Turkey Question
I have a competition BBQ team and would like to come up with a really good smoked turkey recipe. I am going to brine my fresh natural turkey for about 12-16 hours with basic brine (no flavoring, just salt and sugar). I found your garlic hot sauce injection recipe which is similar to what I pull off with my Frank’s Hot Sauce Garlic Chicken. Do you think if I use Frank’s for the sauce in your garlic injection recipe it will be good?
Lance
I imagine Frank’s will do fine—I’ve used a variety of hot sauces for this recipe through the years, and I think Frank’s may have been in the rotation at some point in time. my personal preference for hot sauces seems to be a cayenne pepper sauce, which, if I’m not mistaken, Frank’s is.
Just be sure to strain the garlic out of the sauce after you’ve simmered its flavor into the Franks if you’ll be injecting it into the poultry—I remember one time when I was doing a fried turkey on-site for a private party and I’d forgotten to strain the sauce. The garlic clogged the injection needle and nothing would go through. I wasn’t in a well-equipped kitchen, and I didn’t have my strainer with me. I couldn’t even find any aluminum foil. Eventually, I discovered an unopened jar of coffee that had a foil seal on it. I poked holes in that foil and fitted it into a styrofoam cup that I tore the bottom out of, used that as a makeshift strainer, and got the garlic out of the garlic-flavored sauce. The fried turkey was saved and they lived happily ever after.
Best of luck with your competition, and please let me know how the smoked turkey turns out.