The Ultimate Grilled And Smoked Turkey Recipe Takes Any Holiday Over The Top

Handle raw turkey like kryptonite

Treat all raw fowl with great care. There is a good chance that it has Salmonella, Campylobacter, or some other pathogenic bacteria in it. Research shows that about 2/3 of modern poultry has been contaminated by the time you get it home. That’s just a fact of life nowadays. But don’t worry. Cooking kills bacteria. If you cook poultry properly, you are perfectly safe.

How do so many birds get so yucky? Pathogens are in the soil and in the air. Even “free range”, “pasture raised”, “natural”, and “organic” birds are easily contaminated because they scratch and peck in dirt and grass that is teeming with bacteria, and because they eat insects, worms, larvae, seeds, etc. They often step in each other’s poop and they peck in it. You can’t prevent it unless you put them in diapers.

Most turkeys are grown by “independent” farmers who work under contract to big brand marketers like Butterball and Perdue. They are highly competitive because they know that we shop for bargains so they use efficient, inexpensive, mass production farming methods. These concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) , sometimes called factory farms, are designed to deliver low priced big breasted birds grown to market size in only 4 to 5 months, much faster than nature intended. Birds are then processed in slaughterhouses and high speed disassembly lines. During the process, poop can get on their skin, on the gloves of the workers, on the conveyor belts, and in the water baths that are used to remove feathers and rinse the meat. It is practically impossible to prevent contamination, and it happens on small organic farms, too.

So you must handle raw poultry like kryptonite. Thoroughly wash your hands, tools, counter tops, cutting boards, sink, platters, and anything that contacts uncooked poultry.

The best solution, pun intended, is to buy an empty spray bottle at the drug store and fill it with a dilute solution of water and household bleach. Bleach is a powerful sanitizer. That’s why they put it in swimming pools. USDA recommends a solution of one tablespoon of good old fashioned 5% unscented, liquid chlorine bleach per gallon of water. Vinegar, acids, and other compounds do not work. I don’t care what you read. Ask any microbiologist. I have.

After washing your cutting board, knives, meat grinder, counters, and sink, thoroughly wet their surfaces with the bleach solution and allow it to stand for several minutes. Rinse with clear water and air dry or pat dry with clean paper towels that can be discarded. Cloth towels are germ carriers. Store the bleach solution in the bottle, tightly sealed, and use it often. It will remain potent for months. Click here to read more about food safety.

Proper meat temp: Tasty vs. safety

Confusion abounds over the proper temperature to which you must heat turkey for safety and for maximum tenderness and juiciness. One of the problems is that USDA changed the recommended minimum temperature for cooked poultry in 2006. Until then USDA said we should cook white meat to 160°F (71.1°C) and dark meat to 180°F (82.2°C), and if you were cooking a whole bird, take it all up to 180°F (82.2°C). The new recommendation is 165°F (73.9°C) for any and all parts of turkey and chicken. That means cookbooks published in 2006 or earlier are wrong. Worse, many celebrity cooks seem never to have gotten the word and it is common to hear them tell us to desiccate our birds by overcooking them to 180°F (82.2°C). Click here for a complete guide to the proper cooking temps for all meats, both USDA and restaurant chef recommendations. The excellent thermometer shown above, the Thermoworks Thermopop reads accurately in 5 seconds and sells for less than $30. Click here to order it.

Benchmark temperatures

Dark meat has about 9% fat, 33% more than white meat, so it tastes and feels best at about 170°F (76.7°C). White meat is very lean, about 6%, and it dries out quickly if it is overcooked. It is at its best texture and juiciness at about 155°F (68.3°C), but that’s 10°F (5.7°C) below the USDA recommendation and the risk is too great at that temp. So I will advise you to cook it to 160°F (71.1°C) and let the temp rise to 165°F (74°C) while it moves from cooker to carving. More on this below.

USDA wants to keep things simple for us in order to keep us safe. Admirable! What USDA doesn’t tell you is that microbes start croaking at about 130°F (54.4°C). The hotter the food gets, the faster the pathogens die. You can pasteurize your turkey at 130°F (54.4°C) in 2 hours or at 165°F (74°C) in 2 seconds, hence the USDA recommended minimum of 165°F (74°C). What the USDA doesn’t tell you is that you can kill them all if you heat the bird to 160°F (71.1°C) for 7 seconds, 155°F (68.3°C) for 23 seconds, or 145°F (62.8°C) for about 4 minutes.

Chefs who cook sous-vide (the ultimate low and slow cooking) know this. They put turkey parts in plastic bags, vacuum seal them, and place them in water baths at 150 to 160°F (65.6 to 71.1°C) for 2 to 3 hours and the results are incredibly tender, tasty, and safe. But most of us don’t have calibrated sous-vide water bath cookers (click the link to check them out), and even then, if you aren’t careful, there is risk. For more on how time and temp work together in the process of pasteurizing meat, read my article on meat temperature. Click here for ratings and reviews of more than 150 food and oven thermometers by our staff electrical engineer.

