This Smoked Turkey Recipe is jam packed with incredible flavor, from a bourbon citrus brine, to an herbed butter, to a flavorful turkey dry rub, This is the juiciest and most flavorful turkey that will have your guests going back for seconds… and maybe even thirds.
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We’ve posted a lot about Thanksgiving, including tips for the bird from the pros, and it’s finally time we shared our tried and true recipe for smoked turkey.
We’ve cooked turkey pretty much every way you can. From brining, to not brining, whole to spatchcock, to smoked turkey breast. Cooking on everything from pellet smokers, to offset, to our Weber kettle, to even a tiny portable grill. We’ve experimented with it all (except for fried, but that’s a story for another day) and this is our favorite way to make it.
- Brine the turkey for flavor
- Season the turkey both in and on the skin
- Smoke at the right temperature for good skin texture
- Carve and serve
Selecting Turkeys
If electing to brine, it is important to purchase turkeys that have not been previously brined in a salt water solution. Previously brined birds will not soak in any remaining flavor. Look for fresh turkeys without a label that says “previously brined”, or “brined in a 4% salt water solution” (or other percentage).
Another thing to consider when smoking turkey, is to avoid drying out the meat. The meat cooks from the outer edge to the inner parts of the bird. Instead of one large turkeys, we prefer two 12 – 14 pound turkeys. This will also allow you to cook them faster than one large 20 pounder. It also provides more of the legs and thighs that people tend to love.
If frozen, be sure to remove from freezer 3 days prior to cooking the bird in order to let it defrost properly.
How Much Turkey Per Person
Plan on 1.25 pounds per person. When planning on portions, it’s important to consider the bones adding weight to the turkey as well as leftovers (because, let’s be honest, we all love the leftovers).
This is the rough estimate we use and trust. In other words, a 10 pound turkey will serve 8 hungry people on average; a 12 pound turkey will serve roughly 10, and so on. Holiday season means a bountiful table of other foods too, and there is always planning for leftovers. As you approach needing more than 14 pounds of turkey, consider two birds as mentioned.
Smoked Turkey Brine
What is a brine? Simply put it’s a salt and water mixture used to add moisture and flavor to meat. Smoking slowly take a toll on moisture and this offsets that.
How? The salt follows its way into the meat through the process of osmosis, which is why adding more flavor in addition to your salt mixture allows for the flavor to get into the meat.
You can go with a dry brine (salt based rub) or wet brine. We prefer the wet brine, with bourbon (because bourbon = flavor, in addition to adding that extra moisture into the meat). You can check out our article for more information on a basic turkey brine.
Over brining can cause the cells to break down, so avoid brining more than 24 – 30 hours.
Brine in a large stock pot. Or, if you have more than one turkey, consider food safe brining bags that will hold the liquid and the meat. Carefully seal them and store in a cooler with ice (this saves room in the fridge with all the other food you will likely be preparing for the holiday meal).
Preparation
Once you’ve brined the turkey you need to prepare for the smoker.
- Rinse off the brine and pat the turkey dry.
- At this point season the turkey liberally. Then leave the dried and salted/seasoned bird uncovered in the refrigerator for four hours. This will flavor the turkey and help minimize rubbery skin when smoking.
- After four hours, remove from the fridge and stuff the cavity with some fresh citrus (a combination of lemons and oranges), onions, garlic, and lots of fresh herbs. This is going to help the cavity of the bird stay juicy and tender. As the stuffing heats up, the aromatics and liquid are forced out and into the bird from the inside out.
- Slightly lift the skin and add an herbed butter. The herbed butter is room temperature butter with seasonings added for a compound butter.
- Tie the legs and wings close to the body of the turkey so it cooks evenly. If they are flapping around, they will overcook.
Dry Rub for Turkey
We use our Ultimate Dry Rub for Pork or Chicken on this. It’s very versatile with sugar and spices. But feel free to use your favorite dry rub for poultry.
How to Smoke a Turkey
- Prepare smoker to 275 degrees. After experimenting with different cooking temps we’ve landed at 275 as our sweet spot for a whole turkey to minimize rubbery skin. We like fruit wood for most of our cooking, and especially poultry. Cherry or apple wood is our choice when smoking turkey.
- Place the turkey on the smoker and insert a digital blue tooth thermometer like the Thermoworks Signals. Signals, like the Smoke unit, will monitor the ambient cooking chamber temperature, as well as up to three zones. So in this case, we put a probe in the breast meat, and in the dark meat. The blue tooth capabilities makes it easy to monitor temperatures on your phone, so you don’t have to keep lifting the lid on your smoker letting any heat out.
