400-Clove Garlic Turkey

400-Clove Garlic Turkey from the Stinking Rose in San Francisco, CA. 

Garlic is known and "the stinking rose." The Stinking Rose restaurant serves over 50 tons of garlic per year! From their website, "Garlic is our passion. When in San Francisco, all you have to do is "follow your nose" and it will lead you to one of The-City-By-The-Bay's most unique and entertaining dining experiences... The Stinking Rose: A Garlic Restaurant."

In this recipe & video I set out to smoke a whole turkey and make garlic gravy just as they do at The Stinking Rose. We amped it up by slathering the turkey in a homemade compound butter for moisture and flavor and also used our brand new, savory seasoning Hail Mary, which turned out to be a winner. You can prepare this recipe as as a spatchcock turkey as well if you do not want to prepare it as a traditional whole turkey.

This turkey recipe utilizes a wet brine to impart serious moisture and amazing flavor while creating a gorgeous final product with a beautiful color. If dry brining is your preference, we have a Dry Brine Turkey Recipe as well. 

Pro Tip: I prefer 12-13 lb turkeys. They cook quicker and taste better. If you feel like you need over 20 lbs of turkey, buy 2 smaller turkeys.

Meat Church How To YouTube Video: https://youtu.be/BgGAlUczUIQ

Click here to get a Meat Church Turkey Combo which includes a Bird Baptism Brine + one of our top poultry seasonings.

We have 20+ turkey recipes: https://www.meatchurch.com/blogs/recipes/tagged/turkey

Ingredients

• 1 12 lb turkey
• 2 lb garlic cloves, peeled
• Meat Church Hail Mary BBQ Rub (sub Hickory, Holy Voodoo Rub, Honey Hog, The Gospel, Texas Sugar, or Holy Gospel)

Compound Butter

• 3 sticks butter, softened
• 1 bunch of parsley, minced
• 1 T garlic minced
• 1 T olive oil
• 1 lemon, juiced and zested

• 2 C turkey (sub chicken stock)
• 2 C white wine
• salt & pepper to taste
• 1/2  flour

Brine

• 1 gallon water
• 1 package Meat Church Bird Bath Poultry Brine

Tools

• Roasting pan & rack
• Food safe container large enough to brine the turkey
• Instant Read Thermometer

Brine
Thoroughly mix entire contents of the package with 4 cups of water in a medium stock pot. Bring nearly to a boil to dissolve the salt & sugar. 

Remove from the heat and add 8 - 12 cups of ice water to completely cool the liquid. 

Place the turkey in a food safe container. Fill the container with the brine mixture making sure to completely submerge the turkey. Add more water if necessary. Refrigerate and brine overnight or at least an hour per pound.

Remove the turkey from brine, rinse thoroughly and pat dry.

Prepare your smoker
Prepare smoker at a temperature of 350 degrees F. I recommend a medium smoking wood or pellet such as pecan, hickory or a fruit wood for this cook. In this video we used a Traeger Timberline with their turkey pellets which is a blend of hickory and maple. Lighter smoke for thanksgiving turkey is adivsed.

Prepare the compound butter
Combine the softened butter, garlic, parsley, olive oil lemon juice and zest in a mixing bowl thoroughly to combine.

Prepare the turkey
Using your hands, work underneath the skin in between the breast to separate the skin from the meat. Work some of the butter in between the meat and skin.

Slather the exterior of the turkey with the compound butter. This will act as a binder for the seasoning and also help add moisture for basting as it cooks.

Season the turkey very evenly all over with our Hail Mary BBQ Rub making sure to get underneath the legs and wings. 

Allow to adhere for at least 15 minutes. 

Smoke the turkey
Place the turkey in a roasting pan and place the pan in the smoker.

Smoke the turkey until you reach 160 in the breast. The 12 lb turkey in this video took 3 hours and 40 minutes to reach 160. 

Add the 2 lbs of garlic cloves to the bottom of the roasting pan with 90 minutes to go in the cook. 

Pro Tips: Leverage some light duty aluminum foil throughout you cook to wrap any wing tips, drums or areas appearing to be getting too dark or crispy.

Using an instant read thermometer, pull the turkey when the internal temperature reaches at least 160 in the thickest part of the breast. It will continue to carryover cook a few degrees. 

Remove the turkey from the pan. Let the turkey rest at least 30 minutes depending on size. Gordon Ramsey suggests you let the turkey rest for as long as you cook it. I'll leave that decision up to you as I have not been able to wait 3 hours yet.

Make the garlic gravy
Strain the garlic out and pour the drippings into a small sauce pan.

Reserve the garlic in the roasting pan. 

Place the roasting pan (or large pot) on a burner over medium-high heat. Mash up the garlic.

Add the white wine and stock. Bring to a boil. Set aside. 

Place the small saucepan with the drippings over medium heat. Whisk in the flour and to form a roux. Cook the flour for a few minutes. 

Add the roux to the garlic gravy a little at a time until it reaches the desired thickness. Simmer and season with salt and pepper to taste. 

Carve the turkey.

Serve it with garlic mashed potatoes and garlic gravy and enjoy this amazing meal with your family!