Plan for carryover cooking

The USDA doesn’t factor in carryover either. Carryover is simple physics. In a 325°F (162.8°C) oven, the surface of the meat will slowly warm. This warming is the process of exciting the molecules so they move faster. It takes time because the meat is a combination of water, fat, and protein, and they are good insulators.

As the surface warms it conducts its heat slowly inward to the cooler cells beneath, passing it along like a bucket brigade. Excited molecules get their neighbors excited by bouncing off them like billiard balls. Slowly the heat marches towards the center.

As the exterior passes the heat along, it loses heat so the bucket brigade prevents the surface from zooming up to 325°F (162.8°C). Also, moisture on the surface evaporates cooling the surface in the same way sweat cools you off on a hot day. If the meat is thin, the heat builds up rapidly. If it is thick, it takes much longer to get to the desired temp in the center. The trick is to get the center to the target temp without overcooking the exterior. One technique is to baste the exterior, but that keeps the skin wet and soft, and we want it dry and crisp. Another technique is to cook low and slow. For this grilled or smoked turkey recipe, we’ll keep the temp at 325°F (162.8°C), which is medium, and I’ll explain why later.

Interestingly, the meat keeps cooking after you take it out of the heat. The hot outer parts continue to pass their heat inward and in 15 to 30 minutes after coming out of the oven, the center of the muscle can rise another 5°F (2.8°C). The heat also escapes into the air, so we don’t want to leave the meat sitting around too long or it gets cold.

Cooking temperature for our grilled or smoked turkey recipe

I recommend you cook most poultry at 325°F (162.8°C). Readers know that I love low and slow and many of my recipes recommend a 225°F (107.2°C) setting. That’s a great temperature for gently melting tough collagen-based connective tissues without getting their protein panties in a bunch and squeezing out moisture (see my article on meat science).

But turkey doesn’t have the same composition as pork ribs or beef brisket, so we don’t need to worry about melting tough collagens. Turkey can handle higher temps, and higher temps are needed to render the fats in the skin in order to crisp it. The higher temp helps brown the skin in the short cooking time allotted.

We want brown skin because when cooking, brown means deep rich, complex taste. Browning is the result of a process called the Maillard reaction and, although it starts at low temps, it really kicks in at about 310°F (154.4°C) when amino acids and sugars form scores of scrumptuous new compounds. This chemical reaction is responsible for the rich flavors in toasted bread, coffee beans, and dark beer.

At 325°F (162.8°C) you can render more fat from the skin and get the skin crispier. Nothing worse than soggy wet flabby rubbery skin, and that’s what you get at low temps. Also, at lower temps, it is possible the bird will stall at about 150°F (65.6°C) internal temp. The stall is a phenomenon that occurs when evaporation from the meat cools it so that the temp doesn’t rise until the surface dries out. If you stall while cooking a turkey you will need new dentures the next day.

On the other hand, we don’t want to cook turkey too hot. Recently I have been seeing more and more recipes for cooking turkey at high temps, like 500°F (260°C). This just risks incinerating the skin and flies in the face of physics. High temps are fine for thin cuts like 3/4″ (2cm) steaks because we want the exterior dark with the interior at 130°F (54.4°C), much lower than turkey. But turkey breasts are much thicker than most steaks and we need to allow enough time for the heat to travel to the center. At high temps, by the time the heat penetrates, the exterior and outer layers are overcooked and dry.

Besides, at higher temps the window of opportunity opens and closes too quickly. The amount of time at which the meat is properly cooked in the center is short, and in short order it is overdone. By cooking lower we have a better chance of removing it at the perfect temp. Slow pitches are easier to hit than fastballs.

So 325°F (162.8°C) is a nice compromise. High enough to benefit from the Maillard reaction on the skin and to melt some of the fat, hot enough to gelatinize connective tissues, but not flamethrower hot, not risking a badly overheated outside of the meat before the center is cooked.

If you can’t hit 325°F (162.8°C)

If you have a smoker or grill that doesn’t get to 325°F (162.8°C) (some smokers won’t, especially most gassers and electrics), you will need to cook longer. Don’t sweat it. The skin will should still be brown because the Maillard reaction can still take place at lower temps, but at a much slower pace. Besides, the smoke is going to darken things, too. But you may not get really crispy skin. If the skin isn’t crisp by the time it hits 145°F (62.8°C), put it in an indoor oven or on a grill at 350 to 400°F (176.7 to 204.4°C) .

My #1 tip when cooking a turkey on the grill: Use digital thermometers

Turkey is unforgiving and your guests are unforgetting. Undercook, and turkey is slimy and after dinner everyone is praying to the porcelain god. Overcook, and you have attic insulation. The most important thing to do when cooking turkey is to hit the target temps on the money. Good news: It’s easy with the right tools.

Take a look at the calendar. This is the digital age. Bi-metal dial thermometers were invented in the 1800s, and all but the most expensive models can most charitably be called indicators, not precision measuring instruments.

Cooking without a good digital thermometer is like driving without a speedometer, flying without an altimeter, building furniture without a tape measure, filling your tires without a pressure gauge, or repairing the reactor without a Geiger counter. Digital thermometers are inexpensive, fast, and accurate. They will pay for themselves in one steak dinner or one trip to the doctor.

