The Country Weekend Recipe: The Speaker's Smoked Turkey

In honor of the former Speaker, let's smoke some turkey!

Fall is in the air. It makes me think of Thanksgiving and smoked meats. I stumbled across the greatest smoked turkey recipe last year and I feel it must be shared. Let’s get started.

Emeril

I first started cooking because of Emeril Lagasse. I know a lot of “purists” don’t like television chefs, and especially like to impugn the most popular TV chef since Julia Child, but Emeril is the real deal. He graduated Johnson and Wales University cooking school, and within 5 years took over for Paul Prudhomme at Commander’s Palace in New Orleans. In 1990 he opened Emeril’s in New Orleans and soon won “Restaurant of the Year” in Esquire magazine and has been listed as a Grand Award for many years in Wine Spectator. He has since opened a number of concepts around the country. But he really took off with “Emeril Live,” which was a show we tuned into every chance we had. It was a great show - entertaining, informing and fun. It is, in my opinion, the best straight cooking show ever to grace the screen. He exposed my wife and I to many cuisines we had never tried, and to this day every once in a while we find an old episode to watch.

Suffice it to say, whenever I want to make something I’ve never made before, I seek out Emeril’s recipe at emerils.com or in the many cookbooks I’ve bought from him first, and then see what a couple other trusted advisers think. If you’re interested, this is my favorite, but Emeril never disappoint.

Smoked Whole Turkey Preparation

And so, when it came time years ago to host our first Thanksgiving, I immediately turned to Emeril, and found this recipe. The recipe and link are so old that I have a printed out version. The link is not great, so please email me if you need some help.

I am a huge proponent of brine for all poultry, and I’ve used the brine in the Emeril recipe almost exclusively for Thanksgiving Turkey through the years. It’s the right balance of aromatics, fruit/acid and sweetness/salt to make an amazingly moist and delicious turkey regardless of how you cook your turkey. And, as an aside, I’ve tried every method of cooking turkeys - roasted in the oven, grilled, fried and smoked. To me, there’s no substitute for the great flavor that comes from a smoking turkey at lower temperatures. Let’s face it, turkey has no flavor; in my opinion, you must introduce flavor with the brine, the smoke and the finishing to make a turkey delicious. But if you prefer a roast beast, feel free to follow that recipe completely - you’ll have a great bird for Thanksgiving. Here, we’re going to use the brine and the broth from Emeril and then combine that with the best smoked turkey recipe I’ve found (below).

Brine

You must brine that bird. I use a large bucket and buy the roasting bags you can get at the grocery store to hold the brine and the bird. Combine 2 gallons cold water with 1 cup salt, 1 cup brown sugar, 2 oranges and 2 lemons quartered, and sprigs of rosemary and thyme (4-6). Take your turkey out of the wrapping and remove the neck and giblets, add it the the brine in the bucket. This is where I do this a bit differently. I put the near frozen bird in the brine and let it defrost in there for the first day. Then, once the bird seems to be relatively unfrozen, 2 more days in the fridge for a total of 3 days of brine. Emeril calls for 1 day of brine with an already defrosted turkey.

Rest and Dry

To each his own, but understand if you’re doing it my way you should start the brine the Sunday before Thanksgiving. On Wednesday (after 72 hours), you should remove the turkey from the brine, pat it down with paper towels to dry it out as best you can, and then sit the turkey on a rack, uncovered in the fridge for an extra day. So, a total of 4 days of prep - 3 days of brine and then 1 day of rest (God rested after 6 days, but brined turkeys only make it to 3).

Bring to Room Temperature (Day of)

Take the turkey out of the refrigerator early on Turkey Day, and let it rest in a cool, dry place in your kitchen on a rack. Now would be a good time to add your favorite rub all over the turkey and under the breast skin. Feel free to toss some garlic cloves and a little butter under that skin as well - no one will hate you.

Spatchcock: the greatest thing since sliced turkey

This is where we keep improving on Emeril’s greatness. I know it sounds like a porn move, but spatchcocking a whole bird is one of the best things you can do for that chicken or turkey (at least at this point of their life). Jonathan Waxman spatchcocks his chicken for one of the best roast chicken recipes ever. If it’s good enough for him, well who the hell are we to argue?

Spatchcocking simply means cutting through the back of the bird in order to lay it out flat. Not only dies this decrease the cooking time needed significantly, but it enables our smoke flavor to hit much more surface area of the bird, intensifying the effect and cooking it more evenly. Trust me - spatchcock it! It has the added benefit of allowing you to tease the family about the word “spatchcocking” all day. Here’s a quick tutorial to get ‘er done.

Time to Smoke

As I mentioned before, I run a Traeger grill for smoking applications.. Their app has amazing recipes and this one comes from it: Matt Pittman's Spatchcocked Smoked Turkey. They have their own product you can but for brining which I haven’t tried, but it’s similar in the sense that it uses citrus. Give it a shot if you’re feeling lucky. Nothing bad will come of it, I am pretty certain. We’ve bought some of their rubs and they are pretty amazing.

Next, we’re pretty much following Matt’s recipe. I honestly can’t remember if I spatchcocked before brine or spatchcocked after (see how fun it can be) but I don’t think it matters much. Either way, follow my steps after - let it dry for a day in the refrigerator. Drying out the skin at this stage will help with the smoke infusion into the skin while cooking.

