Have done Ribs, Brisket, and Chicken many times but never a Turkey. Any suggestions on rub, time in smoker, etc?

I do this every thanksgiving. Olive oil + S&P on the skin. I usually soften a couple sticks of butter and mix that with some pressed garlic and fresh ground pepper. I'll take that and poke it under the skin all over the bird and rub it into the meat.

On to the smoker at 275 degrees until it hits 160 in the breast and pull it. Cover and rest in cooler for an hour or so before carving.

Do you split it before smoking it or smoke it whole? What about the dark meat?

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Do you split it before smoking it or smoke it whole? What about the dark meat?

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I smoke it whole and never have to worry about the dark meat, the bird always cooks uniformly on the pit for me. If your dark meat gets to 170 you should be good to go, and if you pull when the breast hits 160 the dark meat should finish out at 170.

One other thing I do is, prior to putting on the pit, slice the skin on the leg and push the skin and meat up the bone and cover the exposed bone in foil. I also put foil over the wing tips to keep them from blackening and burning. It's not necessary but I like they way it looks.

Smoke it at 300 to 325 if you want crisp skin. No reason for low and slow as there's no collagen to break down like a brisket.

What's been your average cook time? I know your working to a temp but about how long on average?

Yikes I realized I put 275 which is lower than you probably want. I usually run the pit at close to 300.

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What's been your average cook time? I know your working to a temp but about how long on average?

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I usually plan for a 3 hour cook time.

Great! Thanks for the help guys!

Watched Aaron Franklin's pbs show: natural boneless beast, remove skin, 2/1 pepper salt, 270 degrees, skin (formerly) side up, flip when golden brown (couple hrs), wrap in foil with half pound butter, cook to 160 degrees

brine:
water
2c salt
2c sugar
2 bottles of zatarain's liquid crab boil

butter rub:
1/1/1 pepper/brown sugar/chachere's (or slap ya mama)
2 sticks of butter (slightly melted)
mix enough dry ingredients until a chunky paste (food processor here works great)

smoke:
300ish+ (i like a crunchier crust, but others go 275 or lower)
breast temp of 160 (maybe 20-30 mins per lb)

it's a slightly less traditional tasting tday bird, but i do this when we get together with my pals, rather than family, the weekend before/after...

everyone seems to love it, and it's a nice change of pace from the blander options your aunt does.

I used to smoke whole boneless turkey breasts (both). I always brined overnight and injected. Whole turkey would be more forgiving.

I think I'll try this.

Any specific recommendations for smoking on a Weber Smokey Mountain 18.5"?

I like this one.

http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/turkey6.html

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brine:
water
2c salt
2c sugar
2 bottles of zatarain's liquid crab boil

butter rub:
1/1/1 pepper/brown sugar/chachere's (or slap ya mama)
2 sticks of butter (slightly melted)
mix enough dry ingredients until a chunky paste (food processor here works great)

smoke:
300ish+ (i like a crunchier crust, but others go 275 or lower)
breast temp of 160 (maybe 20-30 mins per lb)

it's a slightly less traditional tasting tday bird, but i do this when we get together with my pals, rather than family, the weekend before/after...

everyone seems to love it, and it's a nice change of pace from the blander options your aunt does.

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I tried this tonight both on a smoked turkey and on a baked turkey and I had two problems: I couldn't get the butter rub to stick to the bird. Secondly, it was really spicy, need to back off the 1/1/1. Mrs. Wonka said that it was spicy but it was the tastiest turkey she'd had. I ended up trying to get as much butter rub on it as I could and then went back over it sprinkling the rub without the butter on it.

perhaps the butter was too warm and runny while applying? or maybe it was too much butter altogether? sorry about leaving out some of those details - I do sprinkle extra rub on top.

anyway, I did fail to mention the rub can be kinda spicy. but it's a good change of pace from all the other birds you'll have this season, right?

I have had my turkey brining since yesterday for dinner tomorrow. pumped.

I am wanting to place a turkey on the smoker but hesitant because of the conflicting information regarding the length of time it is to be on the grill. Some places show 3-hours and other places show up to 6-hours (30- to 40-mins per pound). The hesitation is because I may either have the meat ready three-hours too early or three-hours too late.

How long do you place your bird on the grill?

If you're running your pit at about 300, a normal sized bird is going to take about 3 hours or so. If you have any concerns, plan for a 4-5 hour cook and pull bird at the right temp and let it rest in a cooler for a couple hours.

The good news is that you can cook a great turkey on any old backyard grill. But remember, when you cook the bird outdoors, you not only get great flavor, you free up the indoor oven for sweet potatoes, stuffing, green beans, and pie. The wife will appreciate that and it's a great selling point so that you're out of her hair, sharing the duties, and freeing up some time to grab a few beers with the guys. Win/win.

