Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler grilling a turkey for Thanksgiving

You should try it. It is not like you think as far as being fried. It is definately not like fried chicken. It just produces tender breast meat - not dried out. If you inject it with something it just adds to the flavor.

My wife and I did Alton Brown’s recipe last year as well. Our guests were pleasantly surprise; knowing that we both are terrible cooks :-) Also, Brown’s technique of browning the turkey first and then lower the temperature and cover the turkey breast w/ alum foil is highly recommended.

My wife and I are in a supper club. One of the group grilled a turkey on his weber rotisserie. It was excellent.

Brined Turkey = Awesome.

A couple of years ago my wife decided she wanted to brine the Thanksgiving turkey. It was a bit of work. It involved a lot of soaking in a couple of different pungent brines (I think), in a large container that had to stay in the fridge for a couple of days. And then there was a step that involved hand-massaging butter under the turkey's skin. It was a lot of prep-work for "just a turkey". A lot of puttering about in the kitchen to put it all together.

The end results were - honestly - stunning. It was the best turkey I've ever had. Our guests & family agreed, and the quantity of turkey consumed seemed reinforce that it wasn't just being nice. Incredibly moist and delicious. We ate leftovers off that turkey for days, and no one complained. It was so good, we've even done it again at other, non-Thanksgiving times of the year.

If you need a specific brining recipe, I can talk to my wife. I'm sure she's got it.

Though this year, no brined-turkey for us. We decided to head to Florida for the week. Get away from the dreary midwestern pre-winter greyness. Just the wife & I. No family ruckus. Our intentions are to have gulf-coast seafood for Thanksgiving diner, surrounded by palm trees and beach, overlooking the Gulf of Mexico.

I'll echo Peter's experience.

Problem with either deep-frying or smoking a turkey is that you don't really get drippings (unless you are collecting them in a pan on the smoker or something, which makes it simply a roasted turkey using a different fuel source).

And I need gravy.

mmmmmm gravy. It ain't Thanksgiving if there ain't gravy.

Damnit. Now I'm hungry. Thanks Tom.

hmmmm... When I get around to cooking a turkey on my weber rotisserie I'll need to remember to put in a new drip pan so I can use the drippings for gravy.

I don't think I'd want to make gravy with 1 month worth of drippings in the pan (about how often I change the drip pan).

Peter I brine our turkey in a cooler without ever needing to put the bird in the fridge. I put the cooled brine in the cooler, the bird and then cover the bird with ice ... I always fill a couple or three quart size zip lock bags with ice and place them on top of the bird so the bird stays submerged in the brine, otherwise it will float.

This isn't mine but here's a pic from the web to give you an idea.

Tom.....good point. Our dinner is a pot luck affair and there is one aunt that brings very moist dressing complete with fresh sage that she grows herself - but there is no gravy. My grandma had her own garden when I was growing up and we would go over on Sunday for a good ol' Southern Fried Chicken meal - fresh vegetables - corn, green beans, mashed potatoes and.....excellent milk gravy. I didn't know how good I had it.

Warning to deep fried whole turkey cooks. Do not use turkeys pre-injected with butter or what have you, like the brand name "Butterball" for instance. They Explode!

Injecting your own flavor seems to be fine but the store bought ones = danger.