Cooking Temps for Whole Turkey

I made the Apple Juice Brined Turkey last week. It was great and won hands down on the taste test of 3 turkeys prepared 3 different ways. I had a 17 lb turkey and it only took 5 hours to cook, I pulled it at 184 deg in the thigh. I didn't check the breast temp, but felt I should have NOW (isn't hindsight great?) as felt the breast was overcooked a bit. Any tips to avoid this in future? Should I have cooked it-- breast side down next time or what? Also, as soon as the turkey starting to brown I did cover it with foil. Any assistnce is appreciated. Also, I shared the Apple Brine recipe w/ a newbie to Q and he prepared his first Brined Turkey smoked on a bullet, not a WSM. He is not very interested in buying a WSM as he has realized his bullet didn't quite hold the heat as well as I have told him a WSM does. Sorry for the long post.

The best to all,
Marlene

Good morning Marlene:

First, please see my comments to 'Woods to use with Turkey ' for my Thanksgiving results but especially for my advice to your friend concerning the joys of smoking with the WSM! Having had much too much experience with food poisoning (mostly from turkey), I took the advice given by one of the members who suggested starting the temp around 325 and staying in the 250+ range thereafter. I'm surmising that since I was simultaneously smoking two birds on the center grate (which pushed the birds very close to the sides of the WSM), I experienced little over and no under done sections; additionally I turned the birds about half way through their cooking cycle, another excellent suggestion from this site. Glad to hear your results were acceptable and similar to mine?I have some leftover turkey but none from the apple brine recipe!

John

I Barbecued a 10 lb. turkey on Saturday by controlling the temp at 260-270. I used Oak wood and rubbed the bird down with Montreal Chicken Seasoning before putting it in the smoker.

I cooked it with the breast down for most of the cook and it turned out great. Breast meat was very juicy and it had a nice smoke light colored smoke ring in the breast meat. The drumsticks were beautiful. Also the skin turned a nice brown color and was not chewy like some birds that I had cooked at 225 cooker temp. This bird belonged as a centerpiece for a dinner table.

Total cooking time was 6 hours. May seem long for a 10 lb bird, but the bird was fresh out of the refrigerator when I put it on the WSM.

Hope this helps.

S.C. Que

John & S.C. Que,

Thanks for the tips. I did maintain my temp to the 250-300 range, but I did NOT start it at the higher temp that you suggested. Next time I will do that along with smoking it breast side down. I loved the apple wood I smoked it with though. A friend of mine used cherry wood for their turkey and said it was the best ever. For Xmas I would love to do a prime rib and am glad we will get more info on prime rib this month.

On a side note, I got some white oak wood here and did a brisket a while back. What white oak does to beef is fantastic.

Happy Holidays to all!

Marlene