Turkey on WSM


 
Dustin Dorsey

Dustin Dorsey

TVWBB Hall of Fame
I've smoked a turkey about 3 years in a row now. My first 2 years were on an offset. I had a lot of trouble maintain heat at that point. The year after that I spatchcocked the bird and cooked it on my OTS 22.5 with a smokenator. It of course got super cold and windy that year and I wound up finishing in the oven. I noticed that one breast was higher in temp than the other and I think its because I didn't pay attention to the orientation of my top vent. In other words it might have been to one side or the other.

This year I'm super excited about cooking on the 22.5 WSM. I should have no trouble maintain temps hopefully. Anyone have any suggestions about cooking the bird evenly? If I've got all vents wide open, which I suspect I'll need to and orient the bird facing away from the door breast side up, legs towards me will that work(top vent facing away)? Or should I turn it at some point. I'll probably have to use the patented Dwain Pannell skewer in the lid to get to 350.
 
Having cooked a few turkeys on the WSM, I think the orientation of the bird and the top vent are both minor in comparison to your real challenge: getting the breast and dark meat done at the same time. When cooking a whole bird the breast always seems to be done before the thigh. Yes, you can cut off the legs and put them back on but that ruins the presentation. Same with spatchcock. Brining helps, because it keeps the breast moist longer but the best result I ever had was when I screwed up and didn't get the bird completely thawed in time. It went on with the legs thawed but the breast was still a bit frozen. Result: Perfection! The bird was pulled when the breast probe hit 160. The thighs were 180+ at that time. Couldn't have planned it any better.
 
I've done about 4 birds on my 18.5 with the biggest bird being about 22 pounds. All have turned out perfect! I did a 36 hour brine and then let air dry in the fridge for about 14 hours. When I was prepping the smoker I would pull the bird out and put a bag of ice on the breast and let it sit for about 30 minutes. This helped to keep the breast cool while the thighs warmed up a bit. I got this advice off of Larry from this forum. Worked perfect everytime! Give it a shot, but I agree with Carl in that brinning does help too! Good luck and enjoy.

BTW, I couldn't tell you the orientation of the bird in conjunction with the top vent and/or door as it was never a concern for me and I live in NW Ohio so I've had cold falls!

Tim
 
I think I had the vent over one of the breasts instead of centered because one side was done and the otherside was about 10 degrees lower.
 
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