Smoked Turkey Three Ways

Sage and Thyme Smoked Turkey comes out a beautiful mahogany brown.

Have you made your plans for cooking the big bird? Let me tell you about the recipe I’m going to make this year, Sage and Thyme Smoked Turkey. On a Weber water smoker, it comes out juicy and fragrant, flavored with herbs and applewood smoke. But guess what, dear readers? It also comes out really well on a charcoal grill and a gas grill. We wanted you to be able to make it with whatever equipment you have on hand, so we have recipes for all three versions (see bottom of this post).

But first, a word about that water smoker, in case you’ve never used one. The design (like a stretched out kettle grill) and the big water pan (which creates steam) cause the fire to burn low and even. This means wood smolders slowly and imparts lots of flavor into the turkey. Slow, even cooking also means the chef is free to step away to stir cranberries or drink a big glass of Zinfandel!

Here’s the water smoker disassembled, so you can see the parts. We tried using wood chips, but prefer chunks because they burn more slowly.

Once it’s assembled, you can open the door to add charcoal, wood, or water. Here you can see the lower rack; we cooked our turkey on the upper one.

More applewood chunks on the fire.

And now, for the recipe:

Sage and Thyme Smoked Turkey on a water smoker

Sage and Thyme Smoked Turkey on a charcoal grill

Sage and Thyme Smoked Turkey on a gas grill

Happy Thanksgiving.