I've got the open range - had it now for about 18 months or so and enjoyed it. I've been tasked with smoking turkey for my in-laws thanksgiving. I was probably going to do two turkeys based on the large expected turn out.
How long should I expect to smoke the turkeys for? - say two 15 pound turkeys at the same time.
Do you put them on their back - breast side up? or will they be able to stand up like a Beer-Butt Chicken?
I'm just tagging on to kcall's question...my difference is that I'm just doing some breasts. What kind of cook time am I looking at? I plan to brine (keep it pretty simple with salt, brown sugar, garlic, onion). Thanks!
Both of you, put them breast up with breast facing the damper. I did one last weekend as a trial run and it was about 13lbs. I had it at 250 for about 3hours and then my temp crept up into the 300 range. I thought I had screwed the pooch but then i remembered that i was cooking on a good one. My internal temp on the bird all over was about 185 and the meat was plenty moist. I would have preferred to pull it a little sooner but the results were still fantastic. Chris recommended pulling at about 165 and that is the temp i will be trying to get closer to next week. Hope that helps.
165* in the Breast...175*(ish) in the Thigh is what I typically shoot for in the bird. A word of caution with smoking turkey (if you haven't done it before now)...do not oversmoke it. First bird I did on the smoker, I was bound and determined to get nice smoke flavor in it and waaaaay oversmoked it. The skin turned nearly black and, of course, tasted like parade remnants after the horses prance through.
One good thing about The Good-One Smokers is that you do not need a lot of wood to get good smoke flavor.
Enjoy and let us know how your bird turns out!
Carpe 'Que,
Jim Rhino
Great info. smokeystarva, question - You said 3 hours at 250, how long were you at 300? I have a 16lb bird that I'm going to split. I have to think that it won't take much more than 3 hours.
SOMKEYSTARVA
Why put the breast up? Also how well does the beer butt for turkey work on the open range?
Lots of people like to smoke their birds breast down with the intention of the juices running down and keeping the lean breast meat moist. No problems with the Good-One! Go breast up for nice looking skin.
I don't know if the Open Range has the clearance for a beer butt turkey. I used to use a Turkey Cannon, but not anymore. I just set my birds in and let em go. They come out moist and tender everytime.
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