Alton Brown's Brined Turkey -- Tried and True but New Too

Every Thanksgiving since 2001 I have heeded the advice of Alton Brown to utilize a brine for the turkey. And for every years since then, the turkey came to the table moist, succulent and tasty. This year, no exception.

But...

There's always a but, right?

I decided to change some things up. It isn't that I just did a turkey breast, typically that's what I do rather than a whole bird since my Turkey Day is a very small affair.

Since watching a Food Network holiday special some years ago when AB did the honey brined smoked turkey, I have wanted to smoke one as well. Smoking meats just may be my favorite method of cooking and most certainly a method which AB introduced and taught me how easy it is to do at home.

However, November usually brings cold weather, sometimes snow, and that isn't conducive to outdoor cooking. Nevertheless, I was determined to smoke a turkey breast this year. Luckily, the weather held up and I was blessed with a 65 degree, albeit windy, morning to smoke some fowl.

Since 2001, I have sworn by AB's original Good Eats Roast Turkey. Not varying from it in the slightest, until now. Because I liked the idea of smoking the turkey and that AB used honey in the brine for that fowl, I wanted to make a combination of the two brines.

I only had raw honey on hand and that did not seem to be appropriate for what I wanted. So I thought about the contents of the original application. Then the light switch moment arrived... brown sugar.

The sweet component of the original brine was in the form of brown sugar. Ok. What is brown sugar? (Sounds like a Jeopardy! answer doesn't it?) It is white sugar coated in molasses. Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner. Why not add molasses instead?

Molasses has long been a staple in my BBQ sauce and those tasty pork chops from AB, so the flavor works well with smoke. I knew it work here.

In building the brine, I added some molasses (of course, I didn't measure to tell you exactly how much) omitted the brown sugar but kept everything else as with tradition. Soaked it and prepared it as for the oven. The fun thing was prepping the bird while trying to watch for AB on that giant turkey in the Macy's Parade.

I have my version of AB's Army surplus smoker but I wasn't certain if this would be big enough so I turned to my big Kingsford grill/smoker, which was still out from summer. This would be perfect.

A chimney starter's worth of natural charcoal briquettes--I like Stubb's brand and luckily the local Lowe's still had bags--and some well-soaked hickory chips and I was ready to go. For this smoking project, I used indirect heating by placing the charcoal and chips on half of the rectangle grill and the bird on the other half.

Probe thermometer set to 160 degrees, rest for 15 minutes... you know the drill.

Anyway, I when I cut into the breast and saw that glorious smoke ring (you can kinda see it in the photo), I was very pleased with myself.

As for the taste, well simply fabulous. My mom said it was the best turkey I had made and she even hinted to this being a summer smoking project.

Of course the brine made the turkey so moist all of the way through like with the oven roasted version.
Whether its smoky or from the oven, brining the turkey is the way to go. Next to inspiring me to do smoking, turkey brining is one of the top things I have learned from AB.

Now, if he could only convince me to deep fry a turkey. If I ever do, I'd build that turkey derrick.