Louisiana Style Thanksgiving Turkey

Louisiana Style Thanksgiving Turkey

From Dr. BBQ’s book Slow Fire: The Guide to Lip-Smacking Barbecue

Turkey can be dry and kind of bland. I usually slather my Thanksgiving turkey in gravy just so it tastes like something. This turkey recipe creates a Thanksgiving turkey that is so juicy and so full of flavor that it doesn’t need gravy. In fact, gravy would ruin this turkey! We’ve been making this turkey recipe for the last couple of Thanksgiving and it’s always a crowd pleaser.

EGGcessories Needed

Dual Probe Thermometer
ConvEGGtor
Chef’s Flavor Injector
Apple Smoking Chunks

Ingredients

Scottie’s Creole Butter

• 2 cups butter
• One 12 ounce can of beer (can substitute with Apple Cider)
• 1 tablespoon barbecue rub of your choice
• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 1 tablespoon white pepper
• 1 tablespoon finely ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon sea salt
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon onion powder
• 1 tablespoon dry mustard powder
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

The Turkey

• 1 turkey (about 15 pounds), fully defrosted
• Barbecue Rub #68
• 1 onion, quartered
• 1 apple, quartered
• Olive oil
• One gallon bag of ice cubes

Directions

Defrosting the Turkey

On the Saturday before Thanksgiving move the turkey from the freezer to the refrigerator.

In the morning on the day before Thanksgiving unwrap the turkey and place in an empty sink. Fill the sink with cold water.

My wife’s Uncle uses a large bucket from the Home Depot. The bucket is dedicated to just defrosting the turkey. You really wouldn’t want to put anything else in it and then use it for the turkey again. 🙂

Empty the sink once an hour and refill with more cold water. Be sure to empty the water from inside the turkey cavity. Do this for about 5 to 6 hours or until you can take the giblets bag and neck out of the cavity.

This is where using a sink comes in handy. I can’t imagine how heavy a bucket with a 15 pound turkey plus water is!

Place the turkey in a roasting pan and back in the refrigerator.

To make the Creole butter:

Melt the butter in a small saucepan.

Add the beer (or cider), rub, paprika, both peppers, salt, garlic, powder, onion powder, dry mustard, and cayenne.

My wife and I aren’t big beer drinkers, but we do love apple cider! We substituted apple cider for the beer. I also use the Barbecue Rub #68 for the rub here.

Mix well and remove from the heat when well blended.

To prep the turkey:

Tuck the wing tips behind the turkey’s neck.

Cover the turkey loosely with plastic wrap.

The first time I made this I thought the plastic wrap was to show me where I already injected the creole butter. Turns out it was also to keep the injected butter from squirting back at me when I pulled the needle out! If you aren’t already WEAR AN APRON while doing this. Your Thanksgiving duds will thank you.

Using a kitchen injector, inject small amounts of the Creole butter deeply into the turkey in a grid pattern about 1 inch apart. Continue until all the butter is gone.

I just realized that the instructions say to inject “small amounts”. Uh, oopsy. I’ve been emptying the whole syringe at once every time I injected the turkey. I’ll need to try the small amounts next time. Still tasted great!

Rub the turkey with olive oil, then season the turkey liberally with the rub.

The original recipe doesn’t include the olive oil step, but I will be for future Thanksgivings. I tried rubbing the rub onto the dry turkey and it didn’t stick. As you can see in the pictures I ended up just dumping large amounts of rub all over the turkey. Still tasted great! 😊

Stuff the onion and apple into the cavity.

Fill a gallon-size plastic zip bag with ice cubes and lay the bag on the breast of the turkey. This will help keep the breast meat cold until the cooking time and will result in the white and dark meat getting done at the same time. Let rest at room temp for around 1 hour.

My turkey has a hangover. 🙂

Prepare your cooker to cook indirectly at 250° F using medium apple wood for smoke flavor.

The recipe says that it should take about 5 hours to cook at this temperature, but I usually reach the cook temperature at around 3 hours. I started keeping the Egg temperature around 200 F and found that it now goes almost the full 5 hours. I want to really give it a chance to smoke.

Remove the ice pack and put the turkey in the Big Green Egg.

Cook until the breast meat deep down by the wing joint reaches an internal temperature of 155° F and the thigh meat deep down by the leg joint reaches 175° F, about 5 hours.

This is why the Dual Probe Thermometer is a handy device and probably the best money I ever spent (next to my Egg that is!). I can know the internal temperature of the turkey without ever once opening the Egg dome. Heck, I don’t even need to go outside.

Take the turkey off the Egg and tent loosely with foil. Let it rest for 20 minutes. The temperature will continue to rise during the rest, ensuring a fully and evenly cooked turkey throughout.

Carve to serve.