Turkey poses several problems that can be solved by outside the "traditional box."
[ol]

Do not stuff the bird. When you stuff the bird it takes far longer for the heat to travel to the center of the stuffing and in the process the exterior gets way too hot and the meat gets overcooked. By leaving the cavity empty the heat and smoke flavors can enter the cavity, cooking the bird much faster and more evenly without overcooking.

You will put a few aromatics in the cavity. Not enough to prevent airflow, but they will create penetrating vapors that will flavor the meat more than the stuffing could.

If your turkey is not labeled "basted", "self-basted", "enhanced", or "kosher" you'll help the proteins hold onto liquid with a dry brine.

Even if it has been injected with a saline solution at the factory, and chances are that it was, we can still amp up boring birds by injecting them with butter.

Because herbs and spices cannot get very far past the skin, we will use a wet rub of oil and aromatic herbs under the skin to baste and add more flavor to the meat.

Add oil and herbs to the outside of the skin to help make it crispy and add flavor.

Do not place the bird inside a roasting pan. Instead, place it above a roasting pan so air can flow all around it, cooking and browning it properly on the underside.

Do not truss or tie the bird. We will let the entire surface brown, even the armpits and crotch, because nobody wants to eat rubbery skin. This will help the thighs and drumsticks cook faster because they need to be cooked to a higher temp than the breasts.

The bird will roast in a humid, aromatic, smoky atmosphere to hold in moisture and add flavor.

Prevent the wing and drumstick ends from burning by covering them with foil for part of the time.

Do not cook breast side down as has become popular. It just doesn't help, and in fact it harms.

Do not baste during cooking. It just makes the skin soft. By oiling the skin at the start and by cooking at the right temp, you'll still get a beautiful crisp brown skin.

Always us a digital thermometer to monitor the bird's temperature to make sure it is not overcooked, and not the plastic popup that is set 20F too high, guaranteeing breast meat drier than week-old stuffing.

Remove the turkey from the heat at 160F instead of 170F to 180F as most recipes recommend.

Do not "tent" it with foil when it is finished cooking because the steam trapped under the foil softens the skin. There is plenty of heat in that thermal mass to keep it warm while it rests.

Slice the breasts across the grain rather than with the grain to make it even tenderer. This means you will not slice the breasts while they are still on the bird, you'll remove them before slicing.

[/ol]The result will be a magnificent looking dark mahogany avian, with incredibly tender and juicy flesh, delicately and elegantly flavored with savory herbs and seductive smoke, anointed with a gravy that eclipses all others.

Ingredients for the wet rub
4 Tbsp of rub (makes about 1/4 cup, enough for about 8 large whole chickens or 1 turkey:
1 tablespoon dried crushed parsley; 2 tablespoons dried crushed sage; 1 tablespoon dried crushed rosemary; 1 tablespoon dried crushed thyme; 1 tablespoon dried crushed oregano; 1 tablespoon dried crushed basil; 1 tablespoon dried crushed bay leaf; 1 tablespoon ground black pepper; 1 tablespoon sugar)
4 Tbsp of vegetable oil or olive oil
1 Tbsp table salt

Ingredients for the bird
1 turkey, any size
1 medium onion, cut in quarters, skin on
3 cloves of garlic, coarsely chopped
2 large sprigs of fresh sage, thyme, and rosemary about 3 to 4" long
Peel of one orange and/or lemon
Couple whole cloves

Injecting and brining
If you wish, you can do this a day in advance.
Injecting and wet brining are two excellent ways to amp up your bird. Since most grocery store turkeys have already been injected with brine at the slaughterhouse, there is no need to soak it in brine or inject salt at home. But if you get a bird that has not been injected, I recommend that you consider injecting.
Even if it has been injected with a salt solution at the slaughterhouse, you can still inject it with butter. As with salt, butter amplifies flavors. I've included complete instructions for wet brining and injecting in the sidebar at right.
Preparing the wet rub and the bird
If you wish, you can do this a day in advance.
A dry rub is a mix of spices and herbs rubbed into meat, but for turkey, we're going to use a wet rub, a mix of herbs, spices, and oil. Wet rubs are especially effective because many of the flavors in herbs and spices do not dissolve in water, but they do dissolve in oil. This is especially true of green herbs. Turkey and herbs get along like peanut butter and jelly.

The wet rub goes under the skin so they can be in intimate contact with the muscle tissue and don't have to fight their way through fatty skin. Then we'll put some rub on top of the skin to flavor everybody's favorite part and because oil helps crisp the skin. If you don't want to fuss with under ths skin, you won't lose much if it all goes on the skin. Use the recipe above.
If you want to use your own favorite rub, use something without salt if the bird has been salted at the factory or you have salted it with a dry brine or injection. Remember, you can always add salt, but you can't take it away.
Sometimes, if the sage in the garden hasn't frozen by Thanksgiving, I'll put olive oil or butter and several whole fresh sage leaves under the skin instead of a wet rub and use the wet rub on the outside of the skin only.

