Smoked Turkey
For Thanksgiving I always cook my turkeys “Sous Vide” and this year was no exception. See my post “Sous Vide Turkey.” It turned out amazing, as usual. Since it was just Mary Jo and myself, a whole 24# turkey was more than we could eat on Thursday, so like most Americans, we have leftovers for a few days. Saturday came around and we were still working on the first turkey breast and leg/thigh that I seared on Thanksgiving, and I hadn’t gotten around to the second set. So, I decided to smoke the second breast and leg/thigh for dinner on Saturday.
I started up my Traeger Pellet Fired Grill, filled it with Mesquite pellets and set it to 350-degrees F. On Thursday, I knew that I would be refrigerating half of the turkey that was not needed, so as soon as the 24 hours in the heated-circulating bath was up, I placed those two bags in an ice bath to cool them down. This is mandatory if you are not using your Sous Vide items immediately from the heated bath, to prevent possible food borne illness. I pulled the turkey out of the ziplock bags, drained off the juices and patted them very dry with paper towels. Optionally, you can sprinkle the turkey with a dry rub or seasoning mixture (like my Rosemary Steak Rub). I did not in this case, I just placed them directly on my preheated Traeger Grill and smoked them for 45 minutes, turning them over halfway through.
The skin crisped up nicely and the meat was still very juicy and tender when I sliced it. I served it with some of my leftover gravy from Thursday and a mash of three potatoes from my garden this summer: purple, banana fingerling and pinto.
The video below displays how tender and juicy the turkey was when I sliced it. It’s too bad that it does not convey the smoky aroma.
TOOL TIP:
In this post on my smoked turkey, I refer to my Traeger Grill, which is a considerable investment. An alternative to a large outside smoker is this stovetop smoker by Cameron’s. I love to use it to hot-smoke individual portions of salmon, chicken thighs and it would work well for the turkey breast and thighs. Depending upon the size of turkey you use (or if you smoke a whole chicken), it may be necessary to create a dome lid with foil instead of the cover that comes with the unit. I use it indoors with my standard residential stove vent and it keeps up with the exhaust of the smoke. For the turkey in this post, I would probably smoke it for 15 minutes on medium-heat with the Cameron’s smoker.
