The holidays are coming up soon, and plans for the holiday feast should be forming up. If you’re up for a change from the traditional roast turkey, how about smoking a turkey on a charcoal grill. It’s easy to do, relatively inexpensive, and it tastes delicious. Here’s how it all works.
The Grill: The best grill is charcoal based, at least twenty-two inches wide, with a hood that covers the top. This would be large enough to accommodate a turkey that weighs up to twenty-five pounds. There are numerous grills, such as the Webber Original Kettle, that will suffice. But whichever grill is used, it must have a charcoal capability (not gas) and a grill wide enough to support the turkey.
The Turkey: The turkey should be completely defrosted before grilling. Prep the turkey by removing the giblets and applying a rub. Take your pick of rubs—there are many that will work just fine (you can even create your own). The goal of using the rub is to coat the turkey’s skin with spices that will add some flavor and interact with the smoke generated by wood chips. The skin will toughen (almost like plastic), and the meat inside will cook with the juices retained for the most part. I prefer to use a fat-injected turkey as the finished product should be a little more tender.
The Fire: Building the fire is of utmost importance. The fire must not be too hot, but must be able to generate enough smoke to flavor the turkey, and enough sustained heat to cook it thoroughly. Before lighting the fire, take a small to medium sized bowl and fill it first with hickory wood chips, or a different type of chip if you prefer. Then fill the bowl with water to cover the chips and let them soak for at least half an hour. To start the fire, count out exactly twenty-five standard size briquettes and place them in a pile near the center. When the fire is completely lit and burning, push the briquettes evenly to each side opening up the middle of the grill. Next, place an aluminum pie plate in the middle of the grill between the two piles of briquettes. For a twelve to sixteen pound turkey, add five – six fresh briquettes on top of each side of the fire (eight – ten briquettes for twenty pounds plus). Wait about five minutes then drain the hickory chips and add the entire amount to each side as equal as possible. Check the fire periodically and add more briquettes in the same manner as mentioned above.
The Cooking Process: Place the turkey on the grill and set the grill’s cover immediately after adding the soaked wood chips. The smoke will be furious for about half an hour and then will gradually disappear as the wood chips burn down. Check the fire about every half an hour or so to make sure that it is still burning on both sides. Turn the grill end to end one quarter of the way around to help the turkey cook evenly. A twelve to fifteen pound turkey will cook in about two and a half hours. Larger turkeys will take closer to three hours, but generally not much longer. It’s important not to overcook the turkey, but at the same time cook it thoroughly. Using a thermometer, or a turkey with the pop-up button can help determine when the cooking process is finished. It’s unadvisable to attempt to cook stuffing inside the smoked turkey.
The Service: When done, remove the turkey and carve it immediately. Sometimes the skin will get so tough that it must be cut with a scissors and removed before carving. Keep the carved turkey in a covered dish until ready to serve. For larger turkeys carve one side and wrap the remaining carcass in aluminum foil for carving later. The drippings in the pie pan are most likely not suitable for gravy, so using premade gravy mix or other sauces is a best practice.
Conclusion: Smoking a turkey in the manner just described will add an element of flavor to the meat that cannot be replicated with an oven roasted turkey. The process takes way less time and effort than oven roasting. You and your dinner guests will be delighted with the outcome.