Cracked Pepper Turkey

We did a cracked pepper turkey for one of our Thanksgiving birds. We smoked this guy in pecan smoke for 5 hours. I wanted to do something different and I had read somewhere that when you do chicken with mustard it becomes “Deviled”. No clue if it applies to turkey but that is what we are doing. So, I used some of Chef Mike’s Grilling Sauce as a wet rub, then sprinkled fresh cracked pepper, garlic and onion on it.

One of the things we enjoy is that folks think enough of us that they want us to try their sauces and rubs. Chef Mike Espry was kind enough to send us a couple of jars of his 100% Natural Country Chef Grilling Sauce. This is a mustard based sauce and different than any I have seen here in California. A very good sauce by the way and we’ve tried it on lots of things and it’s all good.

It is recommended that you don’t stuff your turkey as Mom did when we were growing up. The stuffing does not get hot enough to kill any food-borne bacteria and slows down the cooking of the turkey. Plus, it’s harder to get out of the bird when you raid the refrigerator for leftovers. We did our stuffing in a cast iron Dutch oven next to the turkey. It picked up all the flavors of the smoke and was nice and moist.

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 5 hours

Grill: Royall 3000 Wood Pellet Grill/Smoker

Pellets: Pecan

Ingredients:

Turkey

Country Chef Grilling Sauce

Country Bob’s Seasoned Salt

Cracked black peppercorns, to taste

Crushed dried garlic, to taste

Chopped dried onion, to taste

Ready For the Royall3000 Wood Pellet Grill/Smoker

Directions:

I just rubbed this big guy with Chef Mike’s grilling sauce and sprinkled it with my dry seasoning. Then, off to the Royall 3000 Wood Pellet Grill/Smoker. Every bite of this bird was sweet and juicy with a hint of the pecan smoke.

Cooking Directions: Royall Wood Pellet Grill/Smoker

Open the lid and set the dial to “High”. After about five minutes you can shut the lid. Give it about 15 minutes to heat up. Then, turn the grill down to 300-350. Patti has lined the drip pan with foil for me, it makes for easier clean up.

Place your turkey breast side up directly onto the grill and bring the temperature of the bird up to 100 degrees. Use a good meat thermometer for this.

Now, turn the grill down to 225 degrees until you reach an internal temperature of 170 in the thick breast meat of the turkey, about 4-5 hours. Your cooking time will vary some with the outside temperature and the type of wood pellets you use.

After you reach an internal temp of 170 degrees, pull the bird. Cover it with foil and let it rest 15-30 minutes.

Note: I get a lot of questions about the kind of pellets you can use with a recipe. Keep in mind that a recipe is just an outline. Some you need follow closely like when you are making bread, but most you can do anything you can dream, our favorite way to cook. Feel free to mix and match the pellets until you find a combination you really like. Also, you are only smoking at temps less than 250 degrees, anything higher is cooking and there will not be much if any smoke so it does not matter what kind of pellet you are using.

Turkey on the Royall 3000

About our Recipes

We do our recipes on our patio where we have a lineup of grills, including Royall Wood Pellet Grill/Smoker, Traeger, Char Griller side box smoker, Charmglow, Char-Broil, The Big Easy, Brinkman and Weber. I call it our “Wall of Grill”. Our grilling styles are healthy and low fat and will fit pellet heads, gas, natural wood and even charcoal purists. Almost any of our recipes can be done on any kind of good BBQ.

The important thing to keep in mind is TIME & TEMPERATURE. You can even do some of them in the oven or crock pot, but, then you lose all the flavors you get from cooking outdoors. But sometimes it does rain.

Remember that a recipe is simply an outline; it is not written in stone. Don’t be afraid to make changes to suit your taste.

Take it and run with it….

Live your Passion,

Ken & Patti

http://datenightdoins.com