These Smoked Turkey Thighs are packed with flavor and are so juicy, it’s not even funny! A few simple steps using a beer brine and some time on the grill made these an instant family favorite!
I was looking for some turkey in the grocery store, but now that we are empty-nesters, I found it hard to justify buying a large bird just for the two of us. Fortunately, there were several turkey cuts available for a very reasonable price and a few of them ended up in the shopping cart!
This is a simple smoked turkey thigh recipe that will impress everyone. If you’re craving Disney’s version know you can make it even better at home.
The easy preparation and clear smoking instructions ensure you’ll get perfectly juicy thighs everyone will love!
Why This Recipe Works
Simple Brine: This easy brine will make your chicken so tender and juicy, you will reach for this one all the time. Put it in your back pocket for a favorite.
Flexible: Use the brine for chicken thighs, breasts, legs, or even wings. The brine is mild yet yields impressive results.
🦃 Ingredients
Turkey Thighs – I always seem to gravitate to darker meats. They are naturally juicier than the white meat of the breast but definitely benefited from the brine.
Beer Brine – Kosher Salt and Brown Sugar are the working agents of the brine. The salt is absorbed into the meat along with the beer and other flavors. The Brown Sugar offsets the saltiness. Because I only brined the thighs, I didn’t need to find and clean a large bucket. Instead, a smaller kitchen bowl was just the right size to keep the thighs submerged during the brining process.
I used Deschutes’ Lil’ Squeezy Juicy Ale for the beer. The light, fresh flavors, and the citrus notes worked well with the turkey.
Poultry Seasoning – After the thighs were removed from the brine, rinsed and patted dry, I used the poultry seasoning from Penzey’s. I wanted a mild, neutral rub to allow the flavor of the meat and the beer brine to shine through.
Cherry Wood Chips – I used a mild fruit wood for the smoking chips. Stronger woods like hickory or mesquite might have worked fine, but the Cherry left a mild, smoky flavor that didn’t overpower the flavor of the turkey or the beer brine.
🍽️ Preparation
The magic happens with the preparation. The brine needs a chance to work, so you’ll want to start the work on this about eight hours before you want to grill. You don’t have to brine all the time but we find that we have so much success with it in Grilled Turkey, Smoked Chicken, and Grilled Cornish Hens. We didn’t brine the Smoked Spatchcock Turkey but you certainly can!
For turkey parts like this Smoked Turkey Legs recipe, dry brining also works. If you add brown sugar to your rub, it will turn into a glaze, making the skin both crunchy and sticky at the same time.
Step One: To prepare the brine, cut the lemon and orange into slices and add all of the remaining ingredients to the bowl. I had fresh herbs growing in the garden and used a few springs.
Step Two: Add the beer and then the brown sugar and kosher salt. Stir well to dissolve the salt and sugar. This will only take a minute.
Step Three: Add the turkey thighs and arrange them to make sure that they are fully submerged. Cover the bowl and let the brine do the work in the refrigerator for about eight hours.
Note: A lighter flavored beer works well with this brine. The turkey absorbs it very well, and a strong beer runs the risk of overpowering the meat. Keep to the wheat ales, lighter IPAs, or even a blonde lager.
Step Four: About ten minutes prior to the grilling, remove the turkey from the brine and rinse it with cold water. I found just as much success adding to a bowl of fresh, cool water. The idea is to remove any excess salts that may have accumulated on the skin. Let it soak for two or three minutes.
Step Five: Remove the thighs from the fresh water and pat it dry with a paper towel.
Step Six: Add the poultry seasoning to the thighs. Make sure to get both sides.
Note: Optionally, you can rub some oil or melted butter on the thighs before adding the dry rub. This will help the seasonings cling to the surface of the meat and skin.
🔥 Smoking Instructions
Step One: Set your grill to indirect heat and preheat it with the lid closed at 275 degrees. For gas grills, turn off the center burners and for the Big Green Egg, add the plate setter.
Step Two: Add the Cherry Wood to the grill to create a light smoke. Depending on the type of smoker you have you might be using chips, pellets (for a pellet smoker), or another form of smoking wood. Gas grillers should use a smoking box. If using a charcoal grill, set it for indirect heat.
⚠️ Warning: You don’t want to have large, billowing clouds of smoke. That looks great on Instagram photos, but the reality is that this amount of smoke will be way too much and your turkey will taste like charcoal. Instead, look for a very light trickle of smoke. If you need to adjust, move the wood chips around until you get the light smoke.
Step Three: Add the thighs directly to the grill grate and let them smoke for about 60-75 minutes. There is no need to turn them over, thanks to the indirect heat. The turkey is ready when the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees. Definitely use a meat thermometer to check this.
Step Four: Let the turkey thighs rest for at least ten minutes before serving. Cutting into them too early will allow all the juices to drain out, and you just spent a lot of time adding them through the brining process.
💡 Recipe Tips
Make sure the turkey thighs are completely defrosted before starting the brining process. If they are still partially frozen, they will not absorb the amazing brine flavors.
You can add the brine to the stovetop, bring it to a boil, and then let it come down to room temperature before brining, but I did not notice a difference in the turkey when I did this, so you can definitely save yourself some time and skip that step.
Turkey thighs can be tricky to tell if they are done. The darker meat makes it difficult to tell if it is fully cooked or not. It is best to use a wireless meat thermometer to check. Mine will sound an alarm when the temperature reaches the desired level.
Using a thermometer will also help you refrain from peeking inside the grill or smoker too often. The more you do this the longer the cooking time.