Don’t stuff the bird, make muffings

If you must have bread stuffing (and if you’re having me over, you must have bread stuffing) then cook it on the side (some people insist on calling it dressing if it is not stuffed in the bird).

1) If you stuff the bird, the temp in the center of the stuffing must be at least 165°F (74°C) to be safe because juices from the bird get into the stuffing. By the time the heat penetrates that far, the breast will be overcooked and void of moisture.

2) An empty cavity allows heat and smoke and flavor to enter the meat from the inside as well as the outside.

3) If you don’t stuff you can put herbs in the cavity to amp up the flavor. Stuffing does little for flavor.

4) Stuffing sticks to the ribs of the turkey. If you use the carcass to make stock the next day, which you absolutely should do, the bread in the stuffing will make the stock unappetizingly cloudy and the carbs and gluten will make it thick.

If you cook stuffing outside the bird, you can spread it in a baking pan and get more crispy brown bits, the bits everybody wants

Now here’s an outside the bird concept: Mix a little egg into the stuffing and cook it in well buttered muffin pans so each individual “muffing” will brown all around making lots more crunchy bits! If you want your stuffing wet and juicy, there will be lots of gravy from this recipe to pour over it.

How big a bird do you need for our grilled turkey recipe and smoked turkey recipe?

There are several variables to consider when deciding how much meat to buy. What is your male to female ratio? How many young children will there be? How many big eaters will there be? Are adult beverages in play? How many appetizers and snacks? What are the side dishes and how many? When does the football game start? And most important, do you want leftovers?

As a rule of thumb, 1 pound raw weight per person usually will be more than enough. When you subtract bones, giblets, and shrinkage, you will lose about 20%. That leaves about 3/4 pound (340.2g) per person average. I usually plan on 2 pounds (907.2g) per person so those who want leftovers (me!) can take some home (make sure you have plenty of aluminum foil or zipper bags on hand). I’ve been known to tell guests to bring Tupperware when they come. They love it!

What you need to know about turkeys before you go shopping

Today’s grocery store turkeys are the result of decades of selective breeding. The Broad Breasted White used by Butterball, Perdue, Smithfield, Jennie-O, and most other major brands has been bred smaller to fit modern family sizes, with larger breasts to satisfy the demand for white meat, with a metabolism that lets them grow to market size rapidly, and with all white feathers because dark feathers make black spots on the skin. They account for 99% of all turkeys on the market.

A bird labeled “Young Turkey” can be either sex and less than 8 months old. A “Fryer-Roaster Turkey” is an immature turkey younger than 12 weeks, of either sex.

Because most people don’t own a quality digital thermometer, and, as a result, they overcook their turkeys, most manufacturers inject a liquid brine, about 2% salt, into their turkeys. Salt is a great flavor amplifier if you don’t overdo it. The injection of a brine adds liquid helping to keep the meat moist. And remarkably, salt helps keep the moisture in. It seems the electrical charges in salt alter the structure of the proteins in the meat, a process called denaturing, and the denatured proteins become more hydrophilic, meaning they glom onto water and hold it tight. Finally, salt has antimicrobial properties.

Because processors are allowed to inject up to 8% of the weight of the bird, this also adds to their profit. Let’s do the math: If 8% of a 20 pound bird is injected brine, that’s 1.6 pounds. If the bird sells for $1.25 per pound on sale, that’s $2 for that salt water, even more when it is full price!

Turkeys that say “basted” or “self-basted” or “enhanced” have been injected with a salt solution and possibly flavor enhancers and tenderizers. “Kosher” birds have been salted on the outside and inside the cavity because it was thought in ancient times that this would draw out the “unclean” blood.

Now catch this: If a bird has had salt and water injected, the law still allows it to be labeled “natural” or “organic” because salt and water are natural ingredients! In fact, the word natural has no legal meaning and it is widely misused. Remember, this is a country where Congress once decided to classify pizza as a vegetable!

But salt is not evil. It is an “essential nutrient” which means it is necessary for good health and you must ingest it because your body doesn’t make it. Excessive salt consumption can be hazardous, but not moderate consumption.

So let’s do the math: An ounce of enhanced turkey (which has neither butter nor balls) contains about 65 mg sodium. So an 8 ounce (226.8g) portion of turkey, a pretty nice size serving, will contain 520 mg. If you are on a low sodium diet, the Cleveland Clinic recommends you keep your daily intake down to 2,000 mg, so that serving of turkey is only 1/4 of the recommended daily amount for someone whose doctor has told them to watch their salt intake. No sweat. For the rest of us? Chow down!

Nowadays finding a bird that has not been salted is almost a mission impossible. To get a bird that is not pumped, you need to special order it, go to a specialty store like Whole Foods, or buy it directly from a farmer. Some butchers develop relationships with local farmers and will take orders for fresh birds. Another good source is a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) organization which you can find through LocalHarvest.org.

For more about salt and how important it is to your health, read my article on the Science of Salt.

