Turkey to dark?

[JasonBruenning]

Hi! The last couple years I’ve used my Weber smoker to do the thanksgiving bird. I’m using more as an oven then smoker but, I do add apple chunks for the first hour. Maintaining temps around 350f during the cook. My issue is the bird gets too dark. Looking for suggestions on how to avoid that. Cover with foil? Foil under the bird? Lower temp? It turns out great, not dry, great flavor etc… but skin gets overly dark during the cook.

 

[Joe D - BBQ Joe]

I would hold off on the wood, just charcoal. My wife doesn't like smoke on poultry, she says it makes it bitter. Her taste buds are ever on point, so it's okay by me. I use the rotisserie for turkey now - lump, no wood. The skin is golden like it should be on Norman Rockwell's table. Everything else you are doing sounds fine. I can't foil on the rotisserie but I never foiled when I was cooking turkey in the smoker, no need. I would just cut out the wood entirely and see what happens.

 

[JasonBruenning]

TY. I may need to try that. I like the apple wood. Seems to add a bit of sweetness vs bitter but, it may correct the darkness issue. TY for the idea.

 

[Ed P]

You can cover it completely with foil, then remove the foil an hour or two for browning before taking it off the grill. We do that in the indoor oven. You can also just make a cover out of a piece of foil to cover just the upper part. We've also cooked the bird breast side down in a v-shaped rack in a broiler pan...the breast stays moist that way because all the juices go to the bottom as it cooks. We've rotisseried a smaller turkey on the kettle, came out excellent, our favorite so far, but a bigger bird needs to be secured to the forks really well to prevent it from flopping around when it gets cooked. Spatchcock is almost but not quite just as good, in my opinion, but we've never spatchcocked a turkey, only chicken. I'll probably rotisserie this year, depending on size, on the BGE, but the wife likes to do dressing (stuffed turkey) and likes the way the house smells when we cook it indoors, so we will see.

 

[timothy]

In Turkey 101 he suggests covering it with butter soaked cheese cloth and cutting down on the amount of smoke wood.
I like to cut my chunks into quarters or thirds. It seems to get into the TBS faster with less white smoke.

TURKEY 101

TURKEY 101 WARNING: DO NOT plan on smoking your very first turkey on Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day or any other holiday, party or event. Practice at least once before you do this to impress your family and friends.CONTENTS:INTRODUCTIONHISTORY BEHIND THE TITLE SUBJECTBASICSFOOD...

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