Smoked Turkey, Stuffing & Gravy

This is my butter basted, smoked turkey recipe plus an adaptation of my friend Amanda Haas's sausage stuffing and my smoked turkey gravy which is UNREAL! In this video we also show you how to time all 3 of these so they are ready at the same time for your family to enjoy.

How To YouTube Video: https://youtu.be/cKV-JdCfbu4

The Turkey

Ingredients

• 1 12-15 lb turkey
• 1 stick of butter for basting
• Meat Church Honey Hog (sub Holy Voodoo, The Gospel or Holy Gospel)

Brine

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

Brine:
Thoroughly mix entire contents of the package with at least 8 Cups of water in a large stock pot. Warm this in the pot over medium heat to completely dissolve the contents. Be sure to allow the mixture to cool before proceeding to the next step.
Place the turkey in a food safe container. Fill the container with the brine and the rest of the water and refrigerate overnight or an average of 45 - 60 mins per lb for an all natural bird. 15 minutes per lb for a bird in a solution.

Prepare the Turkey:
Remove turkey from brine, rinse thoroughly and pat dry.
Season the outside of the turkey with Honey Hog.

Smoke the turkey at 275 degrees, basting periodically with melted butter as shown in the video above.
This cook will take approximately 3 - 3 1/2 hours depending on the size of your turkey.

The turkey will be done when the  internal temperature reaches at least 165 in the thickest part of the breast. The dark meat will be a higher temperature and that is ok.

Smoked Sausage Stuffing
Ingredients

• 2 Tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 Cup celery, diced
• 1 Cup yellow onion, diced
• 1 tube breakfast sausage
• 1/2 Cup pecans, pieces
• 1/2 Cup various herbs, chopped (oregano, rosemary, thyme)
• 4 Cup Bread, Cubed (I used a fresh rustic loaf of bread from our bakery)
• 2 1/2 Cup chicken stock

Prepare your pellet grill or oven
Prepare your pellet grill or oven at a temperature of 350 degrees F. I used hickory for this cook. In the video above we mistakenly said 500, but it should be 350.

I do not like to use an offset smoker for this cook, because I don't want to run it at such as high temperature. 

Prepare the stuffing
Pour the olive oil in a large cast iron pan and sauté the onion and celery. Remove the vegetables, set aside and now cook the breakfast sausage. Drain. Mix the veggies, sausage, nuts & herbs. Set aside. 

In a very large mixing bowl, mix the bread slowly with the veggie\sausage\herb mixture. Add the chicken stock slowly. You want the bread to moist, but not soaking wet. Go slow, because you can add more, but can't take away. If the bread feels dry at all just add more.

Pour the stuffing into a large buttered cast iron pan or baking dish and cover with foil. Alternately, reserve half of the stuffing for use in the turkey if preferred.  

Smoke the stuffing
Place on the grill and cook for 30 mins. Covered with aluminum foil for the first 15 minutes and uncovered for the remainder of the time. All of the ingredients were previously cooked so we are ensuring it's warmed all the way through and the bread starts to toast.

Smoked Turkey Gravy
Ingredients

• 2 C Chicken Stock
• 1/2 C butter, unsalted
• 1/2 C flour
• Meat Church Holy Cow to taste
• pan to catch turkey drippings

Prepare your smoker or indirect grill setup
Place a pan under your turkey with 2 C of Chicken Stock in it. You can optionally also add the turkey neck or backbone if you spatchcocked. 

Catch the drippings from the turkey and butter that runs off when basting. 

After you remove your cooked turkey, remove the pan. Run the drippings through a sieve. 

Melt the butter in a medium sauce pan. Whisk in the flour. Cook until the flour starts to brown. Slowly add the turkey drippings\stock\butter whisking constantly. Simmer until it thickens and add the Holy Cow to taste.

 Put it all together and enjoy!