Note: Set the temperature alarm to five degrees below the desired level. After you remove the meat from the grill, it will continue to rise in temperature for a little bit. With all the extra juiciness added from the brine, you will have a little bit of play, and you shouldn’t need to worry about it overcooking and becoming too dry.
🍴Substitutions & Modifications
We loved this citrusy beer brine but it’s not the only one that works for smoked turkey meat. If you’d rather not use beer, try the brine we used for smoked turkey breast. It’s very flavorful and alcohol-free!
Other fresh herbs, cloves, cracked peppercorns, allspice berries, star anise, cinnamon sticks, and bay leaves are fabulous ingredients for a wet brine.
The dry rub is also something you can experiment with. I swear by this Yucatan turkey rub that blends some lovely Mexican flavors.
I always make a larger batch of this all-purpose dry rub and having some ready-made will really cut back on the time spent in the kitchen!
Garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper, paprika, cayenne pepper, chili powder, thyme, oregano, rosemary, and other herbs and spices can be used to make your own dry rub.
🥘Serving Suggestions
Smoked turkey thighs go well with such a large selection of BBQ sides! For hot summer days, we enjoy lighter side dishes like this grilled peach and arugula salad, grilled corn on the cob, grilled sweet potatoes in foil, smoked asparagus bundles, or some grilled squash.
Any of these BBQ chicken sides also work well for turkey and other poultry. And let’s not forget the star of any barbecue cookout: the BBQ sauce!
Try this versatile whiskey BBQ sauce, the smoked pumpkin bourbon BBQ sauce, a tangy cherry bourbon BBQ sauce, or if you’re up for some heat, this sweet and spicy BBQ sauce.
For Thanksgiving dinner, smoking your turkey is not just extremely delicious, but also practical. You’ll free space in the oven where you can cook other dishes!
A festive Thanksgiving table is so much better when you’re also serving some classic sides such as green beans, these grilled Brussels sprouts kebabs, a satisfying smoked potato salad, turkey gravy, smoked cranberry sauce, or some hearty grilled mac and cheese.
👨🍳 Recipe FAQs
You should be able to pick up some turkey thighs at your local grocery store. Sometimes they are in the refrigerated section and sometimes in the frozen food aisle.
The turkey thighs need to be cooked to 165 degrees F. Then you will know that they are done; for best results, use a digital thermometer.
Smoked turkey thighs are usually ready in under two hours. The total time is not as important as monitoring the internal temperature of the meat in the deepest area. Once the turkey thighs reach 165°F, they are done.
Stronger woods such as hickory and mesquite will provide a more intense smoke flavor. For a milder bouquet, opt for a light fruit wood such as cherry, apple, or peach. Consult our free wood smoking cheat sheet, and the best wood to smoke a turkey for more options.
All poultry meat is fully cooked once it reaches an internal temperature of 165°F. Some say that dark meat such as thighs would benefit from being cooked to a higher temperature of 175°F because it’s richer in connective tissues.
In the end, it’s a matter of personal preference whether you cook the turkey to 165 or 175 degrees but keep in mind the internal temp will raise by 5-10 degrees as it rests.
Related Recipes
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Smoked Turkey Thighs
Ingredients
Beer Brine
- 1 Lemon
- 1 Orange
- ¼ cup Kosher Salt
- ¼ cup Brown Sugar
- 3 sprigs Herbs fresh
- 2 cans Beer IPA
Turkey and Rub
- 2 Turkey Thighs
- 2 tbsp Poultry Seasoning
Instructions
Brining the Turkey Thighs
- Cut the lemon and orange and add all ingredients to a large bowl. Add the cans of beer and stir well to dissolve the brown sugar and salt.
- Add the turkey thighs and make sure they are completely covered by the liquid.
- Cover the bowl with Saran and refrigerate overnight.
Prepare the Turkey
- After brining for approximately 8-10 hours, remove the turkey thighs and let them rest in fresh, cold water for 15 minutes. This will remove any excess salts from the skin.
- Remove the thighs and pat them dry with a paper towel.
- Rub the turkey thighs with poultry seasoning. You really want the flavor of the beer to be the star of the show.
Smoke the Thighs
- Prepare your grill for smoking. For a Kamado grill, add a plate setter. For a gas grill, turn off the center burners.
- Set the temperature to 275 degrees. Add Cherry wood chips to create a slight smoke.
- Add the turkey thighs to the grill and let them smoke for approximately 60-75 minutes, until they reach an internal temperature of 165 degrees.
- Remove and let them rest for 15 minutes before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Jason’s been firing up the grill for over 30 years after graduating from the US Coast Guard Academy. His love of finely-grilled steak and chicken led him to buy his first Weber grill to put on his apartment patio in 1992. Each military move led to a new grill (a mixture of gas and charcoal) until he fell in love with the Big Green Egg in 2008. Since then, he has added another 4 grills to the collection. Yes, he has a problem. Jason loves smoking in the ceramic BGE with exotic woods including olive wood from Egypt and hard to find varieties such as sassafras and orange wood. Jason takes the term “foodie” to a whole new level, jumping at the chance to take food tours and cooking classes during foreign travels. These have provided inspiration to incorporate new ideas into recipes when he gets back home. He has been featured in Fox News, Parade, Yahoo News, Kansas City Living and more. After retiring from the military and moving to southwest Florida, he has focused grilling and smoking locally sourced meats and fish (read: he likes to catch his own fish!)
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