Smoke your turkey the easy way


 
ChuckO

ChuckO

TVWBB 1-Star Olympian
I've been smoking our holiday birds using this simple method since Christmas 2011. I used to do it in my ECB, and when I replaced that with my WSM in 2012

It is by far the easiest method and you'd be surprised how quickly it cooks this way

 
Oh man that looks tasty! My wife was throwing the idea of smoking a turkey on the WSM 18.5 Just may have to give this a whirl soon and see how it goes.
 
The most important part of this cook is having the stand. Now the guy in the video uses a chain to lift the turkey out of the smoker, I use a hook I bought at Cabela's for maybe $2 The hook is in the below picture


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Great video to plant the seed to my wife. However, this dude really, REALLY needs to sharpen his knives. Looked like he was using a saw.......
 
Where do you get those stands, locally? Do they have them at grocery stores usually (around Thanksgiving at least)? Anything to look for in getting them? (Amazon has a lot of different takes on the same idea.)
 
OK! Smoking a turkey this year! :)

Does this fit on the top rack of a 18.5 WSM? Can the lid close?

And what are some good recipes? Will probably brine the bird first.
 


Andrew I did this one a couple of years back and I found it cooked best lowered into the WSM. I made brackets for a middle position between the top and bottom. Too low, the bottom rack and it will likely be too hot. I was happy with the results of this bird cooking it this way.
 
Gary S said:


Andrew I did this one a couple of years back and I found it cooked best lowered into the WSM. I made brackets for a middle position between the top and bottom. Too low, the bottom rack and it will likely be too hot. I was happy with the results of this bird cooking it this way.
Click to expand...
Interesting....how did you go about making brackets? Did you have to drill?
 
You can do it easily with small cans 4" tall or pipe, whatever and just set a rack on the cans. I have a hobby welder so I welded 4 mirror tabs onto my grill straps midway to create another position for ribs, wings, things like that. It gives me more capacity and suits turkeys done this way. This bird was around 18 pounds.

We've had our Thanksgiving already but I have a 22 pounder I'm thinking of doing this way again. They cook really nicely when they are vertical.
 
Yes three is all you need or four it's up to you. Just open them up both ends then the heat/smoke travels right through. I have not used the cans myself but others here have and I've read their posts previously.
The can idea is what got me thinking about a middle rack and so because I have the welder I added permanent tabs. Keeping the turkey down into the smoker a little, 4" or so really works well. I like doing vertical cooks with poultry but I do not use a beer can I have three vertical racks. One for turkey and two for chicken.

Remember too Roger with all that cold thermal mass, if you cook it this way, the turkey will pull the temps down. People sometimes forget that and try get more heat out of their smoker. Placing a cold bird in your cooker does not change the temp of your fire.:)
 
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