Smoked 17 pound Turkey
Smoked 17 pound Turkey - Before leaving my Nephew to fend for himself, after giving him a few tips and tricks for his new Green Mountain Grills Daniel Boone, we smoked a fresh 17 pound Butterball Turkey for Thanksgiving. As you can see the gobbler turned out golden brown and if I may say so myself it was smoked/cooked to perfection. If you've never had smoked turkey then you don't know what you're missing. Best of all, it's extremely simple and wood pellet smoker-grills will provide you with fantastic results!
Not a big fan of allowing the drippings to cake on the bottom of the grill so we used what I call a "V" rack inside a foil turkey pan. If desired I can use the drippings for making gravy the old fashioned way rather than using a turkey gravy mix. Either way, it's all good - gravy for the smashed taters, stuffing, and smoked turkey.
- Trim any large excess fat chunks and some of the overlapping skin
- Rub extra virgin olive oil under and on the skin
- Rub McCormick Grill Mates Montreal Chicken Seasoning and Fagundes Seasoning under and on the skin
- Carefully wrap the seasoned turkey in plastic and refrigerate overnight
- Preheat your wood pellet smoker-grill to 225ºF using Hickory wood pellets
- Remove the turkey from the fridge while grill is preheating
- Smoke the fresh turkey for 2 hours at 225ºF
- After 2 hours, bump the pit temperature to 335ºF
- Pull the smoked turkey when the internal temperature at the thickest part of the breast reaches 170ºF
- Rest the turkey loosely under a foil tent for 15 minutes before carving
For planning purposes only: The 17 pound turkey took approximately 6 hours from start to finish (preheat, smoke, roast, rest) to reach 170ºF
Mike Lambrecht
Thank you..this will be my first Turkey. I’ve done plenty of baby backs, tri tip, pork shoulder, beer can chickens..looking forward to this challenge..happy smokinging
Eveyone
Pete Jautaikis
You’ll do great! Easy Peasy …
Ray
First smoked turkey (17lbs.). Going on 4.5 hrs@ 250 degrees heat. Just hit 155 internal temp. Looks great. thanks for the technique tips. Decided to baste every hour, so may take a bit longer.
Peter Jautaikis
Note that my recipe calls for you to bump the pit temperature: “After 2 hours, bump the pit temperature to 335ºF” … Keeping the pit temp at 225 degrees F will take a long time to get over the “stall”. You will experience a stall around 150 – 160 degrees F.
Charles Lamb
Oh mercy! Best, tastiest turkey I have cooked in my 65 years on the planet!!!
Mary Gleason
My smoker only goes to 275
Peter Jautaikis
Other than procuring a different smoker, there is nothing I can add. If your smoker only goes to 275 then you will have to cook it at 275 for a much longer time in order to reach the proper internal temperature