The Smoked Turkey
Sandwich.
Brined twenty-four hours. Hickory-smoked eight hours with a pecan finish. Sliced thin on toasted sourdough with house pickle and Alabama White on the side.
Stage Stop BBQ’s Smoked Turkey Sandwich is whole bone-in turkey breast brined for twenty-four hours, hickory smoked for eight hours with a pecan finish at 225F, pulled at 162F internal, rested fifteen minutes, sliced pencil-thick against the grain, and served folded onto toasted local sourdough with a house dill pickle, sweet onion, and Alabama White sauce on the side. Sliced to order, daily at all four Colorado Springs locations.
Eight hours plus a brine.
The cook timeline at every Stage Stop location. Same brine, same wood, same slice angle. Eve wrote it; the pitmasters work it.
| Hour | Internal temp | What’s happening |
|---|---|---|
| -24 | 38F | Whole turkey breasts into the brine: salt, brown sugar, bay, peppercorn, garlic, fresh thyme. Walk-in for 24 hours. |
| 0 | 38F | Rinse, pat dry, rub with salt + 16-mesh pepper + smoked paprika. Into the smoker at 225F over hickory, skin-side up. |
| 4 | 135F | Color setting, skin tightening. No spritz — we want crisp skin. |
| 6 | 152F | Add a split of pecan to the firebox for the finish. |
| 8 | 162F | Pull. Fifteen-minute rest. Slice across the grain, pencil-thick on the bias, fold onto toasted sourdough. |
Wood: Hickory with a pecan finish. Rub: 24-hour wet brine: kosher salt, brown sugar, bay, black peppercorn, garlic, fresh thyme. Dry rub: salt + 16-mesh pepper + smoked paprika. Smoker: 225F, indirect heat, no gas assist.
The thinking behind the cook.
The Smoked Turkey Sandwich is the menu sleeper — the order regulars circle back to after they've tried everything else. Brined twenty-four hours, smoked eight hours over hickory with a pecan finish, sliced thin to order, on sourdough with a house dill pickle and Alabama White sauce on the side. The thinking: turkey breast is one of the easiest meats to ruin and one of the hardest to make compelling. We worked the brine and the slice angle until it stopped being an afterthought.
The brine is the half of the work. Whole bone-in turkey breasts go into a 6% salt brine with brown sugar, bay, black peppercorn, fresh garlic, and a generous bunch of fresh thyme for twenty-four hours. The sugar tempers the salt; the bay and thyme carry into the meat without us having to chase them with a glaze. After the brine the breasts get rinsed, patted dry, rested uncovered overnight in the walk-in so the skin tightens (pellicle formation — same principle as cold-smoked salmon).
The rub is light: salt, 16-mesh black pepper, smoked paprika. Nothing aggressive. The brine already laid the foundation and turkey will absorb sweetness from any sugar in the rub aggressively — we don't want the bark sweet.
Into the smoker at 225F (lower than brisket — turkey breast goes dry above 165F internal and we want headroom). Hickory for the first six hours, a split of pecan for the last two. Pull at 162F internal and rest fifteen minutes — long enough for redistribution, short enough that the skin stays edible.
Slice angle matters more than people think. We slice against the grain, on a slight bias, pencil-thick — thicker than deli, thinner than carved. Folded onto the bread (not piled) so each bite has the same ratio of meat to bread to pickle.
The bread is local-bakery sourdough — cut thick enough to handle the moisture, toasted just on the cut side so it stays soft on the bite side. A house dill pickle (24-hour brine, Eve's recipe), thin slice of sweet onion, Alabama White sauce on the side. The Alabama White was made for smoked poultry — mayo, vinegar, black pepper, a touch of horseradish — and it does for turkey what Carolina Gold does for pork.
Available daily at every location, sliced to order. The bone-in breast goes farther per cook than brisket does, so we rarely sell out — which means it's the most reliable order if you're rolling up at 7p on a Saturday.
At every stage stop, daily.
The smoked turkey runs at every location every service day. Because the bone-in breast goes farther per cook than brisket, we rarely sell out — making it the most reliable order if you're rolling up late.
The Cantina
Old Stage Rd., Colorado Springs
Wed–Sun · 11a – 8p · Closed Mon/Tue
See this stop →Mash Mechanix
Downtown, Colorado Springs
Thu–Sun · 4p – 9p (Sat 12p – 10p)
See this stop →Old Colorado City
Westside · historic district, Colorado Springs
Thu–Sun · 12p – 9p
See this stop →Urban Animal · Star Ranch
Southside, Colorado Springs
Mon–Thu · 2p – 9p · Fri–Sat · 12p – 10p · Sun · 12p – 8p
See this stop →What to drink with it.
We park at breweries we’d drink at anyway. Here’s what our brewery partners pour that we’d pair with the smoked turkey — straight from the pitmasters and the brewers, no marketing.
| At | Beer |
|---|---|
| Urban Animal · Star Ranch | Free Range Sour 5.0% Kettle sour with rotating fruit. The acidity is built for smoked poultry. Our staff pick for this sandwich. |
| Urban Animal · Star Ranch | Star Ranch Pale 5.4% West Coast pale, clean bittering. Lets the brine and the smoke do the talking. |
| Mash Mechanix | Goldspring Lager 4.8% Czech-style pilsner. Crispy lager + brined-and-smoked turkey is one of the easiest wins on the menu. |
| Mash Mechanix | Hazy Six IPA 6.4% Citra + Mosaic + Galaxy. The citrus mirrors the Alabama White's vinegar. |