If you own a Pit Boss and haven’t tried a Pit Boss smoked turkey, you’re in for a pleasant surprise! This delicious turkey with an easy maple BBQ rub is so juicy, incredibly flavorful turkey with a perfectly browned and crispy skin, and it can be smoked to perfection in less than 3 hours. Smoked turkey recipes are a great twist on a holiday favorite or a nice alternative to chicken in the summer months!
Smoking a turkey on a pellet grill like the Pit Boss is a fantastic way to prepare a juicy, flavorful bird for your next holiday meal. With the right technique, your Pit Boss can turn out an incredible smoked turkey with crispy skin and tender, smoky meat
In this complete guide we’ll cover everything you need to know to smoke a turkey perfectly on your Pit Boss pellet grill including
- Benefits of smoking vs roasting
- Choosing the right size turkey
- Brining and seasoning steps
- Setting up the Pit Boss with optimal temperature and smoke flavor
- Monitoring internal temperature and determining doneness
- Carving, serving suggestions, and leftovers
Why Smoke a Turkey on a Pit Boss Pellet Grill?
There are a few key advantages to smoking your turkey rather than roasting it in the oven:
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You get incredible smoke flavor infused into the meat that you just can’t achieve any other way.
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The skin gets beautifully crispy from the hot circulating air. Oven roasting often leads to soft skin.
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It frees up your oven space for all the side dishes and desserts.
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Pellet grills like the Pit Boss maintain a consistent temperature, whereas oven temps can fluctuate. This leads to even cooking.
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You can add a smokey note to your gravy from the turkey drippings
Smoking is ideal for lean meats like turkey because the smoke adheres well to the meat. Turkey also cooks quickly compared to tough cuts of beef or pork, so you get great smoke flavor in a reasonable cook time.
Choosing the Right Size Turkey
For smoking on a pellet grill, we recommend a turkey in the 12-16 lb range. Smaller birds cook more evenly, and have more tender meat.
The large 20+ lb turkeys look impressive, but often end up overcooked and dried out on the outside before the inside is done. Stick to a more manageable turkey for your pellet smoker.
Brining and Seasoning
To ensure a juicy, flavorful smoked turkey, we recommend brining it before cooking. Brining involves soaking the turkey in a saltwater solution which allows the meat to retain more moisture.
A basic brine is 1 cup salt dissolved per gallon of water. For extra flavor, add aromatics like garlic, peppercorns, rosemary, brown sugar, etc. Brine turkeys 12-24 hours.
After brining, pat the turkey dry and coat it inside and out with olive oil and your favorite seasoning rub. Common poultry rub flavors include rosemary, thyme, sage, garlic, onion and paprika.
Setting Up the Pit Boss Pellet Grill
The Pit Boss really shines when cooking poultry and other lean meats that benefit from a constant temperature. Here are some tips for setting it up:
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Select a good all-purpose pellet flavor like the Pit Boss Competition Blend. Fruit woods also pair nicely with poultry.
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Set the grill to 225-250°F for smoking. This low and slow setting will infuse the meat with flavor.
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Place a drip pan filled with water, stock or cider below the turkey to help retain moisture.
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Use a digital meat thermometer with a probe to monitor the internal temp of the thickest part of the breast.
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For extra smoke, add specialty pellets like hickory to the hopper, or use the direct flame mode periodically.
Determining Doneness
Smoking times vary based on the size of your turkey, but plan for approximately 30 minutes per pound at 225°F.
Regardless of cook time, always rely on an instant read thermometer to determine doneness. Target an internal temp of 165°F in the breast and 175°F in the thighs.
If the skin starts to get too dark before the turkey is fully cooked, tent it with foil. Monitor the temp in several places to ensure even doneness.
Serving Suggestions
Once your Pit Boss smoked turkey reaches the target temp, let it rest 15-30 minutes before carving. This allows the juices to redistribute.
Serve it up with all your favorite holiday sides and gravy made from the drippings. Leftovers make amazing sandwiches too!
