I did another skinned, rubbed and smoked turkey and took some pics this time.

Click here for pics, follow link: 2007-10-07 Cajun Rubbed Skinned Turkey

The rub was based on a post by Stogey 'Couzan Billy's Cajun Dust' ... I'll see if I can find what I did to it. Basically cut back on some spice and added turbinado sugar to normal rub proportion.

I left the skin on the wings and 'socks' on the bottom of the legs. I also left the band of skin below the abdomen cavity to tuck the leg ends in. I pinned the wing tips to body.

After skinning I dried then lightly oiled the bird before applying the rub.

15 lbs cooked over Maple Leaf Lump with some cherry chips at around 350ºF for 4 hours. Didn't check finish temp ... probably 165ºF+. Foiled and rested for an hour in a cooler. Sliced meat pics are from next day.

This was a huge hit with the family. We all especially enjoyed the turkey bark.

Looks good! Quick question, when you take the skin off like you do, do you feel like the meat gets dry at all? One thing that I do think I would like is the fact that you get the rub on the turkey itself and its not all "washed away" when you pull off the skin after cooking.

quote:

Originally posted by Jason Smith:
...Quick question, when you take the skin off like you do, do you feel like the meat gets dry at all? ...

In my first post I said we all enjoyed the 'bark'. The outside gets a bit like jerky but it seems to stay moist inside. You can see in the pics the the thickness of the layer that forms is quite thin on the breast (cooked breast up). It was a bit thicker in the dark meat. I didn't use a water pan.

Certainly the skin helps somewhat but I think finish temp is the bigger factor in how moist the end product is.

So a bird wrapped in seasoned turkey jerky might not be for everyone, but we really enjoyed it. One thing I can say is it's never been so easy to get the dark meat eaten up. Most in my house only like white turkey meat from the oven roast birds, but this whole bird was cleaned up in a couple of meals.

I've pretty much given up on getting good skin out of the WSM and as you said this way the rub isn't wasted when the skin gets thrown out.

Ya I think I might have to give this a pre-thanksgiving run that way I don't do something wrong on the big day. Think I will brine it for a little while though since I think that would help out in the moist factor.

I think brining would be great, I'd just be careful with salt in the rub. You could flavor brine to suit your rub or just use basic brine.

One other thing about the bird prep. The pics don't show it but I left most of the skin on the backside (bottom) of the bird. It acts as a shield and it's harder to remove anyways so I just cut it along the back edges.

Please post the ricipe for the Cajun rub

Shawn, I am afraid that I do not understand
the logic in removing the skin from the turkey.
But that could be that I find nice crisp turkey
skin to be a great treat. Your Java picture
display is pretty cool.

quote:

Originally posted by Bob H.:
Shawn, I am afraid that I do not understand
the logic in removing the skin from the turkey.
But that could be that I find nice crisp turkey
skin to be a great treat.

As for the skin, I've kind of given up on turkey skin on WSM. Best skin seems to come from oven roast birds or roti. So why not rip it off, be done with it and put on a seasoning crust that's enjoyable?

Or, you know how the outside ends of a beef roast are some folks favorite part? Same kind of idea. Grilled chicken breast gets the same way.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Shawn W,

Shawn, The bird looks great as usual. Nice pics and thanks for sharing. Was that your turkey for Thanksgiving this past Monday? Go ahead and rub it in about your Maple Leaf lump.
P.S. I'm hoping to get that care package off to you this week.

quote:

Originally posted by Bill_W:
Please post the ricipe for the Cajun rub

I can't seem to find my notebook. Here is the original:

Couzan Billy's Cajun Dust

1/2 cup Paprika
6 tablespoon(s) Kosher (coarse) salt
1/4 cup Black pepper, coarsely ground
3 tablespoon(s) Basil, dried
3 tablespoon(s) Garlic powder
2 tablespoon(s) Onion powder
2 tablespoon(s) Oregano, dried
2 tablespoon(s) Cayenne pepper
2 tablespoon(s) White pepper
2 tablespoon(s) Thyme, dried


From recollection, here is approximately what I did to it:

1/4 C Paprika
1/4 C Turbinado sugar
2 T regular salt
2 T Black pepper, coarsely ground
1 T Basil, dried
1.5 T granulated Garlic
1 T Onion powder
2 tsp Oregano, dried
2 tsp Cayenne pepper
2 tsp White pepper
2 tsp Thyme, dried

Could omit the salt entirely and apply salt by hand prior to applying rub. Switched from coarse kosher salt to regular salt so it gets distributed more evenly.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Shawn W,

quote:

Originally posted by Bryan S:
Shawn, The bird looks great as usual. Nice pics and thanks for sharing. Was that your turkey for Thanksgiving this past Monday? Go ahead and rub it in about your Maple Leaf lump.
P.S. I'm hoping to get that care package off to you this week.

Thanks Bryan, yeah that was T-Day bird ... I also did an oven roast bird that day. Skin ON ... heh

This looks and sounds awesome, though I am a bit hesitant to try it this Thanksgiving. I did a test run with an apple brined bird and it was so moist and tender inside, I would be afraid to lose out on the benefits of a brined bird..

