Thaw your turkey if you bought it frozen. The best way to do this is to let it defrost in the refrigerator, allowing the turkey to defrost at a consistent temperature. This could add a lot of time to how long it takes you to cook the turkey, as it takes 4-5 days to thaw. Remove the turkey from the fridge and let the juices drain down the sink.
Prepare your brine. For this, you would require a food-safe, 5-gallon bucket. Mix the water with kosher salt, brown sugar, minced garlic, black pepper, and Worchester sauce. Boil the solution until the salt and sugar dissolve. Let your mixture cool down and pour it into the 5-gallon bucket. After this, add a gallon of water to the bucket.
Run cold water over the turkey, put it into the brine bucket, and cover it with a lid. Ideally, the turkey should rest in the brine for about 36 hours, but 24 hours or even overnight would do if you are short on time. Do not brine the turkey if you bought the turkey pre-brined or salt injected.
Remove the turkey from the brine and onto a clean kitchen sink. Allow the brine to run off the turkey and out of the open cavity. Put the turkey on an aluminum sheet and pat the turkey dry with dry towels.
After ensuring the turkey is breast side up and dry of brine, mix your chopped rosemary, sage, parsley, and thyme with your butter to make nice herb butter. Gently apply the herb butter under the skin of the turkey. This helps lock in the moisture and keeps the turkey juicy. Be careful not to rip the skin; remember to apply it on the legs and wings.
Your turkey is now ready to smoke. Put some pellet wood in your pellet grill. I prefer cherry wood pellets, but any fruit wood or mild into can be used.
This is optional, as pellet grills need no help maintaining a consistent temperature. It is good to add a water pan to a chamber. This helps to add moisture and allows deeper penetration of the smoke into the turkey.
Bring the turkey out to the pellet grill and insert the instant-read meat thermometer into the thickest part of the breast while attaching the other end to the pellet grill’s temperature probe inserts.
Put your turkey in a roasting pan or a grill grate without touching the water pan. If you are using the roasting, it is best to let the turkey rest on some vegetables to avoid it soaking up its juices and creating a soggy bottom. For the vegetables, I prefer chopped-up potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, celery, and onions with about a cup of chicken broth drizzled over it. You can use the dripping from the turkey to make gravy.
Place the turkey in the smoker, close the lid, and let it smoke at 250 degrees until it reaches about 165 degrees. This will take about 2-5 hours, depending on the size of the turkey.
After the turkey cooks, spritz it with apple cider vinegar or apple juice to give it a lovely sheen.
Let the turkey rest for about 30 minutes to an hour to allow it to reabsorb its juices before carving.
