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PrintPrep Time
11 hrs 40 mins
Grill Time
1 hr 30 mins
Total Time
13 hrs 10 mins
Categories
Ingredients
Servings
For the turkey:
1
Turkey – The one I used was 18 pounds and would comfortably feed 10
1/2 pound BBQr’s Delight Sugar Maple Pellets
1
tbsp
kosher salt
0.5
tbsp
cracked black pepper
2
tbsp
poultry seasoning
4
cups
apple cider in a spray bottle
For the brine:
3
cups
kosher salt
3
cups
Vermont maple syrup
2
cups
sugar
1.5
gals
cold water
6
tbsp
poultry seasoning
2
tbsp
cracked black pepper
1
tbsp
dried thyme
1.5
gals
ice cubes
Directions
Step 1
Prep the brine
Combine the salt, maple syrup, sugar and water in a large vessel such as a cooler. Whisk until the salt and sugar are dissolved. Add the poultry seasoning, cracked black pepper and dried thyme. Whisk again and finish with the ice cubes.
Step 2
Have your knives sharp and ready and prepare to deconstruct your turkey.
Rather than going into a lengthy “how to” description on breaking down a bird please see this wonderful tutorial but skip the last few steps. Do not separate the legs from the thighs and do not cut each breast in half.
Step 3
Place your turkey pieces into the brine and let sit overnight or at least 8 hours.
I got lucky and had a particularly cold evening so I just brought the cooler outside and in the morning I still had plenty of ice. Remove the turkey from the brine and rinse well under cold water. Pat dry and refrigerate until you're ready to cook.
Step 4
Grilling Instructions:
I used the A-Maze-N Tube Smoker for my cook. I filled a 6 inch tube, lit it with my torch and allowed it to burn for 10 minutes before blowing it out. Place the smoking tube on its side atop your GrillGrates in a cold grill, off to the side. Close the lid. Season your turkey pieces with poultry seasoning, kosher salt and cracked black pepper. Place your turkey parts into your smoked filled cold grill bone side down for 20 minutes for a nice pre-smoke. After 20 minutes light your grill but keep your burners on low. Using a dual probe thermometer insert one into the fattest part of the breast and the other a few inches from the grate surface. Ideally your looking for your cooker to stay under 300F, I kept mine sub 280F. Adjust your temps and allow the bird to cook slowly adding more pellets as needed to give a nice smoke- sugar maple is quite mild so you won’t run the risk of over smoking. After 45 minutes move the pieces of turkey around keeping the bone side down. Spritz with apple cider a few times during this period. When the internal temp of the breast is 120F flip the pieces to begin crisping the skin. Occasionally move the pieces of meat positioning them in such a way you get even browning and crispness and continue to spritz with the cider. When the internal temp of the breasts have hit 165F they can be removed from your grill and covered with foil. The wings should be done by this point with an internal temp closer to 200F. Allow the thigh and leg quarters to get to 200F internal and remove from grill. Carve your breast meat and separate the legs from the thighs for serving. Enjoy!
I use a 5 gallon water cooler place turkey, chicken, pork butt in cooler add brine add water to cover I use water frozen in 2ltr bottle instead of ice, as the ice in the bottle melts it will not dilute your brine.