Would there be a way we could combine these two? Brine the bird AND use the cajun rub but without the salt ? What would be a good brine?

quote:

Originally posted by JeremyC:
This looks and sounds awesome, though I am a bit hesitant to try it this Thanksgiving. I did a test run with an apple brined bird and it was so moist and tender inside, I would be afraid to lose out on the benefits of a brined bird..

Would there be a way we could combine these two? Brine the bird AND use the cajun rub but without the salt ? What would be a good brine?

Brining should be fine and yeah, I'd leave the salt out of the rub. You could just use standard brine or try flavor brine.

Musing on how I might flavor the brine, perhaps 5-6 cloves of fresh crushed garlic, some bay leaves, a generous dose of Tabasco sauce and a heavy grind of fresh pepper. Maybe some fruit juice like apple or pear or perhaps a couple of chopped red bell peppers and some celery stalks. I'd throw it all in before bringing the brine to a boil to extract the flavors and meld them.

So I did this bird for Thanksgiving and it was a huge hit! I wound up brining it for 36 hours in apple brine solution and omitted the salt for the rub. It came out great! The turkey 'bark' had a bit too much heat for some folks (i even cut back to 1 tsp of cayenne), but the majority didn't seem to mind. The bird came out a very dark reddish brown and smelled awesome. The meat was moist and tender. The drippings also made an excellent gravy!

I did another one of these this year along with an apple juice brine bird and a unbrined oven roast. All three were $1/lb utilities, brined were 12lbers and oven roast was 15 lbs.

This time I flavor brined this bird and brushed it with oil before applying the rub and it was a good way to go.

I put it on without a probe and checked it 6 hours later .. it was reading 170ºF in the breast so it could have been juicier but it was still pretty moist considering.







Middle bird, AJ brine to the right and Oven Roast on the left:





Brine put together:





Brine after simmer:




Brine Recipe:

4qts water
2C Diamond Kosher (I used pickling salt equiv by weight)
2C sugar
2 red bell peppersm roasted black, peeled & diced
1 medium onion sliced
10 cloves garlic
5 stalks of celery
handful of celery leaves
1/4C Whole peppercorns, lightly toasted
3T Dry Basil leaves
3T Dry Oregano Leaves
2T Dry Thyme
8 Bay Leaves
1T gr white pepper
4T Zatarain's Crab Boil
*removed bottle hot sauce from recipe, useless in flavor brine, hot stuff can't penetrate meat

Bring everything together in 2 qts of water, simmer 1 hour covered, mash veggies some with a potato masher, simmer another hour or so until the veggies look fairly spent.
Cool, add 2 qts cold water, once below 40ºF add skinned turkey and brine for 36 hours. Air dry an hour or so, lightly coat with oil. Apply light sprinkle of rub.

Smoke at 250ºF until done.



Now the brine still smelled so good at the end I couldn't bear to throw all that stuff out so I tried making a dressing with it. Drained it well, picked out the peppercorns, mixed the brine veggies with dry broken ww bread and chicken broth, sausage slices and melted butter then baked it to 165ºF. It was a big hit, really tasted good. I'd certainly do it again, but I'd put most of the brine seasonings in a cheesecloth bag or pickling spice thing to avoid having to pick it out later.


Dressing made with drained brine veggies:

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Shawn W,

Shawn,

I swear I took a year off of the board pretty much, but you remain a guy who seems to be thinking the same thoughts as me.

I've been pondering for some time how great it would be to skin a turkey and make a nice lunchmeat style turkey breast rubbed with various spices, some pastrami style then one BBQ style.

Thanks for doing the dirty work for me a making me realize that I've just been too lazy for the past year to actually get out and try to do it.

I see that you posted it was a big hit, but did your brined then rubbed skinless bird turn out better, the same, mixed review, or worse then just rubbed down? Just curious how it stacked up to the previous bird as I'm sure that one was a hit too.

Josh

quote:

Originally posted by Josh Z.:
...I've been pondering for some time how great it would be to skin a turkey and make a nice lunchmeat style turkey breast rubbed with various spices, some pastrami style then one BBQ style...I see that you posted it was a big hit, but did your brined then rubbed skinless bird turn out better, the same, mixed review, or worse then just rubbed down? Just curious how it stacked up to the previous bird as I'm sure that one was a hit too.

Josh

Hey Josh, about the brined turkey breast, if you missed it also see Bryan's recent cured smoked turkey breast thread.

I didn't make two side by side to compare but I can say brining was better, it's the way to go for this skinned rubbed bird IMO.

The flavor brine was great but I'd even do just a basic brine.

Shawn,

I will be sure to brine my skinless bird then.

Two little guys has left with much less time to cook and even less time to post, but I still caught Byrans cured turkey post. I did this once before and loved it and I will be sure to do it again.

I'm in serious need to something else other than canadian bacon, pastrami, turkey to cure. I guess thats a different thread though.

Great looking pics, they didn't show up at work when I looked at it, but at home they look mighty nice.

Thanks for treading into the BBQ wilderness and bringing back delicoius and exciting BBQ!

Josh