Smoked Cajun Turkey - Thanksgiving trial run

With the big holiday coming up, and since I had never smoked a turkey before, and since HEB gave me a free, cheap 13 lb turkey for buying a ham that I needed any ways, I decided to do a trial run before the big cook. What we don't nibble on during the next day or two will be vacuumed bagged and into the freezer for sandwiches.

Started out with a simple brine of one gallon of water, 3/4 cup of salt, 1/2 cup Slap Ya Mama Spicy Cajun Seasoning, 1/4 cup brown sugar, and about 6 smashed cloves of garlic. Put everything in a stock pot and into the fridge on Friday.



Saturday, I drained and dried the bird, and then did an injection with Tony Cachere's Creole Style Butter. Put this on a platter an into the fridge to dry the skin out until Sunday.



Pulled the bird this morning, dried it again, rubbed it down with some butter, and seasoned it with more Slap Ya Mama.



Loaded the bird onto my WSM with the water pan removed around 11 am. It was running over 300* when I first put the bird on and the temp was still slowly rising. This shot is about 30 mins in when I realized I forgot to put the temp probe in the turkey.



Just shy of two hours in. Nice color at this point. Temp is still climbing, close to 400* now.



Ok, turkey done, and next time I will need to control the temps so I end up with a better looking bird. It is actually lighter than the picture looks, but still darker than I prefer.



I let it rest for about 30 mins, more for my hands sake than any other reason, and then completely broke down the bird, including deboning the legs and wings. I saved all the bones and will use them to make some stock next week.



A plate full of dark meat. The top / left pieces are the sliced thighs. The bottom / right is what I got from the wings and drumsticks.



The two breasts came out gorgeous. Tender, juicy, and spicy, yet still taste the turkey.



Lessons learned:

1. Have a piece of foil pre-shaped to the turkey, so when the color gets right I can wrap / cover to keep it there.
2. Leave the turkey on the rack in the third picture. It'll be easier to put on / remove from the grill.
3. Control my temps better - First time my WSM cooked that high, didn't think it would. Next time, wait a little longer at the start to get a higher temp to begin with, and then back the temps down during the cook.

Almost time to make a nice Turkey sandwich with Mayo and Cheddar Cheese on Sourdough bread.

Oh, and I got creative last night and made some homemade dinner rolls. These turned out really good. Seemed they needed a little more salt than what the recipe called for. Wonder if it will hurt the rolls if I add a little more. Recipe HERE.

And now dinner. Might be my favorite part of T-Day...

Thanks...

Omar, those rolls were so easy. I searched last night on a whim, I found that recipe and surprise! I had all the ingredients on hand. Probably took me a little over an hour and a lot of that was looking for stuff, rereading the recipe, etc. They turned out really good. Soft, tender... Reminded me of rolls from school lunch line. I might add a little more salt next recipe.

SmokinOkie said:

I've experimented a lot with trying to get the Cajun flavor deep. I've tried rubs in the brine and it just didn't work well.

You said it was spicy. Was that the skin or in the meat itself?

Click to expand...

I would say there was some of the flavor in the meat, but mostly the skin outer layer. They had a spicier injection, Jalapeno Butter I think, but for the first time I stuck with the Cajun Butter.

Thanks Steven, Mr, Frog, and Cowgirl.