Thanksgiving’16 aka Turkpocalypse

All Packed Up!

So this Thanksgiving was the first hosted by my Grandmother Nanny in FL. Normally for the past few years I split my Thanksgivings between my Dad’s House and my Grandmothers house. That normally meant either a 30 minute drive North OR an 8 hour drive north. This year it was an hour drive south to Bradenton and I took my smoker with me!

snug as a bug

Pictured above is my dual propane/charcoal Char-Griller, the box is the add on firebox that had yet to be assembled.

Wednesday Night –

Now the day before I had prepared myself with the thought that I would be waking up at 6 am and starting the 10 hour smoke.

After taking a look at the turkeys and getting them ready for the dry brine I realized that 20lbs was going to be a little difficult to keep the proper safe internal temperature all day so I went to the google machine and did some research.

I found out that I was going to have to do a higher smoke temperate for less time for safety reasons. This was slightly upsetting because I was concerned with how much smoke was going to make it into the meat, as well as the possibility of drying out the meat at a higher temp. I decided to make a broth and inject it as well.

Thursday Morning –

After letting the birds brine overnight I went to work making the broth, I used a combination of apple cider, beer and a mixture of seasonings cooked it down, let it cool and then liquid stuffed those bad boys. Then I went to work on getting the smoke going.

I used a combination of cheery and hickory for the coal side and apple for the propane side. I used the side fire box for the coal side and a mini smoke box for the propane side. I wanted to fit both of the birds on the coal side but I also didn’t want to crowd them and make them fight for temperature.

And it begins…