Now a word about birds labeled “free range”. Yet another case of industry bullying USDA into allowing a highly misleading term onto the label. The legal definition says “Producers must demonstrate to the Agency that the poultry has been allowed access to the outside” [italics are mine]. In practice, this means the producer can simply leave a door open to a small penned in area. But the birds rarely go through the door into that scary sunny open area. The term “pasture raised” has no legal definition either. And most important, the word “natural” on a label has absolutely no legal meaning at all. Marketers can call anything they want natural without any legal repercussions: How about a chocolate coated turkey beak? Actually, when I see the word “natural” I read “for suckers”. And don’t get me started on the word “organic”. I will be writing in detail how this word has lost much of its value later. Suffice it to say, as with the word “natural” I see a marketing term with little quality or nutritional meaning other than “higher price”.

What about heritage breeds of turkey?

All turkeys are descendants of the wild turkey Meleagris gallopavo. As with other animals (hogs for instance) and vegetables (tomatoes for instance), farmers are rediscovering abandoned “heritage” breeds. Narragansett and Bourbon Red are two of several heritage turkeys that are making a comeback, but they are still hard to find. They are closer to wild turkeys, with smaller breasts, darker and more flavorful meat that some people call gamey. Sometimes the meat is a bit tougher. Try one before you serve it to the gang on Turkey Day. They are also much more expensive. But beware. The term “heritage” is not government-regulated and there is nothing to stop unscrupulous merchants from labeling any old turkey as “heritage”.

Cooking techniques for heritage birds remains the same. I strongly recommend a dry brine, wet rub, and gravy. Since the breasts are smaller and darker, they will not take as long to cook, and breast meat and thigh meat will cook at much the same rate.

Fresh or frozen turkey?

“Fresh” poultry means, according to USDA, that the bird has not been taken below 26°F (-3.3°C) by the processor. At that point it is pretty hard (remember, freezing temp of water is 32°F (0°C)), but not quite a bowling ball because of the proteins and other compounds in the liquids, not to mention the injected salt, prevent it from freezing completely. But ice crystals will still have formed. USDA inspectors allow up to 2°F (1.1°C) tolerance when testing birds in commerce, so a “fresh” turkey can be held as low as 24°F (-4.4°C).

Ice crystals are larger than water molecules, and they are sharp. When ice crystals form, the water expands and the sharp edges punch holes in muscle fibers, allowing precious moisture to escape. That’s the pink liquid in the bag. Called “purge”, it is mostly myoglobin, a protein laden fluid that helps keep meat moist. We won’t waste it. It will go in the gravy, but I would rather have it in the muscles where it belongs. To make matters worse, some grocers allow turkeys to thaw a bit so they feel fresh.

This phony “fresh” turkey business is bunk and USDA is allowing marketers to deceive the public.

Sometimes you can buy truly fresh turkeys with no ice crystals and no purge from a farmer or specialty butcher who has chilled them to between 32°F and 38°F (0 to 3.3°C). You may be able to find truly fresh turkeys raised on Amish-owned family farms. Amish farmers don’t use electricity so their birds aren’t processed on fast moving disassembly lines and they aren’t up late surfing the net and doing things that get them overexcited. They’re plucked and cleaned by hand and are largely free of pinfeathers.

To get a truly fresh turkey, usually you have to order it and the butcher or farmer will give you a pickup date. In Chicago, I occasionally drive to John’s Live Poultry and Egg Market where I can pick a live bird, have it weighed, slaughtered, and dressed on the spot. I get to keep the head and feet too.

The problem is that, when an animal dies, the muscles can’t get the blood laden oxygen they expect so they get stiff. This rigor mortis usually sets in within an hour or so, and it doesn’t go away until about 12 hours later, so you don’t want to eat a fresh killed bird. Wait 24 hours.

Thawing turkey

To thaw a frozen turkey, place the bird, still in its plastic shipping bag, in a large roasting pan in the refrigerator. You need the pan because the bags always seems to leak. Allow 24 hours in the fridge for every 4 pounds. If you don’t want to do the math, just put it in the fridge 7 days before the day you will eat it. That’s a bit more time than needed, but hey, when you want to catch a train, you get to the station before the train does, right? Most turkey disasters I hear about are because the bird has not defrosted properly. There are faster ways to defrost a bird discussed in my article on thawing.

A day before cooking, strip off the plastic bag and remove the organs and neck from both the front and rear cavities. That’s the deep center and the last part to thaw, so removing them will help insure that the interior is melted. Just leave the neck and giblets in the pan. We’ll use them later.

Cooking a frozen bird in an emergency

As much as it pains me to tell you, in an emergency, you can cook a frozen turkey, but expect the exterior to be overcooked by the time the center is cooked to a safe temp, so make sure you have gravy.

Here are the rules for cooking a frozen bird: (1) You absolutely positively must use a meat thermometer for this maneuver; (2) you cannot stuff the bird; (3) you may have to cook for an hour before you can remove the giblet package and neck, but you really should get them out as quickly as possible, especially if they are in plastic, which can melt; (4) cook at a lower temperature, 250-275°F (121.1 to 135°C), to make sure the skin and exterior don’t dry out in the process; (5) cooking time will be 1.5 to 2.0 times as long.

