1st turkey on the WSM

[michele p]

May I brag a little? 1st turkey and it was AMAZING!
I did run into some issues though, it cooked way to fast.(My temp ran up to 400 at first, but I quickly got it down to the 325-350 range)
15 lb bird, on the smoker at 11:00, and the digital temp read 165 at about 1:30??!!
I had it on the bottom rack, because I wanted to see if that would be OK, so that in the future I could smoke the bird on the bottom and a seperate breast on the top.

After the initial shock of it coming up to temp way too fast, I took it off the smoker, foiled it, panicked again, put it back on the smoker (this time top rack) for another 30 min, then decided to actually trust the weber remote thermometer after all, and pulled it off for good.

I was shocked at how great it was, and I am not even sure I did it right.

Any tips on smoking a BIG bird and a breast at the same time? I am on the hook for Thanksgiving and I clearly need A LOT of practice!!
Thanks!!

 

[K Kruger]

You can do both. The thing is to structure the placement based on whether you are using water in the pan, sand (or ceramic), or nothing.

I usually do birds in a kettle and most times start with high heat (400+) because I'm looking for good skin color and texture at the finish. Unless you are using a sweet (sugared) rub, no issue with that.

'Not sure you did it right'? It was 'AMAZING', yes? Then you did it right.

 

[Bob Schwarz]

Michele, it sounds like you did a great job with the turkey. I hope you have some leftovers to bring to work!

 

[Bryan S]

Michele, I have to agree, sounds like it came out just fine. In case you didn't see this there's tons of info on Turkeys here. Turkey Talk Forum