Smokin' Turkeys

A couple of weeks ago I smoked some turkey pieces, all but the breasts because they were used for jerky, just to figure out what it tastes like... testing results were extremely positive. 

So now I'm planning on smoking a couple of turkeys for Christmas (I've got a very big family) but I've got a couple of questions that I'm hoping some of you experts can help me with.

1) My refridgerator can't fit more than one turkey in a bucket while brining.  I think my choices are to
- smoke the turkey in pieces rather than as a whole turkey. I'd like to smoke the whole turkey though. 
- brine one turkey a few days ahead of time and put it in the freezer while I brine the other.  I'm not sure if there is any issue with freezing a brined turkey though.

2) I'd like to smoke the turkeys together but I'm not sure that my smoker can fit them both.  I'll probably look for some smaller turkeys but I'm thinkiin I'm going to have to smoke one after the other which means that the first will be cold  when we're ready to server.  What's the best way of re-heating a smoked turkey?  I've found a couple of things online that say to carve it up and make a broth from the bones and then use that to reheat.  What do you guys do?

since the brine is basically a perservitive what you can do is if you have a spare bath tub that doesnt need to be used for the 24 hour brine time you can put the brine buckets in the tub and fill tub with ice, or if you have a large ice chest, you can throw the turkeys in there, and add a base brine which would be double strenghth and add ice to it, water is a true weight, so you make the brine with 2c salt/2c sugar to one gallon of water and then add the balance of  one gallon of water, 128 oz ice, and put ice chest somewhere cold, this time of year the garage, the deck etc, just need to keep the temp under 50f, hope this helps, cameron

I buy the 10 gallon Ziplok bags online and use them to brine the turkey.  I put the turkey and brine in the bag, seal it up and put it in an ice chest with a few pounds of ice.  I keep it in my garage overnight where the temperature gets pretty cold but the ice chest would keep things cold enough in any location.

Thanks for the responses so far.

I buy the 10 gallon Ziplok bags online and use them to brine the turkey. 

Do you have a link to the bags you order?

I found the bags...I didn't think they were actually made by ziploc.  That's awesome though...I'm going to order some.

When you smoke a whole bird size matters, stay under 15 pounds or you will be out there for some time.  Ideally I like a 12 to14 pound bird.  Not sure what you have for a grill but some ideas to help your smokeing, and keeping away heat.  Fire bricks between the coals and the open space keep heat away from the bird and keep the smoking process going longer. 

Use a mild wood like apple or chery or pecan.  Mesquite and Hickory can tend to make a funky taste if used for long smokes. 

Brine: yes do it.   I like using those blue plastic reusable cold packs myself.  If you brine about 36 hours out and keep the bird cold you should be good to go.  I use an old playmate cooler for brining, and it works well. I rotate cold packs and keep it a nice cold temp.  I like the cold packs better than ice, but thats just my preference.   Keep the cold packs on the breast meat if possible.  As breast meat cooks faster than dark, this will help slow down the process slightly. 

I am lucky in that I have the rotissire for my weber kettle.  So It lifts the bird a few extra inches from the coals and helps keep things controlled. 

Should you decide to cut the bird up,  we prefer to buy extra tigh's, brine them, dry them (leave in the fridge for 8-12 hours post brine & rinse) to allow the skin to dry out and it will crisp up when cooked.  Smoked thighs are the bomb and their is plenty of dark meat for everyone.  Basting, two words: don't bother.

Best of luck and post a pic or two when your done!

Good info Squidder, thanks I appreciate it.

I'm using a smoker... http://www.homedepot.com/Outdoors-Grills-Grill-Accessories-Smokers-Fryers/h_d1/N-5yc1vZbx92/R-203223797/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&storeId=10051

When I smoked my test batch I had the meat up on the top and middle grills so not much heat was getting to it. I had an internal temp (in the smoker, not the meat) of about 230 (shot up to about 260 a couple of times but not for too long) and it took about 8 hours to reach an internal temp of 165 on the thighs.

One thing I didn't do though was to let the meat dry after brining them....they went straight from the brine into the smoker.  I'll have to try letting them dry a bit this time...but I would think the skin would soften up again if you hvae to reheat.

I have brined large pieces of meat in a cooler as well.  So long as you keep the temp down, works well. 

I smoked a whole turkey for the first time over Thanksgiving and it came out really nice.  I didn't brine it, but salted it like I do chickens learned from a recipe in the Zuni Cafe cookbook.  I think it's 3/4 tsp of salt/lb of bird. 

The meat was better the next day, cold.  Leftovers were diced up and made into enchiladas, bones were made into soup. 

My expierence with skin is to eat that day crisp, or use it to keep it from letting other parts from drying out in the fridge or microwave.  I like to throw some things with skin in the toaster oven and set in there for 5-10 minutes till the skin crisps up.  Leftover or frozen chicken wings after being in the microwave, get the toasty oven to crisp up the wings again.