enough liquid so that the turkey is submerged in the bucket or brining bag you choose. If only a little pokes out, just rotate the turkey every 30 minutes or so. If 1 gallon is just not enough, scale up by using the same proportions. Brine the turkey about 3 or 4 hours. We do not recommend you wet brine overnight. The longer it wet brines, the more salt it will pull out of the brine into the meat, and this can over salt the turkey. Again, practicing will tell you exactly how you prefer it.

How To Season A Turkey

Below is the Simon & Garfunkel rub recipe. This is our go-to turkey rub. If you have your own favorite rub, use that instead.

Simon and Garfunkel Rub

• 1 tablespoon dried crushed parsley
• 2 tablespoons dried crushed sage
• 1 tablespoon dried crushed rosemary
• 1 tablespoon dried crushed thyme
• 1 tablespoon dried crushed oregano
• 1 tablespoon dried crushed basil
• 1 tablespoon dried crushed bay leaf
• 1 tablespoon ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon sugar

Mix all ingredients in a bowl then add to a grinder/blender. Pulse the grinder/blender a few times until the ingredients are coarsely ground.

How To Cook A Thanksgiving Turkey

Now, let’s apply all of your turkey cooking knowledge to your Slow ‘N Sear!

As with chicken, turkey is best cooked hotter than your typical barbecue meats. Whether you intend to smoke the turkey or not, we will recommend to you a minimum cooking temp of 325° F. If your grate temp rises to 340° or even 350°, don’t be alarmed. The hotter the cook, the crispier the skin and typically the juicier the meat. The skin can darken and shrink when cooked too hot though, so balance is necessary. We prefer chicken and turkey to cook in the area of 340° F, while maintaining a minimum of at least 325° F. Too much time over 350° F or 360° F can result in a less visually-appealing turkey, but the meat will still be delicious as long as the proper finishing temps are followed. To get to this optimal poultry temp with your Slow ‘N Sear, please refer to our hot & fast 325 F lighting technique.

When spatchcocked (butterflied), the average 4-6 lb chicken takes from 75 to 90 minutes at a cooking temp of 330°-340° F. A turkey being bigger and thicker will naturally take longer, so expect about 2 hrs if the turkey is spatchcocked and fully thawed. Larger turkeys could even take 3-4 hrs. Most importantly, we cook to temp, not time. We recommend spatchcocking or butterflying the bird since this method allows even cooking on the inside and outside simultaneously and drastically reduces total cook time. A whole, intact, bird can still be cooked, but the time will increase as the interior cavity gets less heat and airflow.

A spatchcocked turkey up to 20 lbs can be cooked on the 22” kettle in the indirect zone, and up to 30 lbs on a 26” kettle. It’s best if the turkey does not touch the walls of the kettle. If this is unavoidable, set the turkey so that the tips of the drumsticks touch the wall, but the meat of the turkey does not. We also recommend wrapping small strips of foil about 1” around the tips of the drums and the wings to avoid them darkening too much and appearing burnt. Approximately 30 minutes before finishing, or when the breast temp is ~120°-130° F, remove the foil wrappings to let those areas darken up.

How to Use Wood Chips on a Charcoal Grill

The choice is yours on whether you want to add some wood to the charcoal basket of your Slow ‘N Sear. A truly smoked turkey is a grand departure from the classic oven-roasted turkey mom and grandma made in the past (and might be expecting from you!). Poultry meat is a sponge for charcoal and wood smoke flavors. Often a woodless cook gets enough of that “grilled” character simply from the charcoal combustion gases. If you want to use wood though, go small. Try one small chunk, perhaps golf ball- or half a candy bar-sized, and that’s it. This will be enough to add a kiss of smoke to the turkey without it overpowering the classic turkey flavor most folks will be expecting. If you practice ahead of time on a chicken or a turkey, then you will get a firm idea on whether or not this suits your palate. Remember, it’s good to consider what your dinner guests will be expecting too. Maybe they don’t want a smoked bird, or maybe they’ll sing your praises if you serve them one. That choice is yours; either way it’s going to be tender and juicy – you can’t go wrong!

How Long To Cook Thanksgiving Turkey

As with chicken, be sure to take the breast meat to ~155°-160° F, in the coolest, deepest part of the breast. But wait, you thought 165° F was the safe temp for poultry? Yes, sort of.

What Temperature Should a Turkey Be?

The USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service recommends a minimum internal temp of poultry to be 165° F, which is in effect the “instant kill” temp for poultry microbes. However, as the chart shows, as long as the meat stays at 160° F for 27 seconds, or even 155° F if held there for 1.3 minutes, it’s safe. We recommend pulling the turkey off the cooker when it hits between 155° F and 160° F in the coolest part of the breast, since it’s a slow rise to get it there and carryover cooking will hold the meat there for plenty of time after it’s removed from the grill, perhaps even allowing it to rise a couple degrees further.

You likely already have a good quality digital meat thermometer if you’ve been grilling and smoking prior to doing a turkey. If not, it’s mandatory you get one. DO NOT rely on the pop-up thermometers that come with your turkey, in fact just throw it away. Pop-up plastic turkey thermometers are set to pop at an average temp of 180° F. Your breast meat will be dry cardboard at this temp! Please, for the sake of everyone at your table, use a good digital thermometer! You will prevent everyone from getting ill, or chewing on dry overcooked meat.

