Skinned Wild Turkey


 
M

Mark Dawson

TVWBB Member
I got a wild turkey this morning and because of the way I am doing the cape mount I had to skin it rather than pluck it. I am planning to smoke it on Saturday using an apple brine. This will be my first smoked turkey - I normally do them on my kettle rotisserie.

Do I need to worry about it drying out due to the lack of skin/fat? Skinless chicken breasts turn out great on the smoker so I would think this would be similar. I would appreciate any suggestions.

Mark
 
Oh man I love wild turkey. Baste it a bunch and or lay bacon all over it and use tooth picks to hold the bacon. Have you ever deep fried one? If not consider that, what a treat.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Dale Perry:
Oh man I love wild turkey. Baste it a bunch and or lay bacon all over it and use tooth picks to hold the bacon. Have you ever deep fried one? If not consider that, what a treat. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Mark,

You might want to consider brining your bird. I did some turkey hunting this year and while I didn't get a turkey, I did a lot of recipe searching beforehand (kind of putting the horse behind the cart, huh?). Most of the recipes that came from good sources and sounded good always called for brining.
 
I began soaking it in brine last night. I will take it out an let it air dry either tonight or tomorrow morning. I plan on smoking for Saturday evening dinner.

Dale: I have had deep fried turkey (not wild) side-by-side with a kettle grilled one. It was ok but the grilled one was much better.

Mark
 
To phil r.'s point about brining...

what affect would brining have on wild turkey? is it tougher/leaner than farm raised? I would just be hesitant that brining would take away from the "wildness" of the bird.

I have absolutely no experience with wild turkey, so I'm just thinking aloud...
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by adamclyde:
To phil r.'s point about brining...

I would just be hesitant that brining would take away from the "wildness" of the bird. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I think that is exactly the point
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While it isn't "brining", my mom and grandma always soaked pheasants and ducks we shot in a salt water solution of for a couple of hours before we cooked them. They always said it was "to remove excess blood" or something like that, whatever that means.

Now that I cook most of my own game, the sitting in salt water solution is too much work and I usually just roast waterfowl. Personally, I like the taste of wild game as it is. But using a flavored brine might be a good experment...like I said, a lot of the recipes for turkey that I saw called for brining.

Oh and yes, most game is much leaner than domestically raised birds...but if you cook it right, it won't be dry at all.
 
The turkey turned out great. The breast meat was wonderfully juicy and tasty and was still moist last night in sandwiches and this morning as I prepared my turkey salad for lunch. The dark meat was a little tough (as it has been on most wild turkeys I’ve had) but will be great for soup.

After brining for about 36 hours and air drying for about 6 hours, I rubbed the bird with dried herbs soaked in canola oil prior to going on the smoker and basted once with oil about an hour before it was done. I noticed no difference in moisture between this skinned bird and the last ones I’ve had with skin on. Even the outer slices of meat were not too crusted to eat. I used 3 chunks of mulberry wood which gave a mild smoke flavor to the meat (could have been stronger in my opinion but everyone else liked it).

Next time you bag a gobbler worth mounting, don’t hesitate to smoke that skinned bird on your WSM.

Mark
 
About 3 hours at 230°-250° to an internal temp of 160° in the breast. I did not weigh the bird after is was cleaned but it was 23# before skinning & gutting so I am guessing around 12-15#. My general rule of thumb for turkey on the kettle is 10-12 minutes per pound.

Mark
 
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