Apple Glazed Smoked Turkey is a butterflied and spatchcocked holiday roast, glazed with an apple cider molasses reduction.
Apple Glazed Smoked Turkey
By Sue Lau | Palatable Pastime
Apple Glazed Smoked Turkey is my recipe of the day. I realized I hadn’t posted this yet, and as I get ready to post a recipe for smoked turkey chili later in the week, figure it was time.
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Smoking a turkey is pretty easy if you have a smoker. I use a Traeger pellet smoker. Some purists don’t like those but it does work better for me than smokers without accurate thermostats. There is less tending to do as the wood pellets are fed.
I do use a remote probe that sends temps to my phone so I can watch over the food even if I am inside. As the weather cools, you’ll find you don’t want to hover for hours at a time. Or if it starts to drizzle that’s obviously annoying.
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The type of Traeger Pellet Smoker I used in this recipe:
Apple Wood Pellets
Heavy Duty Kitchen Shears to prep the turkey
I do a basic smoke on the turkey. I didn’t do a brine on this but didn’t feel it was necessary. The meat was still moist and juicy.
At the end of the smoke time I apply some apple molasses, which is a reduction of fresh apple cider to a syrup state. It is thick like molasses or other syrups but has a wonderful apple taste. Besides glazing turkey, it can be used on hams, stirred into recipes, drizzled on biscuits and more. I have linked a recipe below.
In the photo above you can see how the backbone is cut out of the turkey. I use heavy duty kitchen shears designed for meat so the blades can expand out. A couple of the bones will take more muscle than spatchcocking a chicken. So if you have a light grip have someone to help. I managed but I am a determined lady.
Ditch the plastic thingy. Save the bones and giblets for stock and gravy. I have recipes for those below as well.
Spatchcocking will open the turkey like a book and flatten it along the breast bone. Besides cutting back the smoke time considerably, you will see that a whole intact turkey likely won’t fit in there anyway. Although my smoker is a smaller version.
For seasoning, I sprinkled with salt, pepper and poultry seasoning. Then drizzled with olive oil. Just basic stuff. You can be more fancy if you like.
After a few hours as it approaches doneness, you can use a pastry or basting brush to coat it liberally with the apple molasses and let it finish up. As you can see in the next photos, the color is obviously darker.
Apple Glazed Smoked Turkey
I cut the sections up after resting the turkey. The breast is separated out and the other pieces removed. I will often just serve the breast and thigh meat, saving the wings and drums as seasoning meat.
I have a recipe for instant pot collard greens coming up for Holiday Sides week in early November. In that you will find me tossing a smoked turkey wing straight from the freezer into the cooker.
Seasoning meat is also great for beans and soups or just making stock. You will find that smoked stock has an earthier flavor than stock you make from the backbone and non-smoked carcass pieces. Smoked stock is excellent when making beans for barbecue beans. Just sayin’. It adds that special touch.
You Might Also Like:
Sticky Turkey Wings
Sticky Turkey Wings are marinated then oven baked with a sweet and sticky Asian style sauce that is sure to please.
Brined Oven Roasted Turkey Breast
Brined Oven Roasted Turkey Breast is an easy and juicy boneless roast breast for when a whole turkey is a bit much.
Basic Turkey Stock
Basic and essential turkey stock made from the carcass in the slow cooker.
Brined Mesquite Grilled Turkey Breast
Brined Mesquite Grilled Turkey Breast is a delicious recipe for cooking a juicy turkey breast outdoors on the grill!
Easy Turkey Gravy
Turkey gravy made simply with giblets and tidbits of turkey.
Apple Molasses (Boiled Cider Syrup)
This thick syrup is used to glaze the turkey so you will need to prepare this in advance.
Apple Glazed Smoked Turkey
Apple Glazed Smoked Turkey
Equipment
- smoker and wood fuel (pellets or chips)
Ingredients
Turkey
- 1 12- 14 pound fresh or thawed frozen turkey,
Seasoning
- salt, black pepper, poultry seasoning
- olive oil
Other:
- Apple wood chips or pellets
- Apple cider molasses (I have a recipe for this on the blog; see link on this page)
Instructions
Prep Turkey for Spatchcocking
- Rinse and pat dry, remove any extraneous feathers; remove giblets; pull out the plastic thing that clamps the legs and discard.
- Turn the turkey over in the sink breast side down. Use heavy duty kitchen shears to cut out the backbone on each side of the spine; reserve the backbone and giblets for stock and gravy later.
- Place the turkey breast side up on a large baking sheet and using your palms, press down firmly on the top to flatten it as much as you can.
Prep your Spatchcocked Turkey for Smoking:
- Season the turkey all over with salt, black pepper, and poultry seasoning.
- Drizzle liberally with olive oil.
Prep Smoker:
- Use apple wood chips or pellets and set to smoke at 225F.
- You will keep this temperature throughout the cooking process.
Smoking the Turkey:
- Place the turkey skin side up in the smoker and close the lid. Do not lift the lid to baste or anything like that.
- Maintain smoker pellets for the duration of the smoking process.
- The required time should be approximately 30 minutes per pound; 3-4 hours total. Temp is the important thing, not the time. Probe for internal temp using a meat thermometer.
- When the turkey approaches doneness, brush with apple cider molasses and allow it to continue smoking until it reaches 165F in the deepest part of the thigh. It will continue to rise in temp as it rests, so tent it with foil after taking it out.
Notes
Nutrition
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