Smoked Beer Can Turkey

This is what Paul made for us LAST Thanksgiving, and I wanted to share this idea that produces a moist turkey as we start this month. He combined a couple different recipes/ideas to come up with this one.

Admittedly, the picture is a bit ugly...but it was delicious. It was nice to have turkey that is moist, especially those of us who are in the white meat camp.

Paul bought a 15 lb turkey and soaked it overnight in a cool place in 3 gallons of water and 3 c kosher salt. We are fortunate to have an upstairs sleeping porch, so that's where it sat overnight. We were a bit concerned about what animals would find this...so it had to be a cool and safe spot.

In the morning he pulled it out of the soaking brine and rubbed some garlic and butter under the breast skin and placed a peeled onion in the cavity.

In a large beer can (Foster's) he filled it about 1/2 full with light beer and some fresh herbs (thyme, sage, oregano).

The turkey went into the smoker without water using hickory and applewood as well as some charcoal. He smoked it until the internal temperature was 165 degrees. This took about 2 1/2 hours...way, way faster than we expected.

This is going to be repeated this year since it was really good!

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