Bradley Smokers - Bradley Smoked Turkey

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Hey. If you’re anything like me, the holidays sneak up on you. And today, its
turkey time!

(cont.) Brine essentially is made up of water, salt, and sugar. For this holiday
recipe, we’re kind of changing it up a little bit. We’re gonna add some apple cider
into there, a little bit of Jim Bean bourbon, and some black pepper, and some sage.
Cup of salt. We’re gonna take some boiling water, because you need to dissolve
that salt. And in it goes. We take some bourbon. So we’re gonna add 1 cup of
bourbon, 2 cups of bourbon. Taple spoon of coal black pepper corns. We got some
maple syrup. This is our sugar, and we’re moving to white sugar that I would
normally use in my brine, and I’m going to add one cup of maple syrup. I’m gonna
add a litre of apple cider. I got some fresh sage out of the garden. Just give it a stir,
like this. Now look inside your turkey. You’ll find the neck, you’ll find the liver, and
you’re gonna drop that it in. Just slowly drop it down. Let it get into the brine so
that its completely covered. This, you’re gonna cover and you’re gonna put it into
your refrigerator so make sure you got lots of room in your refrigerator, I use my
beer fridge. And you want it to sit for 24 hours. This is about a 12 pound bird and if
you want, if you’re gonna put in a 15 pound bird or higher, you’re probably gonna
wanna let it go for upwards of 36 hours in the brine. In the fridge, just let it soak,
don’t worry about it. Life is good.
Alright, our turkey’s been in the brine for 24 hours. Grab it with the legs, slowly
bring it up so you allow it drain. A little bit of advice boys, okay; don’t do this in the
kitchen, your wife will kill you. Alright, just do it outside. And you’re gonna take
some paper towel and you’re gonna dry this up and you wanna get it as dry as you
can. And you’re gonna put it in the refrigerator for a couple for hours, 2 to 3 hours
or even overnight to air dry, it’ll give you a better colour when you smoke and a
nice crispier skin.
We’ve got our dried turkey, now we’re gonna make a rub. We got a bowl. We’re
gonna start with a table spoon of black pepper. A teaspoon, this is ground
cinnamon. And then this is Amarillo chili powder, you’ll find this in specialty spice
shops, and you wanna have two of this, and I use this, two and a little bit, for colour.
A little bit of kosher salt, one, two table spoons. And then I apply my rub and I just
rub it in, I get it all into that.
Take your time with this part, you don’t have to rush it, it’s nice. Love, time,
patience, consistent smoke, I tell ya, I’m already drooling and the birds got like
hours to go still.
Okay, and our bird is ready to go into the smoker. We’ll take the neck and we’ll just
tuck it inside, there. And we got the giblets, the gizzard, and the liver, and we’ll put
that up on the side. These are gonna smoke much faster so when these gets done,
this is your snack, your reward while your bird smokes. Alright, our bird is rubbed,
our Bradley Smoker, its preheated, in it goes. We’re putting that on rack number
two, I’ve taken a pound of butter and I’ve put into the freezer so its hard as a rock.
And now it goes into this container, and we’re gonna put that in there. And were
going to smoke that butter, and when the butter is smoked, we are going to inject
the smoked butter into the breasts of the turkey. Oh ya, baby it’s gonna be
delicious.
Time to set the smoke. We’re going to go down here, we’ve got our thermometer
right like this. I have it actually at a turkey setting, nice and simple. Take it to an
internal temperature of 180 degrees. So you set it, you start it, and off it goes. So
I’m keeping my heat temperature of the box at 230 degrees. I have my smoke time
set for full, full time. I like smoke in my turkey and I smoke from pretty much from
beginning to end. But you can adjust the amount of smoke that you want. Let’s go
on inside and have a look. Turkey smoking down below and up above we have our
sweet smoked butter. And we’re gonna take a little bit of Jim Bean and we’re gonna
add about half a cup in. Just pop that back in the smoker.
Our turkey is 150 degrees internal here on the thigh. Hot, smoky, delicious, butter
and bourbon. Let’s get down in there and try and suck up some of that juice from
the cavity. That’s all goodness and we’re gonna put that right in with our butter.
Stir up the butter. Sucking up the butter and bourbon. Pick a couple of spots. Like
this, just a little, don’t push it too hard, give yourself a little spots, move around
here and there. And inject that butter.
Back into the smoker. Take our probe, back in, the thickest part. Close the door.
And that’s buttery goodness baby.
Our bird is looking good. We’re gonna dip right down in here, take the juices and
that smoky butter with the bourbon from inside the belly. Grab some more of that
hot smoky butter and just glaze it on.
I like to finish the bird at a little bit of a higher temperature than my smoker
because often when you’re smoking poultry, especially chicken, the skin gets
rubbery it doesn’t crispy, but if you crank up that smoker up right at the end, one
of my smoking tips is, crank it up like 255 plus degrees and you’re gonna crisp up
that skin up a little bit more. You don’t have to do it for a long time. But it won’t
give you that rubbery skin, it’ll get you more of that snap to that skin.
Now we’re gonna carve it. Carving fun. I like to start at the top down the backbone
Oh look at that, see, the butter starts to come out and you just get the knife to go
along. Look at this. And you make a little pile, see where the butter comes out.
Serve it for your holiday meal, for your friends, your family, they’re all going to be
happy. I tell you, Bradley Smoker makes it simple and makes it absolutely delicious.
Fire it up, have yourself a brine turkey. A little bit of bourbon a little bit of butter
and you know what? Life will be good.