Smoked and Fried Turkey Cooking Tips

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Bradley Smokers www.bradleysmoker.com-November 2010, Turkey Recipes (will work with other fowl). First a quick sales pitch (your recipes follow closely)
It is all about great flavor, but convenience does not hurt either and in fact in the first two following recipe ideas you can see how easy it is to do a normally time consuming operation. 
 
The Bradley will smoke and or cook up to a 26 pound turkey and the best news is it can be smoking in less than 3-minutes.  Just plug it in, set smoker time, set cooking time and temperature and put in the flavor of wood you want and you are under way.  No muss, no fuss, just great flavor.   Every 20 minutes the Bradley will automatically feed a fresh low cost wood bisquette (looks like a small hockey puck) into the smoker. 
 
You can easily mix the wood smoke flavors (impossible with other smokers and techniques) to your taste from 12 different available wood flavors.  You also get to decide how much smoke you want to apply to the food and this smoke is not burned smoke so it is not bitter and packed with tars and creosotes like smoke that comes from burning wood. 
 
Bradley wood suggestions for turkey or other fowl:  Alder, Apple, Cherry, Hickory, Jim Beam, Oak, Maple, Pecan, and Bradley’s special Blend.   And, remember, with the Bradley, you can layer on various smoke flavors.  Take 80 minutes of total smoking at 20 minutes each beginning (Bradley automatic feed) with pecan then apple, cherry, and finish with pecan again; incredible. 
 
LAST, all of the below recipes will work with any smoker, but when we say work we mean it.  All that messy starting up, waiting for the heat to get right, then management of the process and of course the fun filled clean up-all eliminated by the Bradley.
 
The following two super simple techniques are for smoke flavoring and other method cooking:
 
Kitchen Oven Simple
This is an incredibly quick ad easy way to put rich smoke flavor on an oven cooked turkey.  Put your choice of Bradley wood bisquettes into the Bradley automatic feeder.  For most turkeys and chicken benefit from 60-80 minutes (3-4 bisquettes) of heavy smoke and you will get an incredibly rich flavor. Place thawed, washed and dried turkey into the Bradley smoker and allow it to smoke for 60-80 minutes in the Bradley.  For this recipe you need not turn on the Bradley cooker unit, just the smoke unit.  Once the turkey is smoked prepare and cook it in your kitchen oven as you normally would.  The flavor is amazing!  Total Bradley cost, about $1.20-$1.50.
 
Smoke and oil frying
Generally, the only way to add flavor to deep fried turkey is to inject all kinds of stuff into the bird before lowering it (carefully) into the deep fryer. Well, this time try placing the thawed, washed and dried bird into your Bradley smoker for 60-100 minutes (no need to turn on the Bradley cooking unit).  After this smoking period then season and deep fry it per your fryer’s directions. What you get is a deep fried bird with rich smoke flavor-life is good and this fried bird is great!  Total Bradley cost about $1.20-$1.80 and your fried bird loving friends will beg to learn how you did it.

The following recipes are for both smoking and cooking a 20-26 pound turkey in the Bradley smoker:
 
Brine Smoked Big Bird
Brining adds flavor and moisture in most any food.  This Big Bird recipe will result in an incredibly rich flavored and succulent smoked turkey.
 
Ingredients:
2 C Bradley Demerara Cure
1C brown sugar
1/4C molasses
2Tbs whole peppercorns
2Tbs allspice berries
1Tbs whole cloves
1ts dried rosemary
1/2ts dried sage
2 bay leaves
11/2 gallon water
1/2 gallon apple cider
11/2 cups Jim Beam Bourbon
 
Preparation…
In a large pot combine all ingredients and bring to a boil and then remove and cool to 40 degrees F.  Place a clean turkey in a large plastic pale or cooler, breast down and completely cover the bird with the brine.  If needed add more water and apple cider.  Place an ice bag on top of the bird to keep it completely submerged and cover the container and set aside in a refrigerator for 16 hours.
 
After brining is completed DISCARD ALL OF THE BRINE SOLUTION, dry the bird and place into the smoker preheated to 205-220 degrees F.  You will need to cook the turkey a last 30-minutes per pound or until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees F.  Smoke the bird with Bradley Jim Beam wood bisquettes for about four hours.  It is not recommended you have stuffing in the turkey during the smoke cooking period for this recipe.
 
Brine Injected Tom Turkey
This recipe is a variation on the previous recipe
2C Bradley Demerara Cure
21/4 C Kosher salt
11/2C brown sugar
3 bunches tarragon
3 bunches fresh parsley
6 bay leaves
2 Tbs minced fresh garlic
3 white onions finely chopped
9 Tbs black peppercorns (ground or cracked)
6 lemons (halved and squeezed)
 
Preparation…
Add all the ingredients to 3 gallons of water heat and bring to a boil until salt and sugar are completely dissolved.  Chill down to 40 degrees F.  Once cooled and ready for use remove 3- 6 cups of solution and strain through paper coffee filter.  Inject this mixture into the bird with a food injector.  Then place turkey into the brine and cover completely using a bag of ice to weigh the bird down and place in a refrigerator for 16-24 hours. Remove from brine and discard the brine.   Remove the bird and keep refrigerated for 12-24 hours before smoke cooking.   Place bird into the 200 degree preheated Bradley and smoke it for about four hours and then continue cooking for at least 30 minutes per pound or until the internal temperature reaches 150 degrees F. Then remove the bird and place it into a conventional oven preheated to 325 degrees F to crisp the skin and finish to at least 165 degrees F.   
 
Please visit the Bradley website at www.bradleysmoker.com


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