Smoked Turkey

  4.6 – 37 reviews  • Smoked

This recipe is simple to prepare. I’ve tried several others using nice pans, colas, etc., but none are even close to this one in quality. It is best to keep things straightforward. Make sure to use high-quality charcoal to ensure a long-lasting burn. The turkey will be tender, smokey, and moist.

Prep Time: 30 mins
Cook Time: 6 hrs
Additional Time: 1 hr
Total Time: 7 hrs 30 mins
Servings: 18
Yield: 1 large turkey

Ingredients

  1. 1 (12 pound) whole turkey, neck and giblets removed
  2. 1 (20 pound) bag high quality charcoal briquettes
  3. hickory chips or chunks

Instructions

  1. Place the charcoal into the bottom pan of the smoker. Light the coals and wait for the temperature of the smoker to come to 240 degrees F (115 degrees C). Lightly oil grate.
  2. Rinse turkey under cold water, and pat dry. Place hickory chips into a pan with water to cover.
  3. Place turkey onto the prepared grate. Add 2 handfuls damp chips at start of cooking, then a handful every couple of hours during the cooking process. Leave the lid on – DO NOT keep looking at the turkey, or you will let the heat out! Continue smoking until the internal temperature of the turkey reaches 165 degrees F (74 degrees C), or keep going until the coals die out.