With the right tools and techniques, your Pit Boss pellet grill can turn out an incredibly moist, tender and smoky turkey this holiday season. Follow this guide for brining, seasoning, temperature control and monitoring doneness.
The Pit Boss takes the guesswork out of maintaining an even temperature, allowing you to focus on infusing your turkey with incredible flavor. Smoking turkey is highly recommended if you want to impress your guests with something they can’t easily make at home themselves in the oven.
The Perfect Pit Boss Smoked Turkey with Maple BBQ Rub
Hello All! Today I’m letting my hubby Justin do a take-over on the blog with this incredible smoked turkey recipe we prepared for a small gathering the other weekend. With it being the holiday season we had a turkey in our freezer that just needed to be thawed for a less formal occasion.
That’s the beauty of a smoked turkey, it’s a more casual approach to a bird that is often prepared for formal occasions. This smoked turkey recipe can be enjoyed any time of year; winter or summer, it’s a delicious and easy dish to prepare.
If you’re the kind of chef that likes to set it and forget it, then this is the turkey recipe for you. It’s simple, it’s versatile and it’s gosh darn easy and delicious. The patience required to pull off this recipe is hard but it is so worth it in the end and the results will truly shine for themselves.
Heck, if I can make a turkey on the Pit Boss…anyone can! I’ll let Justin take it from here.
Why smoke a turkey?Smoking your turkey is a long process of love but it is one that’s pretty hands off and basically just requires patience. In time your turkey will be finished cooking and with that, you will have a crispy skinned bird with juicy meat inside. Together every bite is a wonderful combination of flavor and taste. Even the leftovers taste incredible! How do you smoke a turkey in a pit boss pellet smoker?One of the easiest ways to smoke a turkey on a Pit Boss pellet smoker is to spatchcock the turkey, then place it right on the grill grate to cook. The spatchcock method allows for even cooking of the bird and gets more surface area of the turkey browned and crispy. There’s nothing better than juicy, tender meat underneath perfectly crispy and browned skin. This is the BEST smoked turkey recipe when you follow along with the step by step instructions. It doesn’t get much easier than this! For this smoker method, I kept the temperature lower at 300F for most of the cooking time, then increased the temperature to 350F for the last half an hour to reach that ideal level of browning and crispiness on the skin and seal in the moisture. |
What kind of pellets should I use?I recommend the Pit Boss competition blend pellets, but you can use any pellets you prefer. If you want to stick with the pit boss brand then you have a lot of great and flavorful options including charcoal pellets, Georgia pecan, mesquite, a classic blend, hickory, apple, and fruit-flavored too. Pick and choose which ones you want and create a wonderful and subtle taste of heaven in every bird. Note that you do not have to stick with the Pitboss brand pellets for this recipe if you do not want to. Other brand pellets will work just fine in this recipe and can offer you a bigger flavor variety as well. Is a pit boss smoker electric or gas?Pit boss makes smokers that are electric and they make some that are gas. For this recipe, I am using my gas smoker but you are more than welcome to use an electric smoker if your turkey can fit. Note that you can still use wooden pellets inside of your electric smoker so go right on ahead and enjoy a smoked turkey that is sure to have you dreaming of the holidays all year long. How long does it take to smoke a turkey on a pit boss smoker?Cooking time all depends on the size of your bird and if you use the spatchcock method or not. We went with a smaller-sized 5-7kg young turkey, and the total smoking time was 2.5 hours. If you have a larger turkey, but still use the spatchcock method you can estimate approximately 25 minutes per kg, so a larger 9kg turkey will take approximately 3 hrs and 45 minutes (using the spatchcock method). What is spatchcock turkey?Spatchcocking means to butterfly the bird. This is when you remove the backbone of the chicken or turkey and lay it out flat to cook. When you do this, the cooking time significantly decreases and the bird cooks faster and more evenly. With a more level surface space, the breasts and