If you want a juicy turkey with a lovely honey coating, try this honey-smoked turkey. The simplest way to prepare a large bird is this manner! The turkey will be the greatest you’ve ever had. When I make it, I hope you appreciate it as much as my friends and family do. Never do I have leftovers.
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 2 hrs 45 mins |
| Total Time: | 3 hrs 15 mins |
| Servings: | 16 |
Ingredients
- ½ pound mesquite wood chips
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage
- 2 tablespoons ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoons celery salt
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 (12 pound) whole turkey
- 1 (12 ounce) jar honey
Instructions
- Preheat an outdoor grill for high heat. Soak wood chips in a pan of water and place them next to the grill.
- Mix sage, pepper, celery salt, basil, and oil together in a bowl.
- Remove and discard neck and giblets from turkey. Rinse turkey and pat dry; place into a large, disposable roasting pan and rub all over with herb mixture. Turn turkey so the breast is facing down and tent loosely with aluminum foil.
- Place the roasting pan on the preheated grill. Throw a handful of wood chips onto the coals. Close the lid and cook for 1 hour.
- Throw about two more handfuls of soaked wood chips onto the fire. Drizzle 1/2 of the honey over turkey and tent again with foil. Close the lid and continue cooking until no longer pink at the bone and the juices run clear, 1 1/2 to 2 hours. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh, near the bone, should read 165 degrees F (74 degrees C).
- Leave turkey on the grill. Remove the foil and carefully turn turkey so the breast is facing up; baste with remaining honey. Cook, uncovered, for 15 more minutes; cooked honey will be very dark.
- If you are using a charcoal grill, use about twice the normal amount of charcoal.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 647 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 25 g |
| Cholesterol | 229 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 0 g |
| Protein | 69 g |
| Saturated Fat | 8 g |
| Sodium | 776 mg |
| Sugars | 25 g |
| Fat | 29 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
I have been making the turkey using this recipe for three years now. Love it comes out great! Instead of using mesquite like it calls for I use apple wood chunks still gives it the great Smokey taste but it way more subtle then mesquite ever can be. Instead of sage we use Rosmary and I stuff the inside of the bird with green apple, red onion, and thyme. Slather it with honey and butter as it’s cooking about every hour.
I used hickory for smoke.
This was so good and easy. I especially liked the honey glaze. I just used a weber barbeque with charcoal and wood chips.
I’ve been making this recipe for about 6 years. It’s the only way I’ll eat a turkey now. It’s become our family tradition.
Too well done folks. Follow the recipe but put a temp probe in Approx. 3/4 inch away from the Breast bone and push it all the way in till it hits the bone then pull out about 1/2″. Remove the turkery @ 160 F. Wrap bird with foil and rest for 20-30 mins. The turkey will still cook to the finish temps of 165f.
This turned out great! My daughter got a taste of it and left with half of my turkey!
I do lots of smoking and cook mostly off from the top of head. Have my own bee hives etc. This recipe seemed interesting and followed it close. doubled the size because I was doing a 26 lb turkey. The flavor was ok. would not do it again. Was using a Treager smoker which worked great. This is my 3rd time using this smoker. I have 2 others much larger. I would think maybe this honey rub would taste better in an oven rather than on a smoker.
My son-in-law chose this recipe after looking at a lot of others online. It was delicious!
So easy
I have not tried the recipe yet, I saved it for future use.
Awesome turkey! Next time I will try it on a butterflied turkey. Thank you for this wonderful recipe!
love it
I have made this recipe several times and follow it exactly. It is totally awesome. We have made it for at least 25 different people and everyone who tries it loves it. No changes additions/deletions, etc. needed. Make it “as is”.
Nice recipe. I used peach wood to smoke, and it gave the meat a nice even blend with a subtle finish. I also prefer wildberry honey over clover honey when using fresh basil. they compliment each other well.
My husband and I LOVE this recipe! Last late Summer used this recipe exactly, then the 2nd & 3rd time changed out the mesquite w/applewood & cherrywood wood chips. Excellent all 3 ways, Double the amount of apple & cherry wood chips and increase cooking time by 45minutes..Oh Wow! Excellent in salads and Turkey melt sandwiches also!! :)) mmm good! :)) Love it!
5 hours in the Bradley smoker with apple wood and this spice rub…mmm fall apart done but so tender, tasty and juicy! I did not use the honey by personal preference.
This was really good! My first time ever smoking a turkey. I used a breast (just because it was my first time) and basted the first time after 1 hr of cooking w/ 3oz of honey. After 30 min basted second time w/ 3oz of honey mixed w/ 1Tbs of butter and let it go for another 15 min. I also used apple chips. Wonderful will do again!!
We used a turkey breast and reduced the total cooking time to 1 hour and 50 minutes. I cut the seasonings and oil in half and rubbed it on the turkey and let it stand for a few hours in the fridge before we cooked it. I wasn’t sure that my husband would like the honey roasted on this, but he loved this turkey and it came out moist. It wasn’t as tender as I am used to getting with a whole oven roasted bird, but it was very good. Thank you!
Looks good but there is one thing I would recommend, soak the wood chips in water for at least 1 hour. This will cause more smoke to be produced.
This was the best smoked turkey i have ever had…I’m going to make one for my family this thanksgiving
If you brine your turkey skip the celery salt and go for celery seed instead… yum!