Perfect Brine for the Juiciest Smoked Turkey

Now, let's talk turkey. Let's talk about smoking a turkey. A different way to do this. Who doesn't love smoked anything? Right. Now, if you're going to smoke a turkey, I would highly recommend you probably don't go past the 10 to 12 pound range because, you know, there's temperature issues and fitment in the smoker and so on and so forth. You want to get that internal temperature up to about 165 degrees. You don't want anybody to be sick. That's right. But this can be one of the tastiest ways in the world to fix a turkey. Now, one of the first things you have to do is brine the turkey. Now, this is a brine. This recipe is old, old, old, but it's very simple. I'm going to give you the basic ingredients to this. You're going to take per gallon of water, one cup of kosher salt, one cup of brown sugar, two tablespoons of black pepper. I use the coarse ground, once in a while. If you want to put just a little bit of soy, I'd say per gallon, a half a cup or so. That'll give it a nice salty taste. Also, we're going to take a little bit of liquid smoke seasoning, just maybe like a capful or less. You can use a little bit of thyme, a teaspoon. Mix that in because you always love that thyme taste when it comes to poultry. One other thing that we're going to do and put in this brine is some garlic powder. Let's put two tablespoons of that as well. Okay. Just a dash of Worcestershire. Okay. Now, that makes a nice brine. What you're going to do, we're going to dump these in here in the gallon of water. Now, what I try to find a pan that is high enough and tight enough to the bird where you don't have to use as much brine. Right. If you can cover that in a gallon, that's great. If not, use a gallon, two gallons, so on and so forth. Again, this is a 12-pound bird. I don't go much over that if I'm going to smoke it. We're going to start the brine. We're going to put all the ingredients in here, bring it to a simmer, then set it off, and then set it in the refrigerator and let it cool. Then, you set the bird in there, mix it all up, set it back in the refrigerator, and let it go for 12 to 14, 16 hours, depending on how much flavor you want in it. I'm going to start with the gallon ingredients, bring it up to a simmer. Here's our cup of brown sugar and black pepper. Now, I like my black pepper. Half a cup of soy and a little bit of smoked flavor. Some thyme. Okay. Two tablespoons of garlic powder. Just a dash of Worcestershire. Now, we're just going to bring this to a simmer and then cool it back down. Drop our bird in there. We're well on our way towards getting a first-class bird. I'm excited. I can't wait to eat that. Last time I had smoked turkey, I shouldn't tell this story. You should tell. It was funny. I was with Kentucky Field, and we're on the road, and you don't know where you're going to get your snacks sometimes. You're just where you are. So, I went into this gas station, and they had a smoked turkey leg. Really? It was like in this machine keep. I don't know how long I've been there. Three weeks. I grabbed that thing, pulled out and started eating. Man, this is good. What? I was sick for about a week. Really? Oh, you remember that? Don't get your smoked turkey at a gas station. Okay. If you do, just look at the expiration date. On the turkey wing? Just make sure. I don't know. There might be some really good smoked turkey in a gas station somewhere. I've never seen it in a gas station. That's all I got to say about that. So, again, we're going to bring this to a simmer. You don't want to boil it. You just kind of get everything, the sugars and the salt, acquainted, as my grandfather would say. All right. So, later on, in the fridge, the bird goes to sleep for about 12, 14 hours. We get up tomorrow. We're going to put our cherry or apple, I haven't decided yet, in the electric smoker. Now, I like an electric smoker. We have both kinds. I have a big smoker that we can use for all kinds of things. Tomorrow, we're going to be busy. We've got a lot of stuff going on. I like to be able to digitally dial my number and my time in, and there's also I can insert a probe into that breast meat. So, when it's getting around 165, I need to know. Now, here's something I'm going to give a little heads up on, too. When we're done, we're going to wrap this in foil. Then, we're going to stick it in the cooler for just a little while. Let that set for about an hour. It does want to do things to it. I'm excited. I'm fired up. I really am. Now, that doesn't look like a 12-pound turkey, but it is a 12-pound turkey. So, we're ready to roll. Are you excited? I'm excited. I'm hungry. Let me see how excited you look. Now, we've preheated our smoker. It's cold outside, so we've got this on the back porch. So, we're going to take some butter, and we're going to put, I would say, probably a half a teaspoon of rosemary, half a teaspoon of thyme. I'm going to take some telecherry pepper. That's rumored what the colonel used in Kentucky Fried Chicken. I'm going to take some salt, just enough to, I'd say, a quarter of a teaspoon of each. Don't forget a little granulated garlic in there, as well. We're going to cover the breast of this turkey with the butter and those spices. Oh, man. I've already got images of this guy in a couple hours. Now, we have our cherry soaking. We're going to use cherry wood. I'm going to soak those just a little bit. I like to go about 250. Now, at 250 degrees, you're talking 30 minutes per pound. If you're going to put a probe in, you can go into the breast or the deepest part of the thigh. You need to get to 165. That's where you know you're good.