Preheat your smoker to 275 degrees. Very important - get yourself an aluminum pan that fits underneath the grill in your smoker and is at least as big as the bird. We’re going to catch all of the juices that drip down and use them for the gravy.

Let the smoker sit with your extra pan in it at the desired temperature for longer than you think - make sure the whole smoker gets to temperature before you add the bird. In fact, buy yourself a temperature gun and check the temperature on several surfaces. I got this idea from Alton Brown and I use this tool all the time.

Rub your turkey with your favorite BBQ Rub. I really like 4 Rivers All Purpose Rub, which is a Florida local BBQ joint. There’s a million choices in the naked Country for rubs, and this one is yours.

Now’s the easy part. Lay that spatchcocked bird down breast side up and cook it until your meat thermometer gets to 160 degrees in the breast. Periodically give that turkey some love with a little butter. This helps the skin not dry out (this is the number one issue with smoking) and gets crispy. The bird, depending on size, will probably take about 3 hours for a 10-12 pounder. Plan on longer for bigger dudes. While its going (and other than basting with butter every 30-45 minutes), go worry about your potatoes and other sides, and make the broth and the glaze.

Turkey Broth

We’ve got to make gravy too and I like to go the extra step and make some homemade turkey broth for the gravy. You can skip this step and just use chicken stock from the store but nobody likes a quitter. I mean, if you’re doing it the Country way, you’re going all the way from scratch, my friend.

Take the neck, giblets (I leave out the liver, which has a very strong flavor) and the backbone you removed from spatchcocking the bird (see below) and sear them in a large stockpot in some oil at medium-high. When they’re all brown on the outside (about a minute), add in the mirepoix - onion, carrots and celery and a bay leaf and get those happy, about 2 more minutes. Now we add 6 cups of liquid (half water and half chicken stock is good; I usually throw in a dash of Worcestershire), bring it all to a boil and then simmer for about an hour. You want it to reduce to 4 cups and it should take about an hour. Strain all the stuff out of that stock and set it aside. Think about making just a teensy bit more to throw into your potatoes as you mash ‘em.

Glaze

This was the key thing missing that Matt Pittman added to the mix for me - a finishing glaze. This one is so simple, but you will not be disappointed. 1/2 Cup Honey, 1/2 Cup Dijon Mustard, half a stick of butter and some more of the rub you picked above. Simmer that until it’s reduced by about 1/3. Another Alton Brown trick - buy a metal ruler like this one. You want metal because it won’t impart any flavor to your sauce. You can stick it right in there and see how much it’s reduced by measuring the depth. Easy peasy.

I’ve only made this glaze once, but recently discovered that adding Sriracha or Gochujang or any other hot sauce to honey mustard takes you to another level. I haven’t tried it for this glaze, but that's happening at my next opportunity. Let’s go.

When the turkey is getting close to 160 degrees in the breast, spread that glaze all over the cooking turkey and cook for about 10 more minutes. Once the turkey is done, take it off and let it rest on a cutting board that will catch the running juices for at least 15 minutes. If you want, cover the turkey with tin foil but tent it so the foil doesn’t touch or mess up your glaze.

And now, Gravy

I don’t care who you are, gravy is the most important part of a great turkey dinner. If you’re doing it right, it ends up on the turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, heck you can spread it on a car bumper, as Emeril used to say. It’s got to be good. That’s why I highly recommended going the extra mile for Turkey broth and putting that pan at the bottom of your smoker. Now’s the time. Grab that pan (it’s hot - wear something to protect your hands) and put it on top of your grill, or on a stove or burner. Turn the heat up to about medium - we’re going to deglaze this pan. Once the turkey drippings start to smoke and fry, add your deglazing liquid of choice. Emeril says to add 1 cup of the turkey broth and 1 cup of white wine - that’ll work great. I prefer to grab some Port for this purpose - I feel the fortification of the wine adds a depth of flavor that is wonderful. You make the call. I add enough Port so that it will cover all of the drippings and you need to let that boil for a few minutes as the Port reduces and intensifies in flavor. Scrape all of the brown bits off of your aluminum pan as that Port gets happy - nothing should be left on your drip pan when we transfer the liquid.

Meanwhile, while that pan gets happy, start another stock pot with 1/4 cup butter over medium-high heat. As soon as the butter is melting (and before it starts to burn) stir in 1/4 cup flour and stir constantly to make yourself a light roux.

When the roux looks ready and the drippings and deglazing liquids are mixed together, again using something to protect your hands, transfer the drippings and deglaze mixture into the roux, along with the rest of the turkey broth. Keep whisking as the whole thing gets to a boil. Then simmer about 10 minutes until thickened. This is the time to taste and add salt and pepper - it doesn’t need any thing else. If the gravy is not to your liking in terms of consistency, now’s the time to slurry together a little corn starch and water, bring it back up to a boil and whisk that in as well. Just be careful - you don’t want to over-thicken. You can always do this again if you still think it’s too thin. Honestly, mine never comes out exactly the same, but I guarantee you this gravy will be some of the best you’ve ever had.

Time to Eat

Hopefully you’ve got everything else together and you’re ready to eat. I highly recommend taking the whole breasts off of the bird and cutting in cross sections, like little filets. Everyone wants some of the breast, and this will extend the number of folks that can share it. Cut it like this:

So, give this recipe a shot this week and invite your favorite former Speaker to dinner. He’s free, and it’ll be good practice for your Thanksgiving bonanza. Enjoy!