Smoked Turkey with Good Skin

[tostitobandito]

I'm doing another smoked turkey this year for Thanksgiving, and am researching ways to get better crispier skin instead of skin that basically just gets thrown away. To be clear the meat has been perfect; I'm just trying to improve the skin without sacrificing that. In the past with my 3Dwifi I've done more or less the following:

• Spatchcocked 20-22 pound turkey, wet brined for 48 hours, rinsed, dried, and allowed to sit uncovered in fridge overnight
• Season all over with ground pepper and pack herb butter under and on top of the skin
• Smoke at 250 with hickory/cherry, basting with more butter after leaving undisturbed for the first couple hours
• Pull at 160 internal (approximately 4-4.5 hours)

This time I'm thinking of trying a dry brine for at least 48 hours instead of wet, potentially reducing the amount of butter (gasp), and also pulling at a lower temp and finishing in an oven at 375 or something. I found some articles and videos from reputable sources talking about these things, but they mostly use offsets or pellet smokers which don't always directly translate to smokers like ours. Any of you guys tried any of these approaches? How did they work?

 

[Lonzinomaker]

I think that crisp skin is not possible because of the low heat and low airflow through the smoker.
I'm lucky because the skin is not part of the turkey I eat.

 

[old sarge]

If you want crispy skin, place the smoked turkey skin side up under your oven broiler or skin side down on a hot grill (make sure you lube up the grates to avoid sticking. In either case it should only take a couple of minutes. And for the record, I have never smoked any poultry or fish so my recommendation is from what I have read in the past and some good guesswork. Pork and beef for me and mine.

 

[MR BBQ]

The butter won't hurt the browning process, butter, oil and sugar is a browning agent. What is going to hurt the browning in the smoker is if you keep opening the smoker and basting. First of all you are letting the heat out every time you open the smoker and heat is your friend when wanting to brown. Also you don't need to baste things in these smokers, they cook real moist and are basically self basting, they trap a lot of moisture inside the smoker. You also need to kick up the heat, everything doesn't need to be cooked at down in the 200* range, turkey takes on smoke flavor real easy in fact if your smoker is seasoned real well you can cook one with no wood and still get a decent smoke flavor. You need to crank up that heat, you need a bit over 300* to obtain crispy skin. Last resort you can rub a little bit of Baking soda on the skin while season and it helps to crust the skin. If its spatchcocked towards the end of the cook you can move the turkey to the bottom rack skin side down right over the wood box and the heating element while the smoker is on high, just keep an eye on it.

 

[tostitobandito]

The butter won't hurt the browning process, butter, oil and sugar is a browning agent. What is going to hurt the browning in the smoker is if you keep opening the smoker and basting. First of all you are letting the heat out every time you open the smoker and heat is your friend when wanting to brown. Also you don't need to baste things in these smokers, they cook real moist and are basically self basting, they trap a lot of moisture inside the smoker. You also need to kick up the heat, everything doesn't need to be cooked at down in the 200* range, turkey takes on smoke flavor real easy in fact if your smoker is seasoned real well you can cook one with no wood and still get a decent smoke flavor. You need to crank up that heat, you need a bit over 300* to obtain crispy skin. Last resort you can rub a little bit of Baking soda on the skin while season and it helps to crust the skin. If its spatchcocked towards the end of the cook you can move the turkey to the bottom rack skin side down right over the wood box and the heating element while the smoker is on high, just keep an eye on it.

I know I can get the smoker up to 325F in theory, but since it's so humid in there as you point out I'm not convinced it would be as effective as moving it to a 350F grill/oven to finish, or something along those lines. Have you done one at 300F+ in the smoker the entire time? Or do you raise the temp at the end?

 

[tostitobandito]

I think I've settled on the following approach:

• Spatchcock 21.5 lb fresh turkey
• Dry brine with kosher salt (about 1/3 - 1/2 cup for the whole bird) and leave on a pan in the fridge for 48 hours
• Inject breasts and thighs with melted butter/herb/cajun solution, and season outside with some (unsalted) cajun rub
• Put into the smoker at 225F for like an hour to get the smoke going and not flash the wood, and then turn up to 300-325F for the remainder (guessing 3-4 hours total)
• Take a peek at around 130F internal to see how the skin looks and adjust accordingly. Can bail and finish on a grill if it's not getting brown/crispy.
• Pull off and let rest at 155-160F internal (I expect more carryover at this higher temp)

I may also put a small drip pan on the rack below the turkey to get some drippings and so how they smell for potential use in gravy. Never tried to get drippings from anything in the smoker before. I already made several quarts of stock so I'm fine either way, but could add some interesting flavor to the gravy if it's not too overpowering.

 

[tostitobandito]

Update on the results.

• The turkey had been salted and sat in the fridge uncovered for about 60 hours prior to the cook. The skin was very dry when it came time to season/cook.
• I set the smoker to 325F, but I think the hottest it was ever able to get was around 295-300F. Probably due to the cold temps here around 40F.
• The cook took around 3.5 hours for a 21.5 lb bird.
• Skin was definitely better than when I've smoked at 250F. Not fully crispy, but a lot more of the fat rendered and it wasn't gross and rubbery.
• I experimented with an aluminum drip pan on the rack below the turkey with some carrot/onion/apple chunks in it and got some tasty drippings that weren't too overpowering with smoke. Used in the gravy and put some on the stuffing.

Oh, and this was also the first time I'd injected. Had rivers of juice pouring out when I cut it. The juice groove on my giant cutting board was not adequate.

Would definitely do again, but go heavier on the cajun seasoning and finish it for the last 30 min on a 400+ degree grill.

 

[MR BBQ]

Thevother thing you can do to help the skin get crispier id dry the turkey good, then get a pot of boiling water and slowly poor boiling water over the skin. Dry and then proceed to season and cook. I do that to my ducks I shoot and it works great.