Smoked Turkey
Create more room in your oven by smoking the Thanksgiving Turkey in a Lynx Grills smoker with Donatella’s Smoked Turkey recipe.
25 min
PREP TIME
90 min
TOTAL TIME
Moderate
COOKING SKILL
8-14
SERVING SIZE
Ingredients
- Bag of Lynx Sonoma Blend Apple Smoking Wood Chip Blend
- One Turkey 12 – 14 pounds
- ½ cup salt
- ½ cup ground black pepper
- 6 – 8 cloves of garlic
- 1 cup of olive oil
- cup apple cider
- honey
TOOLS
- Turkey baster
- Aluminum tray to catch drippings
- Aluminum foil
- Cooking twine
- Toothpicks
Instructions
Preparing the turkey one day ahead of schedule is ideal as it allows time to brine the turkey.
- Unwrap turkey and remove the neck and giblets from the cavity and thoroughly rinse the turkey inside and out.
- To brine the turkey, set the cleaned turkey in a container large enough to hold the turkey. Prepare the brine solution using a ratio of 4 tablespoons of salt per 4 cups of water. Fill the container with enough brine to cover the turkey. Add a cover or wrap the container and insert into the refrigerator overnight.
- Remove the turkey from the brine solution and completely dry the turkey inside and out. Allow the turkey to come to room temperature 1 hour before putting it in the smoker.
- Prepare the rub by combining the olive oil, garlic, ¼ cup of salt and ¼ cup of ground black pepper in a food processer. Work the rub on the outside and inside of the turkey and under the skin where possible.
- Pin each turkey wing to its body with a toothpick to prevent overcooking and tie the legs together with cooking twine.
- Set the smoker at 300 degrees and fill the wood chip compartment with enough chips to completely fill each of the chambers. This will ensure smoking consistency throughout the cooking process.
- When placing the turkey in the smoker – make sure the water receptacle in the smoker is filled and place the aluminum drippings tray behind the water receptacle and under the turkey. Then insert the smoker’s temperature probe 2 ½ inches in the deepest portion of the turkey breast without touching a bone to ensure an accurate temperature reading. Close the smoker’s lid and cook the turkey for approximately 25 minutes per pound or until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees. Check the turkey every 30 -45 minutes to baste the turkey and to check to make sure the smokers temperature remains at 300 degrees and to monitor the turkey’s internal cooking temperature.
- 40 minutes into cooking baste turkey entirely with mixture of apple cider and honey and close smoker
- When the turkey’s internal temperature has reached 165 degrees, remove and cover with aluminum foil to rest minimum 30 minutes before carving.