We like to use the quad-probe, extended range SnS-500 Digital Thermometer, but there are many similar ones to choose from. With a wireless dual- or quad-probe thermometer, you can use one probe to monitor the grate temp where the turkey sits and one probe to monitor the temp of one or more pieces of meat. You can set alarms then go inside to visit with friends and family while your thermometer keeps you informed of your exact cooking temps – no guesswork, no hassle. Another recommendation is to use an instant-read thermometer. Then, when the breast leave-in probe reads 155° – 160° F you can use the instant read to spot-check other parts, or the other breast, to be sure the turkey is at a safe temp everywhere, but not overcooked anywhere! When the breasts reach 155° – 160° F, the other parts of the turkey (legs, thighs, wings) will be higher in temp, closer to 175° F perhaps, and this is ok. Dark meat can stand a much higher internal temperature and still remain palatable. In fact, dark meat taken just up to the safe temp of 160° -165° F can still have an unappetizing slimy texture, so it actually benefits from a higher finished temp.

How to Serve Turkey

A spatchcocked/butterflied turkey may not have the same tray appeal as a classically cooked whole turkey, but that can more than be made up for with the flavor and texture. Slice the meat up, leaving skin on the slices where possible. Do it while it’s hot, serve promptly and do not cover or ‘tent’ the meat with foil. Covering or tenting will cause steam to build up and soften that crispy skin we’ve worked so hard to achieve.

If you insist on a classic turkey presentation, it can be folded back into position and placed on a serving platter, garnished if desired. Sometimes the skin will be a little less brown in areas where the skin was touching during cooking. To help eliminate these “tan lines”, the turkey can be folded back into the classic whole turkey form about the time you’d remove the foil strips from the legs and wing tips, roughly a half hour or so from finishing time. It might be tough, since that meat has now settled into its current shape during cooking, but it’s possible if you’re looking for a classic presentation.

Summary

• Butterfly, or spatchcock the bird by removing the spine
• Dry brine, uncovered overnight
• Season/rub before cooking
• Cook hot & fast (325°+ F)
• Serve promptly, do not tent/foil

Thanksgiving Dinner Recipe For 2

When you are doing a Thanksgiving dinner on a small scale, then a turkey breast is the perfect choice. A turkey breast along with a few good sides cannot only be delicious but it is also a lot less stressful and faster than doing a huge traditional style Thanksgiving dinner. This recipe is made by Rus Jones from Smoky Ribs BBQ using our Slow 'N Sear® Kettle Grill.

Ingredients

• 7 lb bone-in or boneless turkey breast
• Poultry seasoning, or as an option, you can use kosher salt only to dry brine
• Not Just For Beef Rub
• 2 sticks of butter
• Vegetables of your choice for side dishes

How to Prepare Turkey Breast

If you choose a bone in turkey breast as I did in this video, then the night before, you want to remove the small neck bone/back bone as shown in the video so the breast lays flat. Work your hand under the skin carefully as to not rip or puncture the skin. Work the skin back until the entire breast is exposed. Use the poultry seasoning of your choice or kosher salt to put an even layer all over the breast and the back as well. Stretch the skin back over the breast. Place on on wire rack on a cookie sheet and place into the refrigerator over night or at least 12 hours.

Once the turkey has been dry brined, remove it from the refrigerator and inject warm butter all into the breast, making injections about 1 inch apart. Take your hand and rub the butter on the skin from the injection to use as a binder. Now use the “Not Just For Beef” rub and put a light layer all over the turkey including the bottom.

How to Cook Turkey Breast

Set up the SNS kettle grill to run at 275°F and place a few small chunks of smoking wood of your choice. Have the Drip 'N Griddle in place under the elevated cooking rack. Once you have dialed in the 275°F, place the turkey breast on the elevated rack. Insert a thermometer probe into the deepest part of the turkey breast to monitor internal temperature.

Temperature to Cook Turkey Breast

Once the internal temperature reaches 90°F in the turkey breast, place the vegetables on the roasting rack and put into the Drip & Griddle directly below the turkey breast.

Continue to smoke the turkey until it hits an internal temperature of 160°F. Remove the turkey breast and wrap tightly in aluminum foil and let rest. As an option you can wrap the vegetables in aluminum foil to reduce the amount of smoke and speed up the cooking process. Each recipe for the sides I made in this video are listed below.

 

Thanksgiving Side Dish Recipes

Smoky Mashed Potatoes

Once the 8 potatoes are completely tender (Option: wrap them in foil after 1 hour of smoke), transfer them into a bowl and mash them with a potato masher. Add in a few knobs of butter and a 1/4 cup of heavy cream. Salt and pepper to taste. Mix well.

Smoked Candied Carrots

Once the 6 carrots are completely tender (Option: wrap in foil after 1 hour of smoke), dice them up into coins. In a pot on low heat, add in the carrots, 1/4 cup butter, 1/4 cup honey, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1 tsp of cinnamon, salt to taste.

Smoked Green Beans

Toss cleaned green beans in olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. (Beans will have a better taste and texture, if wrapped in foil after one hour of smoke). Let cook until fully tender.

Turkey Gravy

Since we used turkey breast with no renderings we elected to use a store bought turkey gravy packet. It was actually really good. Just follow the directions on the packet.

Enjoy!

Watch The Full Recipe For a Smoked Turkey