- Then we remove the turkey when the internal temperature throughout the meat is 165 degrees (F). The thigh and legs may be higher, that is fine as they can take a higher heat and stay tender.
- Once the meat hits the right temperature, remove from heat and wrap in foil, and then let it rest 20 minutes. If you are done early, wrap it and leave in a cooler (with no ice) to keep warm for up to four hours. Resting allows the cells to cool down and retain that moisture. Cut too early, while it may be juicy, you’ll find it will dry out quickly.
- Carve with a sharp and high quality carving knife and enjoy.
Side Dishes for Thanksgiving Dinner
- Smoked Turkey and Bourbon Gravy
- Smoked Sausage and Cornbread Stuffing (Dressing)
- Turkey Collard Greens
- Grilled Beet Salad with Rosé Infused Cranberries
- Smoked Honey Butter (for your dinner rolls)
Best Wines for Thanksgiving Dinner
We’ve got you covered there too! In this post we’ve covered everything you need for selecting the best wines in all budgets for your holiday dinner.
Common Smoked Turkey Q&A
Plan on 15 minutes per pound. Our turkeys tend to be done in 3 hours.
165 degrees Fahrenheit the turkey is done and safe. While some may say 180 degrees, that will likely lead to a dry smoked turkey.
When smoking, even at 275, the challenge for any turkey will be crispy skin. If you want a crispy skin, a modification to the recipe is to wait until the bird gets to 145 degrees and then crank up the heat to 375. You run the risk of still drying out the bird, so we don’t push for a crispy skin when smoking.
This will depend on your grill. On a Big Green Egg, we do not as it is very efficient and sealed. On offsets or our MAK Two-Star General we do use a water pan to help add moisture to the chamber.
*This recipe was originally written in November of 2018 and updated in October 2020 with more recipe details.
Smoked Turkey Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 12-14 lb whole turkey (unbrined)
For the Brine
- 8 quarts water
- 1 1/2 cups kosher salt (we use Diamond Crystal kosher salt)
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup bourbon
- 2 oranges, cut into quarters
- 1 lemon, cut into quarters
- 1/3 cup whole peppercorns
- 10 whole cloves
- 2 dried bay leaves
For the Herbed Butter
- 1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1/2 tablespoon fresh rosemary, chopped
- 1/2 tablespoon fresh thyme, chopped
- 1/2 tablespoon fresh sage, chopped
Dry Rub
- 1/2 cup Our Ultimate Dry Rub for Chicken or Pork
Cavity Stuffing
- 2 oranges quartered, we use navel
- 1 lemon, quartered
- 6 garlic cloves
- 1 red or yellow onion, quartered
- 10 sprigs thyme
- 2 large sprigs of rosemary
Instructions
For Brine
- Prepare turkey for brine by fully defrosting, and removing giblets, neck, and trimming off excess fat.
- In a large stock pot over medium-high heat, combine water, salt, sugar, and bourbon. Bring heat up and dissolve the salt and sugar into the liquid, then turn off heat.
- Let cool and then add remaining brine ingredients. Add turkey to brine and cover. Brine for 24 hours, avoid going beyond 30 hours. At a minimum brine for four.
For Herb Butter
- Add herbs to room temperature butter and combine. Be sure when you are using for the turkey, it is still room temperature.
Smoking Turkey
- Remove turkey from brine and rinse. Pat dry with a towel, epsecially the cavity. Season liberally and place into the refrigerator for four hours.
- After four hours, preheat Smoker to 275 degrees using fruit wood.
- Stuff cavity of the bird with thyme, rosemary, oranges, lemons, and garlic. Then stuff butter between the skin and breasts, spreading it out with your hands all along the breast.
- Tie up legs and wings with kitchen string, or tuck them to keep tight against the turkey.
- Place turkey on the smoker, and insert your digital meat probe into the breast and thigh or leg. Smoke until the internal temperature of both reads 165 degrees (F). Use an instant read to check temp in various part of the turkey, even if the digital probes read 165 to confirm all parts of the turkey are cooked through.
- Remove from smoker (will likely take 3 – 4 hours with a 12 – 14 pound bird) and cover with foil. Let cool for about 20 minutes. Then slice and serve.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
*This post contains affiliate links. We only recommend and promote products we use and love and contribute to great barbecued and grilled foods, like a good digital thermometer!
