Rubbed Neked Bird

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Shawn White

Sous Chef
Joined
Jan 5, 2005
Messages
791
Location
Calgary, Alberta
Hi All, been a while since I've been around. Haven't done much interesting in smoking for a while but I thought I'd share this one.

I did another skinned, rubbed and smoked turkey and took some pics this time. The bird was a utility grade frozen $.99/lb deal defrosted in cooler -> fridge in 5 days.

Click here for pics, follow link: 2007-10-07 Cajun Rubbed Skinned Turkey

The rub was based on a post by Stogey 'Couzan Billy's Cajun Dust' ... I'll see if I can find what I did to it. Basically cut back on some spice and added turbinado sugar to normal rub proportion.

I left the skin on the wings and 'socks' on the bottom of the legs. I also left the band of skin below the abdomen cavity to tuck the leg ends in. I pinned the wing tips to body.

After skinning I dried then lightly oiled the bird before applying the rub.

15 lbs cooked over Maple Leaf Lump with some cherry chips at around 350ºF for 4 hours. Didn't check finish temp ... probably 165ºF+. Foiled and rested for an hour in a cooler. Sliced meat pics are from next day.

This was a huge hit with the family. We all especially enjoyed the turkey bark. The outside gets a bit like jerky but it seems to stay moist inside. You can see in the pics the the thickness of the layer that forms is quite thin on the breast (cooked breast up). It was a bit thicker in the dark meat. I didn't use a water pan.

I've pretty much given up on getting good skin out of the WSM and this way the rub isn't wasted when the skin gets thrown out. Certainly the skin helps somewhat but I think finish temp is the bigger factor in how moist the end product is.

So a bird wrapped in seasoned turkey jerky might not be for everyone, but we really enjoyed it. One thing I can say is it's never been so easy to get the dark meat eaten up. Most in my house only like white turkey meat from the oven roast birds, but this whole bird was cleaned up in a couple of meals.
 

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