Smoking a Turkey in a Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker

If you've never tried smoking a turkey in a Weber Smokey Mountain cooker, you've been missing out on a great experience, and some really tasty turkey!

The Smokey Mountain Cooker, also known by aficionados as the "WSM" or the "Weber Bullet", is a very well made vertical charcoal smoker that's efficient and durable.

I've had my 18.5" WSM for years and have used it to smoke all sorts of meats - beef briskets and chuck roasts, chickens and turkeys, pork chops and picnic roasts, and even beef shanks a couple of times.

Depending on how you set up the charcoal, the smoker can cook at 325 to 350 degrees for 4 to 6 hours, or at the 225 to 250 range for up to 12 hours on a single load of briquettes.

The Ideal Smoker Temperature For Smoking Turkeys

When smoking whole turkeys, it's preferable to keep the smoker temperature higher than you would when smoking beef brisket or fatty hunks of pork.

The tough connective tissues in those meats break down best with low and slow cooking. Turkey and other poultry responds better to temperatures in the 275 to 350 degree range.

Most vertical charcoal smokers, including the Weber Smoky Mountain, are designed for lower temperature cooking. And even though it may be difficult to reach 300 degrees, smoking in the 250 to 300 degree range is usually not a problem.

Weather conditions and the quality of the charcoal used are a couple of factors that might limit the uppermost range of acceptable smoking temperatures for smoking turkeys.

Setting Up The Weber Smokey Mountain

To make the most of the heat produced by the charcoal it's best to cook with the water pan empty. If left in its standard position, it would catch the drippings and they would burn, affecting the flavor of the food, not to mention forming a tough, nasty crust on the inside of the water bowl.

But it is necessary to have a pan in place to catch the dripping juices. Otherwise they would flare up, causing ash from the coals to coat the turkey, and temperature spikes.

You could simply leave the water pan empty, and then place a drip pan on the lower food rack to catch the drippings.

Or the pan can be wrapped with heavy duty aluminum foil in a way that forms a leak proof foil depression on top of the bowl.

It's tricky to do it right, and a few times I tried it, juices would end up leaking into the pan and burning. There's another method that I use, and it is described below.

Smoking Turkey in a Weber Smokey Mountain

Adding  Charcoal And Smoker Wood To The Ring

Smoking turkeys in a WSM or other vertical charcoal smoker follows the same basic steps. The first is adding charcoal to the smoker.

Fill the charcoal ring about halfway with unlit charcoal briquettes. Place a few chunks of smoker wood on top of the unlit charcoal then dump a full charcoal chimney of hot coals over the top.

The hot coals will get the unlit charcoal going, gradually burning downward. Set up like this, the charcoal will put out heat more evenly than starting with a charcoal ring full of burning coals.

In other charcoal smokers that use a pan or bowl for the charcoal, fill the entire thing with burning coals. That's because the pan is usually not ventilated, so unlit coals would not easily ignite and burn.

Wood chunks can be place directly on the bottom of the bowl, before adding the hot charcoal, or in between layers of hot coals.

Optionally, well soaked wood chunks can be added to the top of the charcoal, but I don't recommend doing this. The wood will eventually dry out and burst into flames, causing a temperature spike and creating a lot of soot that could coat the turkey.

Wood that's buried underneath the coals won't create extreme flames, and the soot is burned away as it rises through the hot charcoal.

Setting Up The Smokey Mountain Drip Pan

Next, place the water pan into the smoker. This is the method I use. The water pan is removed from its standard position directly below the lower food grate.

A 10 or 12 inch diameter heatproof mixing bowl (stainless steel or Pyrex) is placed on the lower food grate. Then the dry water pan is set on the bowl. Since the bottom of the water pan is rounded, it fits perfectly.

Place the upper rack into place. Set the seasoned whole turkey on the upper rack, breast side up. Whole turkeys are best if brined, even if only for a few hours, but it's not totally necessary.

Seasoning options include using an injectable marinade, marinating in a flavorful liquid, brining the turkey, or dusting with a good quality dry rub.

I've even used just salt and pepper on the whole turkeys right before smoking them, especially if they are they standard, frozen economy variety. Those have been pre-basted with an enhancement, which adds flavor and extends the shelf life.

Smoking a Whole Turkey In The Weber Smoker

With the turkey in place, centered on the top rack over the empty water pan, put the lid on the smoker. Usually the top vent can be left open the entire time, but might need to be closed slightly to fine tune the temperature.

The Weber Smoky Mountain is a tightly sealed smoker, with three adjustable vents on the bottom section. Generally you can start with all three opened halfway.

But in windy conditions it's important to close the vent facing the oncoming wind to prevent the "blast furnace" effect. The incoming rush of wind can create very high temperatures, much higher than desired.

Cheaper smokers, like the Brinkmann charcoal water smoker (known as the ECB - El Cheapo Brinkmann) do not have a sealed bottom section, so there's no adjustment for incoming air. Modification can be made to the ECB, but that's beyond the scope of this page.

Use a Good Smoker Thermometer To Monitor The Turkey Internal Temperature

Use a remote smoker thermometer in the turkey, and insert the probe deep into the center of the breast meat, away from bone.

If you use a regular instant read pocket thermometer to check the turkey temp, the lid is removed each time it's checked, heat escapes, requiring additional smoking time.

Use a remote thermometer and you'll need only remove the lid once or twice to watch for burning.

Basting is optional, and not necessary. The skin contains fat, and helps protect the meat from drying out.

Depending on the temperature maintained in the smoker, a whole turkey can take as little as 3 hours, for a 12 pound bird smoked at 325 degrees. At 240 to 250 degrees, the same whole turkey would take about twice as long.

Smoking a turkey in a Weber Smokey Mountain cooker, or any of the vertical charcoal smokers is easy once you get the knack of it.

One thing about the smokers using a steel bowl to hold the charcoal - it may be necessary to add additional briquettes once or twice to maintain temperature.

When smoking a turkey in a WSM, the bird can be cooked from start to finish with the single load of charcoal briquettes.