The 1st fried turkey I ever had I thought was the best turkey I had ever had. Thinking of a way to cook a bird without having to buy $40 in peanut oil every time and not having to keep a fire extinguisher at the ready would be more my speed. It’s beer season ya know?!? This way does the trick, and this is easily done in the oven if you are smoker deficient. "Keep
This BBQ recipe isn't a long drawn out “low-n-slow” smoke. I find better results on quicker cooks and have done these at higher temps than what’s here. We are relying heavily on your thermometer so play with it if you want my highest is 350 degrees. Not ready for the cranberry influx I decided to do a primer with Jesus seeds. These instructions will seem a little long, but I’m adding the cauliflower side dish in here cause it was fabulous! Black eyes were too but maybe next time peas.
I'll do this a day ahead of time but it's not necessary. Bird in clean sink stick your hand in birds butt and pull out anything in there. At the head is probably a bag of giblets under skin remove those too. Take any else off the bird-like wire holding the legs together. Turn on cold water and wash inside and outside of the bird. Pat dry inside and out.
Get your smoker smoking to 300 degrees
In a large bowl or mixers bowl mix butter, garlic, and 1 cup of the Dawgs Bark. You can mix it by hand because everything's gonna melt and mix.
Stuff all the butter mixture in the bird's butt.
Rub your buttery hands all over the bird and sprinkle remaining Dawgs Bark all over bird.
With your buttery hands place the bird in the roaster breast down.
Thinking of pictures and not the process I screwed up and inserted my thermometer too early. Don’t do that as you see in the picture. I’ll trigger that in a second.
Okay so breast side down, put your turkey in 300 degree pit or oven.
Set timer for 2 hours and don’t open pit/oven until then.
After 2 hours get your bird on a stable surface so you can turn it over. Careful it’s hot! BBQ gloves work great and I’ve used two pieces of crumbled foil to do it.
Quickly turn bird over breast side up. NOW insert thermometer and get it back in pit/oven.
Set the timer for 1 hour and same rules, don’t peek.
Your bird should now have a nice golden brown color. If so place a piece of loose foil over the breast. If at any time any part of the bird is getting too dark just cover it in foil.
More than likely you have at least another hour to go (going on 4th). This is where we're really relying on the thermometer. You can set timer but it’s not the decision maker any more.
The is just my preference but the internal temp has to be 165 degrees per gubment rules. I pull the bird at 161 and set it on stove because the temp will rise to 165 or higher. All in all your looking at 4-5 hours.
30 - 45 minutes the bird is ready to carve. A good time to start the cauliflower side would be now.
The juices from the bird are not useable for gravy because of the salt content. Use the neck and giblets to to make gravy. I can assure you this is moist and tender turkey day one and two.
Cauliflower Construction
In a medium heated pan pour in a shot of olive oil and swirl around.
Drop in garlic, dash of salt and pepper.
Cook garlic til just starting to brown and throw in cauliflower.
Cook a little bit to get some pan fried marks on cauliflower. Not a whole lot just a bit, try not to burn garlic.
Plop in one can of cream of chicken and ½ a can of water.
Simmer until your desired doneness. I like mine cooked pretty hard, if you like a little crunch then pull from heat sooner.
Plate it all up!
I used some Jesus seeds, sliced serranos, and salt sprinkle for the turkey and it’s a nice fit.