the thighs can cook and finish at about the same time instead of one before the other. There’s also more skin exposed to the heating elements so that means that the skin gets even crispier. Should I spatchcock my turkey?If you have the space for it, I always recommend it. This added butchering step really helps to provide you with the best holiday turkey results. By spatchcocking a turkey you can really shave down on the amount of time needed to cook it. By a rule of thumb, an oven-roasted turkey that was spatchcocked would take about ⅓ of the required time to cook. When you smoke a spatchcocked turkey you allow more surface to be exposed for the flavorful pellets to penetrate as well so that means that your entire bird tastes incredible and that no areas are left unflavored. So it is up to you whether or not you would like to try this method of cooking but there really are no downsides to it. You will need some strong kitchen shears and a large sharp knife to do this as that backbone can be a bit tough to get out, but after that, it’s practically as easy as a cakewalk! |
Should you wrap a turkey in foil when smoking?No. When spatchcocking a turkey, wrapping it with tin foil on the smoker is not required. Nor is it desired. You want the smoke to penetrate the meat during smoking and tin foil would prevent this key aspect of the cooking. Not only that but it would also prevent the turkey from browning too much so you’d be left with a plain looking bird instead of one that’s golden delicious! Also, because of the relatively short cooking period, the turkey is not at risk of getting dried out and therefore you don’t need to worry about covering it with foil to help seal in the moisture. Without foil, this crispier skin turkey is still super juicy and delicious! |
Smoked Turkey with Maple BBQ Rub IngredientsTo prepare this smoking turkey, and the barbecue rub, you do not need many ingredients. The rub is very simple to make but packs a ton of flavor. Here’s what you’ll need:
Maple BBQ Rub:
The combination of sweet and salty works so well with the smoky flavor created by the Pit Boss and the rub creates a nice crispy, caramelized skin that locks in the moisture of the turkey meat. |
How To Prepare, Step-by-Step:While Christal is a great cook, she definitely is not a pro with the Pit Boss. So, I walked her through the process of preparing her first smoked turkey and she was pleasantly surprised at how easy it really was. This is pretty much a “set it and forget it” recipe. The great thing about smoking a turkey as compared to oven-roasting is that you don’t have to baste the turkey over and over again to avoid a dry bird. Here’s what you’ll do: 1. Spatchcock the turkey with kitchen shears, then open it and lay flat. Place it cut-side down on a large baking/roasting pan. Then, rub 1 tablespoon of butter all over the turkey skin. 2. In a bowl combine the dry rub spices with the maple syrup and mix, then pour over the turkey and rub all over the skin, into the breast and legs to generously coat, then set aside. 3. Turn on the Pit Boss and set the temperature to 300 degrees F, pre-heat with the lid closed for 15 minutes. 4. Transfer the turkey directly from the pan onto the Pit Boss grill grate and close the lid. 5. Smoke for approximately 2 hours or until internal temperature reaches 145 degrees F. 6. Increase the smoker temperature to 350F and baste the turkey with the remaining 2 tablespoons of maple syrup, and smoke until internal temperature reaches 165F(approx. 30 mins). A larger bird takes longer. 7. When finished, remove turkey from the smoker, cover with tin foil and let rest for 15 minutes, then carve as desired, serve, and enjoy! |
Whether you are new to the smoker world or are a smoker master, you’ll love this simple Pit Boss smoked turkey with maple bbq rub. It’s easy, delicious, and great for a small gathering of friends or family.
Serve up this smoked turkey for thanksgiving dinner or throughout the year so you can also make the most epic leftover turkey sandwiches (if there is any!). There’s never a wrong time for a delicious turkey dinner!
Have you ever made a whole turkey on a Pit Boss? Tell me about it in the comments and be sure to pin the photo below the recipe to save for later!
Smoked Turkey On A Pit Boss Pellet Smoker
FAQ
Is it better to smoke a turkey at 225 or 250?
How long does it take to smoke a 14 pound turkey in a pellet smoker?
How long does it take to smoke a 15 pound turkey at 225 degrees?