I got three fresh butterball turkeys from Costco yesterday. I'm doing two for me & 1 for a friend. I usually do them on the weekend after, but had time this weekend. First time with the Traeger pellet smoker.
Your Traeger is the big smoker. Mine only holds two. Your turkeys look like they turned out great. If I ever need more smoking space I will definitely stick with a pellet smoker.
I've started breaking my turkeys down into 2 breast, 2 leg quarters, and 2 wing quarters before I smoke them. Everything cooks perfect in about 4-5 hours depending on the size of the bird. Nothing wrong with doing them whole, but cutting them up is almost fool-proof as you can pull off individual parts as they are done. Can't stuff them, but I brine them for a day or 2 to get some of those flavors in them.
My turkeys were brined. They were smoked and then carved this evening. I put the meat in an aluminum pan and will toss it on the smoker Thanksgiving day. We are trying to reduce the workload and rush of Thanksgiving morning. Chvymn99, the skin on your turkey looks great, did you rub it with oil or butter?
They all look great! Chvymn99 was the skin nicely cooked? It looks like it to me. I smoke turkey in my bradley smoker and they turn out awesome but the skin is rubbery and not a pleasing texture. Its simple to fix this with putting it in the over for 45 minutes and many recipes state this but maybe the maple syrup is what does the trick! Id like to forgo the oven if possible.
Looks great. I smoked one last week for Thanksgiving in my Weber Smoky Mountain. I've been doing that for the past few years, and this year I used a fresh organic turkey, but bigger than I hoped...13lbs. I was really hoping to find a 10-11 lb bird, but idiot me waited until the night before to buy one. Stuffed the cavity the same way you did, started smoking at 9 and pulled around 5 but still wasn't reading an ideal internal temp so had to finish in the oven for 30-45 mins. Long story short, everyone was pleased but me. Rubbery skin, rushing to get it done, and not enough smoke flavor were the buzz kill for me. Even used hickory chunks, but only in the beginning. I'm surprised it needed more smoke.