Salting, wet brining, dry brining, and injecting

Butterballing the meat

The deep frying crowd likes to inject their meat with Cajun spices, but I’m not a fan. I think they are too strong and overpower the flavor of the turkey. My biggest concern with turkey is keeping the breasts moist, and that comes in two forms, water and fat. I manage the water issue with dry brining, and not overcooking. Because modern turkey breasts have so little fat, I sometimes like to add richness and more moisture by injecting oil. Butterball got its name by injecting butter into turkeys. Alas, they no longer live up to their name. Here’s how to butterball:

You can inject melted butter but as soon as it hits the cold meat it clumps and clogs the needle. So wait until the meat is warmer than the melting point of butter which is about 90°F and inject then, during the cook. And yes, you can do both dry brine and butterball. Injecting forces fat in, and it squeezes into the spaces between the muscle fibers, not into the fibers. Salt, however, gets into the fibers. I usually inject only the breasts because dark meat rarely needs it.

Because the meat is pretty full of natural water to begin with, remember meat is about 70% water, it will not absorb much butter because butter and water don’t mix. The exact amount of butter depends on the size of the bird. Melt one stick of butter (about 1/2 cup (118.3mL)). Inject about every 1/2 inch (1.3cm). Click here for more info on injecting. If there is any butter left, discard it. It has been contaminated, so do not put it back in the fridge.

How to make Granny’s gravy

I think I have made a strong case for a thin gravy that actually penetrates meat, but if you absolutely must make traditional thick gravy, here’s how:

1) Take about 4 tablespoons of the melted turkey fat and/or butter and put it in a saucepan over medium heat with 4 tablespoons of flour (the ratio is 1:1). Flour tastes better than cornstarch if you do this properly. Whisk the flour until the mixture is smooth, and keep whisking until it starts to turn pale amber, about 3 minutes. This is called a medium roux. The browning cooks the flour and kills the pasty flavor. You can make it richer by cooking it longer and letting it get darker, but don’t let it turn brown.

2) Slowly pour 1 cup [237 ml] of the smoked pan drippings into the roux, whisking it over medium heat as you pour, and keep whisking until it thickens and all lumps are gone.

3) Taste it before you add anything. You will probably want to add another cup of the thin gravy. You should not need to add salt and pepper. This should make the traditionalists very happy because this smoky, enriched stock will make a better gravy than any they ever had.

Water pans, drip pans, roasting pans

When setting up for 2-zone cooking, I normally recommend you put a water pan under the meat. It acts as a heat sink, absorbing energy and moderating fluctuations. A water pan also puts humidity in the atmosphere to reduce evaporative cooling and helps keep the meat moist. If you have a small grill, the water pan can actually sit between the flame and the meat, casting a heat shadow above it so the meat doesn’t overheat.

For this grilled turkey recipe or smoked turkey recipe, we replace the water in the pan with the fixins for our special gravy and it will collect dripping further enriching the gravy. This gravy/drip pan should have at least 3.5 quart (4L) capacity and must be large enough to fit under the entire bird. The best choices are stainless steel, ceramic, or CorningWare. Be forewarned, the pan it will get smoky and need serious scrubbing. Don’t use copper because it can react with the salts and acids in the gravy. I have used a disposable aluminum pan and noticed no off flavors, but I now have a stainless steel roasting pan that I use just for outdoor cooking because I got tired of sleeping on the couch.

You never want to put the bird in liquid on the bottom of a roasting pan. If you put it in liquid, you will boil the back and end up with soggy flavorless meat and inedible skin. If you put it in a dry pan, it will stick and the dripping oils will fry the back, usually overcooking it. So you’ll need a grate for holding the bird. You can use one from your grill, or even one from your indoor oven.

The tricky part is arranging everything when getting ready to prepare our grilled turkey recipe or smoked turkey recipe. Because there are so many different grill designs I can’t go through all the options, so grasp the science and adapt it to your own rig. The ideal setup is to place the bird on a rack 2 to 3″ (5 to 7.6cm) above the pan so heat and smoke can travel between them. If the bird is any lower, the mass of the cooler gravy, evaporation from its surface, and the sides of the pan will conspire to block heat, airflow, and smoke and you will end up with a pale, soggy, undercooked bottom.

The traditional turkey roasting configuration is a V-shaped rack that sits in a deep roasting pan with water in the pan to keep the drippings from burning. It is a recipe for skin as pale as a Seattle sunbather on the bottom and sides, and undercooked dark meat. I can see you nodding in recognition from here.

How much smoke?

Nobody has ever ruined a turkey by undersmoking it, but many birds and reputations have been ruined by too much smoke. Smoke is a seasoning like salt. It is part of the orchestra of flavors, not a drum solo. Show restraint. Experiment on a weeknight not on Thanksgiving. Suppress your testosterone. On a charcoal grill or smoker skip the wood altogether or use a single chunk or a handful of chips or pellets. Just a few ounces. On a gas or electric smoker, just a few ounces is all that’s needed. On a gas grill, because it has so much ventilation perhaps a cup.