If you like these recipes we’d truly appreciate it if you would give this recipe a star review! And if you share any of your pics on Instagram use the hashtag #vindulge. We LOVE to see it when you cook our recipes.
Jon Kenney says
Holy Smoke shop flavor!!! Moist and Delicious. Followed the receipt almost exactly with the exception of using fresh oregano instead of rosemary and thyme for the body stuffing. I agree with author regarding fruit wood and I used pecan which has a similar burn to Apple. Put it in the smoker at 11 at 265 and took it out at 5 with the breast thermometer reading 165. Wrapped tight in heavy duty aluminum foil and put on the keep warm setting in my oven. We ate at 6 and the breast was as moist as any turkey out of the oven. I had a sandwich 24 hours later and the the breast was still moist and delicious.
Note to those new to smoking: Poultry can take on an acrid flavor if the smoke is too strong. Hard smoke woods likes Hickory, Mesquite, and Oak for me are too intense for poultry and especially this receipt. I embedded my pecan chips throughout my briquette smoke ring and lit a small fire in the center. I added no additional chips as the smoke ring burns away from the center is continues to feed smoke to the chamber.
Sean Martin says
Jon thanks so much for the feedback and all great points regarding the bigger woods!
Matt says
This recipe turned out unreal! very good flavour, nice and moist. I was worried about only having an electric smoker but it turned out great. I also made soup with the carcass and left overs that took in a lot of the smoke flavour I thought it was really good
Sean Martin says
Matt, awesome!!! A smoker is a smoker, and so glad it came out and for dropping your feedback!! Cheers.
Sean George says
Any thoughts on a bigger bird? I have a 20 pound turkey, thinking of quartering up the recipe?
Sean Martin says
If you have a 20 pound bird, you can use a cooler to brine. Key is being sure the bird is submerged completely in the brine. You can add slightly more salt, sugar, and water if needed to increase volume of the brine. And for the cook, plan on an additional 60 – 90 minutes of cook time.
Sean George says
Thanks so much! Looking forward to the cook.
Sean Martin says
We love to see photos!!!
Sean George says
Photos to come! Just prepped the brine. One question… do you let the liquid cool and then add the spices/fruit? Or add that same time as the bird? Prepped just the liquid tonight. Was going to add the bird tomorrow night… but should the other ingredients be in already you think?
Sean Martin says
Great question, we make the full brine and then let it cool (with spices and citrus). Then we add the Turkey once it cooled. We do this to allow all the flavors to come together and avoid any bacterial growth issue in the danger zone.
Sean George says
Photos to come! Just prepped the brine liquid… should I let it cool and then add the rest? Or add the spices and fruit when I add the turkey? Planning adding the bird tomorrow night.
Sean Martin says
Go all the way with the mix for sure!
Luke Lewis says
Does it effect the moisture of the bird if you pull it from
The brine for longer than 4 hours? I want to start cooking at 07:00 in order to serve lunch but I don’t want to wake up at 03:00 to pull the bird from the brine. Can I do this around 10:00 PM the night before and have it sit in a pan in the fridge for 8 hours without adverse effects? I can’t wait to try this recipe! Thank you for sharing.
Sean Martin says
Luke absolutely. You can pull it and then leave in the fridge. It won’t “over dry” in the fridge. Makes much easier for you.
Angelika Evanoff says
This recipe is amazing and our turkey came out perfect. Is this something I can do in the oven? We smoked at a friends house and we want to do the same recipe for our family at home but only have the oven. Is there any reason we cant make this exact recipe in the oven?
Sean Martin says
You can do the same recipe in the oven for sure. You can also increase the heat, no need to stay low on the temp if using the oven. But absolutely you can!
Kim Leon says
How would this work on the grill with a rotisserie and a little smoke box? Only planning on an 8 lb bone in turkey breast.
Sean Martin says
If you are running a rotisserie on say, a gas grill, with the smoker box, I would still run 275 with the smoker box getting replenished as it is used up. and plan half the time, maybe 2 hours to 2 1/2 tops.
Ashley says
Would there be any harm in replacing the bourbon with a different whiskey. We currently have Irish Whiskey on hand…
Mary says
Not at all! Use whatever whiskey you have (rum can also replace it too). A good brown liquor that you like the flavor of will suffice nicely 🙂
Happy Holidays!!