Finished Turkey!

Well sort of, here's the rest of the process.

First things first we had to remove the turkey from the brine and give it a quick rinse with fresh water before letting it air dry in the fridge overnight. This was an important step in the process and gave me the delicious crispy, smokey skin.

Time for a quick rinse...

Patted dry with paper towels

Time to get tied up and massaged with butter...

done! One last seemingly simple yet very important step is to tuck the wing tips under the body to prevent them from burning.

This is all you need to get this thing chugging along at whatever temp you like!

I cooked the Turkey at 325* with a dry water pan and I lightly lined the pan with water to catch the drippings to make gravy with.

Almost ready for a turkey...

Ready to go!

And away we go...

Believe it or not I didn't even touch the smoker until the bird was done. I didn't even peak! and here is the end result....

But before I show you that just to reemphasize how awesome the MT-73 thermometer is...

just sit back and relax, play a game and let the smoker do the work while the thermometer keeps a watchful eye on things.

And now the bird...

and a plate full of leftovers.

What did I learn....

First, I would like to keep the turkey in the brine longer next time. I let it sit for around 30 hours and I have a sneaking suspicion a few extra hours would have only made things better.

Second, I would prefer if I didn't have to take the bird somewhere before carving because the crispy skin got soggy in the hour and a half in traffic on the way to its destination.

Third I will probably not just tie up the legs but instead truss the entire bird as if I were pan roasting a chicken in the oven. I am also told this may help prevent the skin from bursting open as well (Thanks for the pointer http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/)

Lastly, overall I would say it was pretty good, nice smokey flavor and a nice change from the norm. While I would definitely do this again, next time I think would stuff the cavity with an onion or two, maybe some apples, rosemary, thyme, cinnamon etc... just to add some other flavors to not only the bird but the drippings too.