Setting up your grill

A smoker is nice for this recipe, but the Ultimate Turkey can be done just as easily on a normal charcoal or gas grill. In fact, it can be done indoors without the smoke and still turn out a killer meal (more on that below). Long ago you should have done dry runs sans food with your grill so that by now you can hit two target temps: 325°F (162.8°C) and 225°F(107.2°C). Almost all my recipes call for one or the other and because only pellet grills have a thermostat control, you need to play the roll of thermostat. If you haven’t calibrated your system, click the link and practice long before you try to cook anything. For the internet’s best buying guide to grills and smokers, click here.

Setting up your smoker

The only thing you need to do differently than normal is get the drip pan under the meat. Just make sure the drip pan does not dry out. It evaporates rapidly. Check every 20 minutes or so. If you have two birds, try to offset them so one doesn’t drip on the other. And go easy on the wood! Just 4 to 8 ounces (113.4 to 226.8g) should be enough.

• Weber Smokey Mountain & Other “bullet” smoker setup. If you are using a bullet shaped water smoker like a Weber Smokey Mountain, try leaving the water pan dry and put the gravy in a pan on the bottom grate. That should do it. You can use the built-in water pan for the gravy if you wish. If the water pan is really dirty, line it with foil or put a pan inside it. You may have trouble hitting 325°F (162.8°C) this way, though. In order to get it up to 325°F (162.8°C), depending on the outside air temp, you’ll probably have to add more fully lit coals than normal and leave the vents open all the way. See my article on the best setup for a Weber Smokey Mountain.
• Kamado or Egg setup. You do not want direct heat and only the oval shaped Primo can be set up in two zones, so you need to put in the deflector plate. The gravy pan can go on this plate.
• Gas smoker setup. Put the turkey on a shelf high up in the cabinet and the gravy pan on the bottom shelf. You won’t need the built-in water pan. You’ll probably need to set the dial on high.
• Offset barrel smoker setup. Put the drip pan on the bottom of the cooking chamber under the cooking grate. See my article on the best setup for an offset smoker.
• Pellet smoker setup. Put the drip pan on top of the big deflector plate under the cooking grate and put the bird on the cooking grate. If you have a pellet smoker that generates its best smoke at about 200°F (93.3°C) or so, start there for about 30 minutes, and then crank it up to 325°F (162.8°C).
• Electric smoker setup. You probably can’t get up to 325°F (162.8°C) and it will be very humid in there. That’s good for juiciness and tenderness, but bad for the skin when smoking turkey. So take it up to about 145°F (62.8°C) internal temp, and then put it in a 400°F (204.4°C) oven to crisp the skin. You can also put it on a hot grill or under the broiler. Then ask for a charcoal, gas, or pellet smoker for your birthday. Better flavor too. Click the link to see why.

Setting up your indoor oven

If you’re snowed in and can’t grill or smoke your turkey, you can make this recipe indoors very easily. You’ll just have to omit the wood. Don’t even think about using wood indoors. You’ll never get the smell out of the place and you’ll be sleeping on the couch for weeks. Here’s a picture by Matt Johnson showing his setup for cooking a turkey in the oven. Turkey on an upper rack, disposable drip pan with the gravy fixins sitting in a sheet pan to catch stray drips right below. You can also line the bottom shelf with foil if you don’t have a sheet pan big enough.

Breasts up during our grilled turkey recipe or smoked turkey recipe!

Some people like to cook breast side down because they think fat and juices will percolate down and keep the breast moist. Juices simply can’t travel very far through muscle fibers that confine them. Especially since the fibers in the breasts run horizontally, not top to bottom. And they are not straws. They are sealed on the ends. And the breast is not an empty jug waiting for juices to flow in. The breast meat is already saturated with fluid. When you sleep on your stomach, your breasts don’t swell do they? And if the juices could flow, pressure would push them up, away from the heat, like the liquid in a glass thermometer.

And where would these juices come from? Visualize an upside down turkey. The breast is maybe 3″ (7.6cm) thick at most. What is directly above it? The cavity! No juices there!

If you turn your bird upside down because you want fat to baste the breasts, alas, breasts have little fat. It’s in the skin, which would be below the breasts if the bird was upside down when smoking turkey, so melting fat would just drip out, not bathe the meat.

Finally, if you cook breast down when grilling or smoking a turkey, you smush the breasts and put marks on the skin, and if you put the bird in a roasting pan, the skin will probably not brown properly so we do not do it for our grilled turkey recipe or smoked turkey recipe.

Give your bird a lift

How To Carve A Chicken Or Turkey

Step one: Close your eyes and repeat after me “I am smarter than a dead bird”. Step two: Click here for step by step photos and a 1 minute video.

Cooking turkey breasts only

Making turketta

Smoked legs & wings

Disney Smoked Turkey Legs

Rotisserie cooking

Rotisseries are a good way to cook meat because the process of rotating it between hot and cool zones retains juices and insures even cooking, but I don’t recommend them for turkey.

