Thanksgiving is just a couple weeks away. Menus are being planned, family members are getting their travel plans in order, and people everywhere are thinking about cooking their turkey. Of course the majority of turkeys will be roasted in the oven and some will even break out the turkey fryer. But if you want the best turkey you will taste you will break out your grill or smoker. But that leaves one question… How to smoke a turkey? And in this instance we will be talking specifically about how to smoke a pasture raised turkey.
If you aren’t familiar with pasture raised turkey here are a couple posts that will give you a bit more info:
- Where to Buy Pasture Raised Turkey
- Where to Buy Pasture Raised Chickens (yeah, it is about chickens but it is applicable to turkeys as well)
Or if you don’t want to go look here is a quick pasture raised turkey rundown. Pasture raised turkeys, as it sounds, are raised on pastures. They aren’t kept in barns or anything like that. Usually they have a movable, open air barn that is moved every day so the birds can live and eat on a new section of pasture. They eat grass, bugs, worms, seeds, and the like. Usually they are antibiotic and drug free and live out their days in the open air. Don’t get fooled by “free range” birds. By law those birds only need access to the outdoors which is usually just a small door in their overcrowded barns.
Pasture raised turkeys have a much richer flavor than any birds you will find in your local grocery store. The meat is a much darker color and has more nutrients as well.
So, let’s get on to it:
How to smoke pasture raised turkey
Pasture raised turkey needs to be treated slightly different than a conventional turkey. The breast meat is usually smaller and not as artificially enhanced like grocery store birds. Pasture raised turkeys are generally speaking not pre-brined like most turkeys. So they need to be handled a bit different. You can definitely use this technique on any turkey but the pasture raised turkey will truly shine when prepared this way.
Disclosure: This post is monetized with affiliate links. If you buy something through them I earn a commission which helps support this site and lets me buy more meat so I can write about it.
If you are more of a visual learner feel free to watch the video below but if you prefer to read I will lay out the technique
Step 1: Spatchcock the turkey
Spatchcocking involves removing the backbone and flattening the bird. Doing this helps the turkey cook much more evenly. Since the breast meat is usually smaller on a pasture raised turkey flattening the will help the white meat cook at the same time as the dark meat. The breast meat should hit right around 160 degrees when the dark meat is about 175.
If the bird is left whole and not spatchcocked the breast meat will usually be dried out by the time the dark meat is done. And nobody wants that.
Step 2: Dry brine the turkey
A lot of people like to wet brine their turkey but I prefer a dry brine. With a wet brine you soak the bird in a salty solution, usually with some aromatics (herbs, onion, citrus, etc.) but with a dry brine all you need is salt. Since the aromatics can’t really penetrate the meat it is kind of a waste.
When you dry brine a turkey you sprinkle a decent amount of kosher salt on the bird and let it sit uncovered in the fridge for a day or two. The salt draws out some of the moisture and then through osmosis (at least I think it is osmosis? Chemistry class was a long time ago) the salt and water penetrate the meat and the result is seasoning throughout the bird.
Salting also helps dry out the skin which improves the texture of the skin after being cooked. I also think the texture of the meat suffers with a wet brine. The turkeys I have wet brined have come out with an almost ham like texture and that isn’t what I am looking for in a turkey.
Step 3: Season the turkey
With the richer flavor of a pasture raised turkey you want the flavor of the meat to shine through rather than whatever rub or seasoning you decide to use. I like to keep things simple with pasture raised poultry. Before I put the turkey on the smoker I like to give it a rub with some softened butter, sprinkle some kosher salt on it, and then season with some coarse ground black pepper. There are dozens of different rubs and seasoning blends you could use but those can overpower the great flavor of the meat.
Sometimes I will loosen the skin from the turkey a bit and shove some butter in but I don’t always do that. Nothing wrong with doing it but I don’t know how much it really matters. But rubbing butter on the outside helps crisp up the skin a bit. You can just spray it with cooking spray or duck fat as well. Butter is my favorite though.
Step 4: Smoke the Pasture Raised Turkey
Now it is time to actually cook the turkey. You can smoke your turkey on a pellet smoker, offset smoker, electric smoker, drum smoker, or whatever kind of smoker you have. I do nearly all my smoking on a kettle grill. For a full sized bird (I like 12-15 lbs) I usually use my Weber 26″ kettle but you can do it on a standard 22″ kettle as well.
I like to smoke my turkeys at around 325-375 degrees. I have tried smoking at a lower temperature around 225 and have done hotter around 450. Both those turn out a pretty good turkey but I have had the best results in the 325-375 range. You might see different results with your smoker but those temperatures give me the best combination of meat texture, skin texture, smoke flavor, and short cooking time. If you want a more scientific explanation of the cooking temperatures Amazing Ribs has a great article on the subject.
A spatchcocked turkey in the 12-15 pound range can generally be cooked in 2 hours or sometimes less. No need to babysit the grill all day long. Just throw the bird on the smoker and let it cook until the breast meat hits ~155-160 degrees internal temperature. If you go much more than that the breast meat will start to dry out a bit. Much less than that and the texture just isn’t quite right. When the breast meat hits the right temperature the dark meat in the thigh should be around 175. If it goes to 180-185 that is totally fine.
If you don’t have a good thermometer I would recommend the Thermoworks Smoke X4 for measuring the temperature of the smoker and the temperature of the bird while cooking. With 4 probes you can measure the temp of the smoker, both breasts, and the dark meat at the same time. I also like double checking the meat temp with the Thermoworks Thermapen One.
Sometimes the turkey can start to look a little dark towards the end of the cook. If this happens just tent the turkey with some foil. That will help the skin from darkening up too much. Even if the skin is dark it probably isn’t burnt but the dark color can be off-putting to some.
Apple wood is my wood of choice for poultry but oak works just fine too. If you really like smoke flavor you can use hickory for a stronger flavor. Pecan or peach wood is good. I am not a fan of mesquite, especially for turkeys. That is way too strong a flavor for birds.
When the turkey is done pull it off the smoker and let it rest for 20-30 minutes before carving. You can tent it with foil if you want to but it should stay plenty warm for 30 minutes. That also gives you time to get all the potatoes, stuffing, and mac and cheese out of the oven. BTW, a pizza peel is great for transferring the turkey from the smoker to the cutting board.
You should be left with a flavorful, juicy turkey that will be among the best turkey you have ever eaten. The simple seasoning of salt and pepper won’t overpower the rich flavor of the meat or the nice smoke flavor you get from smoking your pasture raised turkey.
Order your pasture raised turkey as soon as you can. They will usually ship mid-November and sell out a couple weeks before Thanksgiving. With the potential turkey shortage hitting grocery stores there should be higher demand for pasture raised turkeys than years past.
Crowd Cow Pasture Raised Turkey – 15 pound turkey for $129.98
Porter Road Pasture Raised Turkey – 13-15 pound turkey for $140
If you do smoke a pasture raised turkey this year let me know how it turns out!
