# Low and Slow Turkey



## markm0369 (Oct 31, 2007)

I'm looking at smoking a turkey for tommorow, and have done several before and they were great, but a google search comes up with a number of people who say never cook turkey or poultry at less than 325. this seems to defy commonsence, as there are many slow cooker/ crock pot dishes (poultry)that we cook slow for 8 hrs as long as the temp comes up past 165/170 I don't see the issue. I'm still planning to cook the bird at around 200, 225 for about 10 hrs. Any chefs have any opinions


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## HisName (Nov 29, 2009)

I have my BGE ready to go. I will slow cook my turkey over heavy pecan smoke for 2 hours before it goes into a WW2 era enclosed turkey cooker and then 4 hours at 350 in the oven.

a ham will be placed in the BGE as soon as the turkey comes out

the reason for pecan over other woods is because I cut down a pecan tree so my garden could get more sun


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## halo1 (Oct 4, 2007)

markm0369 said:


> I'm looking at smoking a turkey for tommorow, and have done several before and they were great, but a google search comes up with a number of people who say never cook turkey or poultry at less than 325. this seems to defy commonsence, as there are many slow cooker/ crock pot dishes (poultry)that we cook slow for 8 hrs as long as the temp comes up past 165/170 I don't see the issue. I'm still planning to cook the bird at around 200, 225 for about 10 hrs. Any chefs have any opinions


I have smoked lots of turkey breasts on the BGE at 230ish for around 6-8 hours..One thing to note... You can oversmoke a turkey quick....I just add a few fruit wood chunks , then about half way I cover with tin foil to keep from oversmoking....


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## loadtoad1a7 (Oct 29, 2011)

I smoked a turkey for Thanksgiving and it came out realy good with cherry wood. I read alot of posts before doing it and the biggest thing i found was that you dont want to smoke a turkey over like 14 pounds because it stays in the danger zone of 140 for to long. just make sure the breast and thighs are over 165 to 170.


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## kelly1 (Oct 1, 2007)

Stuffed the turkey with a 24 oz Yuengling with a few extra seasonings for Christmas. Set the BGE at 350 degrees with an remote thermometer. Meat was very tender and moist. Turned out great and the guest loved it...


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## Buckyt (Oct 1, 2007)

I have done turkeys at 200 for 6 hours and they have turned out great. I use McCormicks Montreal steak seasoning and a light coating of barbeque sauce when I start and they turn out great. I don't usually add any smoke chips because I get enough smoke flavor from my charcoal. I am usually smoking a small turkey or a breast. If I was smoking a big bird, I would get the trmp a little higher and keep it smoking longer.


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## FelixH (Sep 28, 2007)

Too late to help you for your Christmas dinner, but this is what I did this year:

Turkey was 22.5 pounds.
Brined the turkey for about 1.5 days in a cold brine.
Stuffed the cavity with onion wedges and orange wedges.
Heavy smoke for about the first hour to hour and a half.
No smoke at all after that... just low heat (225 to 250).
Checked it after about 10 hours, and it wasn't done yet.
Removed it after about 11.5 hours (it was up to proper temp at that point) and wrapped it in foil to rest for half an hour.
It came out Great!


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## markm0369 (Oct 31, 2007)

Thanks guys, just needed a sounding board for reason and common sense , sometimes a difficult commodity to find these days, anyway threw the bird (small one 12 lbs or so) on at 0500, at 200 or so and by 3 pm one of the wings fell off, (had it on a rotiserie) gave it a final blast at 500 or so for 15 min to crisp the skin and it was a complete hit, great way to do a turkey.:thumbup:


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## danielo (Jan 11, 2012)

halo1 said:


> I have smoked lots of turkey breasts on the BGE at 230ish for around 6-8 hours..One thing to note... You can oversmoke a turkey quick....I just add a few fruit wood chunks , then about half way I cover with tin foil to keep from oversmoking....


That's what I do...it works well.


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