The problem is that you need to truss the bird up tight on a spit or else the wings and drums go flopping around and get burned. If you truss your bird for use when preparing a grilled turkey recipe or smoked turkey recipe, the skin beneath the wings, thighs, and drums never darkens and stays rubbery. And because the thigh is pressed tightly against the side, it takes too long to warm and cook through, so by the time it hits ideal temp, about 170°F (76.7°C), the breast is overcooked. That’s why I recommend cooking turkey untrussed.

In addition, it is difficult to balance the bird on the spit. If it is imbalanced it puts serious strain on the motor. I’ve heard of them burning out. Replacement motors are usually north of $100. Some rotisseries come with counterweights that you put on the handle to balance the whole gizmo, like the weights you put on tires to balance them. That is a good thing.

Finally, the bird can rip loose of its moorings, and then you have torn breasts. I say fogeddaboudit.

Vertical roasters work

Don’t put a beer can or a cannon up your bird’s butt

Is pink meat safe?

When preparing our grilled turkey recipe or smoked turkey recipe, you might wonder if it is ok that some of the meat is pink. Yes, it can be, according to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

First of all, some turkey meat is naturally pink. According to the USDA “The color of cooked meat and poultry is not always a sure sign of its degree of doneness. Only by using a food thermometer can one accurately determine that a meat has reached a safe temperature. Turkey, fresh pork, ground beef, or veal can remain pink even after cooking to temperatures of 160°F (71.1°C) and higher. The meat of smoked turkey is always pink.”

In addition, smoked meat turns pink due to a chemical reaction with the combustion gases and the smoke and the meat. For the Ultimate Turkey, we take the bird off at 160°F (71.1°C) and it will rise to 165°F (74°C) even if it is off the cooker.

Click here for more on what are ideal meat temps. Click here for more on meat science and the thermodynamics of cooking.

What about red or pink juices after preparing our grilled turkey or smoked turkey recipe?

Because of the speed with which commercial turkey farms grow their birds, it is not uncommon for there to be red or pink juices in the thigh joints even if the meat is properly cooked during our smoked turkey recipe. That’s because the joints bones have not had a chance to properly harden. If a little red makes you nervous, even if your thermometer is at 165°F (74°C), after carving, a minute or two in the microwave will take care of it. For a real eye-opener on why poultry is not done when the juices run clear, click here.

Taking your bird over the river and through the woods

I know you want to show off the fruits of your labor after preparing our grilled turkey recipe or smoked turkey recipe, but if dinner is more than 2 to 3 hours away, you need to cook the bird to 160°F (71.1°C), then chill the bird and re-heat it to 160°F (71.1°C) when you get there. This is called “serving leftovers for Thanksgiving dinner.” Now why would you do that? The meat will be dry and you’ll need a lot of my thin gravy to moisten it. I strongly recommend you serve freshly cooked meat or let somebody else cook the bird. If you have to cook the bird and travel more than 2 hours, then get there early and cook it on site. Cook it fast by spatchcocking it. Re-therming a cooked bird can take almost as much time as cooking it from scratch.

You will not enhance your rep with reheated dry meat.

Wine for our grilled turkey or smoked turkey recipe: Match the sides, not the bird

Turkey, gravy, stuffing, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie. No other meal has such a set menu. So what to serve?

When cooked properly, our grilled turkey recipe or smoked turkey recipe results in tasty and moist meat. When overcooked, as it often is, the dry meat is neutral and unexciting. So we moisten it with gravy and cranberry sauce and surround it with sweet dishes to enliven it.

If the task of selecting the beverage to accompany the annual eat-in has fallen to you, remember the sweetness of the sides, the fact that you are buying for everyone, not just yourself, and the fact that the average American does not like wine that is very dry.

What is needed is something quenching to wash down overcooked white meat, something with a hint of sweetness so it will not taste bitter beside the sweet side dishes, something tart enough to cut their sweetness, and something friendly that everybody will love.

Below are my recommendations for different types of wines to serve with our grilled turkey recipe or smoked turkey recipe. Ask your wine merchant for specific recommendations. They will rarely steer you wrong because they want you back.

And about the picture above, that is Yours Truly before I turned gray when I was the wine critic for the Washington Post pouring an 1806 Lafite, at the time the most expensive wine ever sold.

German Riesling Kabinett. German Riesling is light and fresh, and Kabinett is a grade of wine that is slightly sweet, but not too sweet. It can be floral and like a handful of fresh grapes.

Austrian Riesling, New York Riesling, and Washington State Riesling. Occasionally as good as the best German Rieslings, Austrian Rieslings are good values, and the best New Yorkers and Washingtonians, although not cheap, can be shockingly good.

Alsace Riesling. Similar to German Riesling, but often a bit more complex from aging in wood barrels.

Alsace Pinot Blanc. Refreshing, tart, complex, with just a hint of sweetness.

Alsace Pinot Gris and Oregon Pinot Gris. Light and tart. Steer away from California Pinot Gris. It is usually dull and boring.