Reviews

Sandra Noble DVM
I used a propane smoker, cherry wood, 300 degrees for 6 hours on a 13# turkey… hourly spritzing with a mild apple cider vinegar mix. Put the excess skin around the neck into the cavity, all the fat made for a lot of super moist tasty juice steaming on the inside of the bird. Family wiped it out in two days… YUMMY!!!
Lisa Bowen
Best turkey EVER!!! Use the jalapeno brine and cooked as directed in a Charbroil electric smoker. Had a Grilled pineapple, Jalapeno, apple chutney, baked sweet potato, side salad with sweet homemade dressing. BEST meal we have had in days!
April Davis
I couldn’t wait until Thanksgiving to try this, just in case it needed a few tweaks. I shot the turkey up with my secret seasons, and then smoked it for 4 hours. I did this on a Thursday afternoon, and nothing was left but bones on Saturday night when I went for another few slices… Great taste and really easy!!!
Mark Cox
Delish & easy! Took a little longer than they said.
Tonya Walker
I’m a minimalist, but this recipe made me pause. No salt? No butter? No herbs? Nothing but smoke? Tested it a couple of weeks ago, and it was awesome. Will be making another for Thanksgiving.
Mary Johnson
Good basic recipe! I always inject my turkeys before smoking them. My favorite injection is Teriyaki sauce and I usually change it up a little by adding about a cup of brown sugar, onion and garlic powder and heating it up in the microwave to melt it all together. Get a good quality syringe with a long needle to inject the breast and dark meat thoroughly. It Will be the best turkey you’ve ever eaten!
Veronica Bennett
My husband does the grilling part and I prepare the bird. The first thing is not to get too big of a turkey, he says keep it under 15 pounds. A large Weber is his grill, and he soaks the hickory wood chips ahead in a bucket of water. He puts a foil pan with some water to maintain the heat in the middle of the bottom of the grill and charcoal on each side with the hickory added in. You can go to Weber.com and see how to do this. Add charcoal and chips as needed while cooking, keeping temperature close to 350°. I put some chunks of onion, garlic celery in the pan with a bit of chicken broth poured over, not much, for Aromatics. I place the bird in the foil pan over the vegetables, and rub olive oil all over it, and put tabs of soft butter under the skin and mush it in good. I then sprinkle, Kosher salt, ground black pepper, and some shakes of dried parsley, oregano and sage. If I have extra vegetables I stuff them inside the bird. This year my husband started the bird upside down, breast to the bottom and cooked it for an hour before turning it over. OMG, did that ever make the breast juicy and flavorful. It takes two sets of hands and heat gloves to turn the turkey over. He does cover the leg and wing tips with foil if they are getting to cooked towards the last hour. We’ve never cooked a turkey beyond 170° at the fatty thigh. He removes it and wraps it in foil for a good twenty minutes to rest before carving.
Holly Banks
We love smoking/grilling our turkeys for the holidays! it is a super simple and delicious way to prepare a bird folks will talk about for years. I brine mine for 24 hrs , Pat dry and rub with a compound butter. I reserve a qt. of the brine liquid to put under the turkey on the grill in a aluminum roasting pan. This method hasn’t let me down yet.
Andrew Potts
This is a very easy and basic recipe. I recommend brining prior to smoking to get a juicier bird. be sure to let the turkey rest at least 20 to 30 minutes prior to carving. I will be cooking 2 birds tomorrow and I will post photos
Elizabeth Charles
Best bird ever. Followed instructions to a T . I have had many suggestions on how to do this from family and friends but simplicity tastes sooo good.
Jackson Cooper
I basically followed this recipe to the letter. The meat turned out moist and had a good flavor. Some notes: -Get a remote thermometer. It doesn’t matter what temperature it is in the smoker, if your meat isn’t 175-180, it ain’t done. There’s no other way to know that than with a remote thermometer. As other people pointed out, you don’t want to lift the lid of your smoker even once, or you loose all of your heat, so a remote thermometer is a must. -When you put your thermometer in, make sure that the pin is entirely surrounded by meat as much as possible, particularly the tip. -Don’t use lighter fluid. I used one of those electric starters. It’s a loop that gets really hot when you plug it in. Works like a charm. -Get extra charcoal. We ran out and had to finish the cooking in the oven. -Turkey turns golden almost right away. This is to be expected. It won’t get burnt if you leave it in longer. -It cooked in about 3 hours for me, which was much faster than I thought it would be.
Jeffrey Newman
I used an 8lb breast and smoked it for just about 7.5 hrs . I soaked the hickory chips overnight. Turkey turned out great! I will be doing this again! Thanks
Robert Rasmussen
i just cooked my 14lb turkey today using this recipe. I have a masterbuilt digital electric smoker, you dont have to open the door to feed chips. I decided to open up the door after only 4 1/2 hours of smoking @ 240 degrees. My turkey was falling off the bone done. I actually think it is over done with the breast a bit dry. Just thought i would add this for you ppl with the newer type smokers. I will try using a temp of 220 on my next attempt.
Matthew Andrade
nummy nummy nummy!!!! I’ve always eaten my dad’s smoked turkey and never did one on my own until today. Being Christmas eve….Thank God It took little to no effort and it was fabulous!!! Wasn’t planning on making a turkey for Christmas but hey it was free ;-). Followed the directions to a T, with my electric smoker. And the turkeys skin was that amber leather that kept all the juicies in and meat suculant! Will totally make the bird again this way. I even threw in 5 chicken leg quarters in the smoker with the turkey and my husband and son said it tasted like cowboy heaven! Totally pleased! TY
Ashley Phillips
I have smoked turkeys for years like this and this is a great recipe. My turkey was always the first to go.
Charles Phelps
I have smoked everything under the sun. Smoked turkey is great! But 180 degrees will leave your turkey like sawdust! 160 in the breast is best, and it will still be cooking while it rests. (Brine it and it will always be juicy.) Also, smoking a Turkey at 240 degrees will take a full day and half a night to reach those kind of internal temperatures. By then the outside of the turkey will be like rubber. Cook it first and finish it on the smoker. It will be perfect and WAY faster.
Brenda Bennett
pretty much how i smoke a turkey, except i use an electric smoker and use hickory chunks. pretty fool proof, takes me more like 8 hours
Lauren Swanson
I really liked this recipe! But I had a problem with my smoker, which wasn’t getting hot enough, so six hours into the smoking, I transferred the turkey to the oven and finished cooking it at 400 degrees for 1 hour. It was very good, but I recommend adding turkey gravy for flavor.
Karen Maddox
Simple and spot on. The weight/time/temperature ratio works out perfect. Of course, always use a thermometer to make sure it’s done. I’m partial to using pecan chips which are kind of sweet and mild and give the bird a nice golden color. Also, a quick massage of olive or peanut oil and a rub of kosher salt, cracked black pepper, and rosemary are a nice touch. But if you’re looking for a simple, delicious bird this recipe will get you there in a jiffy. Thanks for sharing.
Jason Cruz
GREAT RECIPE!!! EASY for MOST!! JUST HAD to leave a review to show that STUPID ppl should NEVER try to SMOKE AYTHING!!! ARTCIQUEEN prbly had a hard time keeping the PAPER LIT as they TRIED to SMOKE their BIRD!!!
Travis Powers
We brined our turkey first with an apple juice brine overnight. We then stuffed it with oranges, onions, carrots and celery. We used apple/cherry chips to the charcoal also. We cooked our 15 lb turkey about 3.5-4 hours on a Big Green Egg at 300 degrees until the temp reached 180. It remained VERY juicy and delicious!!! See photo!

 

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