I have to say --- for my first whole turkey - I am in no way disappointed... well kinda --- my neighbor brought me up some pumpkin crunch cake for desert --- she looked at the turkey on the smoker and said 'WOW that looks fantastic and it smells wonderful' ---- I hadn't been able to smell anything since 11am..... It wasn't until I pulled the turkey and brought it in to rest that I was smelling the rosemary and ginger! I broke it down immediately after resting - snacking along the way - I could have just ate off the carcass.... but since I wasted time cooking other things, I made a full meal and now I'm stuffed beyond belief....

Turkey turned out REALLY good ---- no issues whatsoever with dryness - juicy as hell! Tasty, but I'll hold judgement til tomorrow when my sense of smell and taste is back to full values.

I am VERY pleased

It should be killer with those flavors!

That happens to me a lot.

I’ll cook a huge meal for the wife’s family at different times, but by the time I’m done, it tastes ‘pretty good’.

The next day, I’m like wow, this is really good.

Wife says, “we tried to tell you”...

It happens to me ALL the time....
I took the garbage out and brought the smoker in and when I got back into the kitchen it was like ---- holy hell it smells good in here!

My only complaint so far is that the skin was really crisp and hard out on the smoker --- brought it in and tented it to rest --- the skin was still 'kinda' crispy afterwards, but was really kinda tough - not bite thru. Figured that really doesn't matter too much since its only crisp once.

Can't wait for more leftovers! I'm thinking I'll even gnaw on the legs and wings - I was thinking since it was free, those would be for the cat and the puppy nextdoor, but I get first dibs now. I'm not used to having this much turkey around.....

And -- yes, that was a full on plum smoke! I kept tossing little chunks on whenever I didn't see smoke --- I was worried it was going to be oversmoked, but since I wasn't offended, I should have thrown more on.

It depends on how you reheat...

If you nuke it, the moisture left in the meat will steam the skin, and lead to wimpy skin & moisture loss.

Reheating in a pan, oven, or air fryer, will do less damage to the skin.

I'm glad it turned out well for you!

I will have to try that sometime, i have never done one. Now save some scraps for the Cat and the Big Dog.

I've gotten this down pat --- nuke it on low - setting 1 or 2 - til hot and then into the toaster oven @~325 for 5-15 mins ---- perfect! But never as good as fresh.

I've always found that smoked stuff always tastes better about 3-4 days later --- flavor seems to 'develop and evolve' - I'm always planning on leftovers and that is where I concentrate my critic over off the grates....

YES I have smoking OCD.

I dig your OCD

Might I recommend just letting it get to room temp, instead of nuking?

Might save some moisture loss since your already going to heat it another way.

Just a thought...

Smoked giant turkey legs on the kettle today. Brined overnight, cooked around 250-275. Came out alright. I had the biggest one and a few parts were a bit tough. Family liked it though. And yes, I like pepper....

Those look great!

If you like pepper, try some Aleppo.

Layered & slightly fruitier

Probably sacrilege to say this here, but I bought a couple of the Costco ready to cook dinners for today. Our big family meal is tomorrow with my family, today was just 6 adults and 2 kids so it didn’t make sense to go all out.

$50 for two of the dinners that include a turkey breast, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans and gravy. I made a fruit salad, dinner rolls, and brown sugar sweet potatoes to go with it.

Honestly, it was damned good! The turkey was moist and flavorful and their stuffing is really good if you bake it for another 30 minutes to dry out the extra turkey juices. Don’t think we could have put all that together for the price they sell it for.

Wish I had pics. It was quite the dinner and we have plenty of leftovers. For $70 all in to feed 6 adults a big meal it’s a hell of a time and money saver if you’re having a small gathering.

When you nuke it put a wet paper towel over the turkey...that will help keep the moisture in

Sometimes, you just want the flavors of T-day! Especially if you have another meal coming!

Never heard of that pepper... Will have to find some....

You don’t need me to Google for you for info about it, you can obviously do that for yourself.

I tend to get mine from World Spice, in Seattle. The wife & I used to make an afternoon of it...going down, having lunch somewhere, then stopping by on the way out of town.

Then, parking became a clusterf@ck, and now Seattle, is a clusterf@ck, so, I order it online

You can get it there, or Penzey’s out of Chicago, or Kalustyan’s out of New York.

I tend to go with World Spice, though it often ships from their outpost in Montana. It’s always fresh & pretty good.

And it’s not hoity toity...it’s like $3 an ounce.

Sign up for World Spice’s emails, and you’ll get 10% off, or free shipping, or something, on your first order.

I get Sumac, Turmeric, Aleppo, and a number of other spices from them.

Link to Aleppo:

https://www.worldspice.com/spices/aleppo-pepper

And two insane little boys, and family coming in from out of town, and a business to run in the mean time.

Thanks for the recognition brother! Hope you and yours had a great day today!

Just hoping to give an easy way out to other parents feeling the stress of putting on a family function whilst having so many other irons in the fire.