French Rhone whites, American Viognier, American Rousanne, and American Marsanne. These are bigger wines, richer, complex, but rarely too sharp or harsh. Often reminiscent of tropical fruits.

Rosé and other pink wines. These wines are very refreshing and delightful. Alas, most are too sweet. But if you can find a good one that is off-dry, it will go well with your meal.

If your guests are into wine and prefers them bone dry, and if your meal is more savory than sweet:

Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon. I love these wines, especially Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand and white wines from Bordeaux, but they are usually bone dry, and are not great matches to all the sweet stuff. If your meal is mostly savory, and your guests winos, go this route.

Pinot Noir and French Burgundy. The best of these are expensive, but they can be lighter than Cabernet and Merlot, and more tart, making them great foils for rich savory foods.

Click here for some websites that are good sources of specific wine recommendations.

Talking turkey trivia

Ben Franklin and the national bird. Was he serious about turkey?

It is often said that Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) preferred the turkey to the eagle as our national bird, but it is not clear that he was serious. The notion comes from a letter he wrote to his daughter, Sarah Franklin Bache (1768-1807), on January 26, 1784, two years after the eagle was named the national bird. In the letter he is critical of the eagle’s habits and the artwork depicting it, perhaps mocking the fact that it took six years for Congress to chose a national bird. It sounds to me as if Franklin, known for his wit, was exercising it well:

“For my own part I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the Representative of our Country. He is a Bird of bad moral character. He does not get his Living honestly. You may have seen him perch’d on some dead Tree near the River, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the Labour of the Fishing Hawk; and when that diligent Bird has at length taken a Fish, and is bearing it to his Nest for the Support of his Mate and young Ones, the Bald Eagle pursues him and takes it from him.

“With all this Injustice, he is never in good Case but like those among Men who live by Sharping & Robbing he is generally poor and often very lousy. Besides he is a rank Coward…

“I am, on this account, not displeas’d that the Figure is not known as a Bald Eagle, but looks more like a Turky. For in truth, the Turky is in comparison a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America… He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a Bird of Courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his Farm Yard with a red Coat on.”

Frying a turkey is fast, captures a lot of moisture in the meat, and produces really crisp skin. It is also a great way to burn down your house or put you in the hospital. I don’t think fried turkey is as tasty as our grilled turkey recipe or smoked turkey recipe, so I don’t recommend it and I will not share a recipe for it, but as a safety precaution for those of you who insist on taking the risk, above is a photo from the nice folks at ThermoWorks showing the proper way to do it.

• Notice the bird is suspended in the oil on a rope so it can be gently lowered and raised. The worst thing you can do is drop a cold bird into hot oil rapidly. It practically explodes the oil out of the pot and onto the flames.
• Notice that there is no lid so steam will not build up under the cover.
• Notice the foil protecting the gas tube.
• Notice the asphalt floor.
• Notice the Two-Channel Thermocouple Thermometer with Alarm #TW8060 with two 5″ Penetration Probes with Flat Cables (103-160), one in the bird, and one clipped to the side to measure the oil temp.
• Here is a video and a song on the subject:

Why Thanksgiving is special and I’m fighting the War on Thanksgiving

Finally, there’s my rant, reprinted from the Chicago Tribune: Fight Back Against The War On Thanksgiving.

Leftovers and that valuable carcass

Do not discard the carcass after preparing our grilled turkey recipe or smoked turkey recipe. There is plenty of meat left and plenty of flavor inside those bones. Put it in the fridge. Don’t leave it sitting at room temp for more than 30 minutes.

1) Once the guests are gone (or the next day if you’re beat), wash your hands well, and begin pulling all the remaining meat off the carcass. Set it aside for smoked turkey supper salad, smoked turkey pot pies, turkey sandwiches, turkey fajitas, turkey salad, turkey soup, or pulled turkey. The meat freezes well if wrapped tightly in plastic wrap or a zipper bag.

2) Take the stripped carcass and break it into chunks. Put it into a deep pot, cover with water, and toss in 2 chopped carrots, 2 chopped onions (skins and all), a few celery leaves, a bay leaf, and some herbs. Add any leftover gravy from when you cooked the bird.

3) Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat. Do not boil yet. Simmer just below the boiling point for at least 2 to 6 hours. Turn off the heat, skim the scum, remove the big chunks, set them aside, and strain. Taste it, but resist the temptation to add salt. You can always add it later, but you can’t take it out. Thin it if you wish or cook it down to make it more concentrated. I like to concentrate it and freeze it in ice cube trays. Then I drop the cubes into a zipper bag and label it with the date. Then pick the boiled meat off the carcass and add it to the other leftover meat.

4) The next time you are making rice, risotto, couscous, paella, or soup, use the frozen cubes for a wonderful flavor. Pour some in an ovenproof bowl, add some caramelized onions, float a toasted crouton on it, put some muenster cheese on top, stick it under the broiler, and you’ve got a killer French onion soup.

• Freezing And Reheating Leftovers
• Smoked Turkey Pot Pies
• Smoked Turkey Leftover Supper Salad
• Bobby Flay’s Turkey Cuban
• Turkey Fajitas With Creamy Avocado Sauce