Method
1. Mix the herb blend with the oil and let it sit for a few hours if you have the time. That helps break down the cells in the herbs and releases their flavors, but this is not a necessity because the flavors will marry while on the bird. Why oil and not butter? Butter is not pure oil, it has water in it so it will not brown as well as other oils. Olive oil or cooking oil do the job of delivering herbs to the muscle tissues just fine. The herbs are where the flavor is.
2. Pat the skin dry with paper towels, take off your Superbowl ring, and gently push the herbs and oil under the skin. Spread it out and work it as far down to the thighs and legs as possible. Try to avoid leaving behind large clumps.
3. Spread the remaining rub on top of the skin. If you run out, rub the exterior with olive oil or vegetable oil and sprinkle it gently with a little black pepper, sage, and thyme. Then sprinkle salt on the skin to help it crisp.
4. Do not tie the legs together. Most turkeys come with an armature holding the tops of the drums together. And most cookbooks tell you to tie them up if they didn't come that way. This just doesn't make sense. Here's why.
Dark meat is best at about 175F, but if you tie the drums together you pin the thighs tight against the body of the bird and they'll take longer to cook. So if you remove the bird when the breasts are 160F, the thighs will also be about 160F. But if you let their freak flag fly, heat will infiltrate them from all sides and, because they are thinner than the breasts, they will be at 170F when the breasts hit 160F.

Im going to smoke one this year for the first time. Ive been reading a lot about times and temps. For a 12# bird, I the consensus is that at 300-330 Degrees, it should take about 3 hours. I plan on cooking mine at 330.

160 is too high for the breast. By the time the carryover is done, the breast will be at 170, and you will have dry breast meat. 150 or 155 is better, but stay to the 150 side if you can.

Did one this weekend...turned out great! Cooked at around 300 and was done in about 3 1/2 hours.

I'm smoking one this week for Thursday. Got s good game plan for my WSM. I have never ever bought a turkey so I had no idea what to get or do. I saw some at HEB that were 30 lbs, 25, 11. So I went with a 19lbs. Is this too large to smoke? Or will it just take longer which fine, I got spare time. I'm thinking a 19lbs will take about 7-8 hrs.
I'm going to have to cook the day before, what do you recommend for reheating? Should a carve the day before then reheat? Or reheat and then carve before serving?

I would cut in half (probably fit your wsm better); definitely would reheat and slice next day. Save carcass for gumbo stock.

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I'm smoking one this week for Thursday. Got s good game plan for my WSM. I have never ever bought a turkey so I had no idea what to get or do. I saw some at HEB that were 30 lbs, 25, 11. So I went with a 19lbs. Is this too large to smoke? Or will it just take longer which fine, I got spare time. I'm thinking a 19lbs will take about 7-8 hrs.
I'm going to have to cook the day before, what do you recommend for reheating? Should a carve the day before then reheat? Or reheat and then carve before serving?

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I cooked 2 for church lunch yesterday. I smoked one and roasted the other both Friday night. Pulled them off, let them rest. Carved and placed in aluminum roasting pan and covered with foil and stuck in the fridge. Woke up at 5 on Sunday morning, put it in the oven on 200* for an hour or so and then kept it warm for 2 hours and good to go. It was great!

I smoked my first bird today on my relatively new egg, used oak lump and hickory chunks. The thing never ceases to amaze me. I took a 15lb "natural" bird (no saltwater injections, hormones, etc.), brined it overnight in 2c kosher salt, 2c sugar, rosemary, sage, etc., topped off with water.

I put it on the egg @ 300-325 until it hit 165 (about 3 hours), pulled it, and tented it in a foil roaster to rest for 90 mins or so. The temp climbed all the way to 178 so I figured it would be way overdone and dry. Carved it at ~140* and it turned out to be the juiciest, most flavorful bird I have ever eaten.

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I'm smoking one this week for Thursday. Got s good game plan for my WSM. I have never ever bought a turkey so I had no idea what to get or do. I saw some at HEB that were 30 lbs, 25, 11. So I went with a 19lbs. Is this too large to smoke? Or will it just take longer which fine, I got spare time. I'm thinking a 19lbs will take about 7-8 hrs.
I'm going to have to cook the day before, what do you recommend for reheating? Should a carve the day before then reheat? Or reheat and then carve before serving?

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Turned out pretty darn good. Took a little over 7 hrs. Only problem was one side finished before the other, so the one that finished first was a little dried out. But that's what gravy and sauce is for right?

Looks outstanding!

Cut and pasted from here:

http://amazingribs.com/recipes/chicken_turkey_duck/ultimate_smoked_turkey.html

This site is my go-to for just about everything bbq related. I can vouch for his smoked turkey process, although I will say I put a ton of salt and still wish I would've added more.