I have an electronic thermometer with a cable from the sensor to the display. I poke it in the same spot deep into every turkey. My primary concern is the safety of the meal. But typically if I take it out of the smoker or oven when it hits 165 they have never been too overcooked. When I was a kid... I just assumed that turkey was tough and dry. It wasn't until I was married that I discovered that turkey could be very tasty.
lol- yep- growing up everything was cooked to a char it seems (Maybe that’s why i don’t care for anything smoked)- chops had to be 165- because word was out about trichinosis- (Oh- and hte new FDA guidelines on Trich is 145f- domestic pork today is apparently much much safer than it was in past- has something to do with how they wrre fed or something which caused more Trich) but we always managed to cook them even further for fear o f Getting Trichinosis- - dried out pucks is what they were- chicken, same thing-
Although the burgers we did eat 1/2 raw- we’d even pick scrambled burger out of pan while it was frying- still dripping blood- As best i can recall, we never got Ecoli back then- either that or we ‘built up a resistance to it’ lol