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

I'm going to do the turkey on the grill this year for Thanksgiving. I tried my first one of these back in January, using this weber recipe and it turned out well. I may try this again, but I like to mix it up a bit so am looking for other good recipes. Anyone have a favorite?

I've considered this one as well as a couple of others on the weber page.

I'll be doing this on a gas weber grill using indirect heat.

Looks good! I may have to try that this year. I love cooking rotisserie chicken on my weber summit and have always wanted to try a turkey!

Yummy! Rotisserie is the best cooking method for meat, my favorite. That and braising but that method would not apply with a whole turkey.

The last few years I have smoked my turkey. It is the best way too eat turkey imo. This year I think I'll try a brine of some sorts.

Where the hell do you get rolling papers big enough?

Cheech Marin

How do you achieve good results with the skin without it being flabby and gross with the smoking method?

I discard the skin but those who eat it just turn the temps up the last hour of the cook.

What temp do you set your smoker for a chicken or turkey?

With poultry my target temps are between 275° F and 300°.

I have actually found a couple recipes where you can brine the entire turkey. You either need a 5 gallon pot to sit it in with the brine and put it all in the fridge, or more likely, a cooler filled with some ice and water to keep everything gold, but the turkey in a big plastic bag, fill the bag with the brine, seal tightly, and let the turkey sit in the cooler overnight.

The couple of brine recipes I've seen suggest the turkey could be a bit salty though. Do you have problems with this? I don't tend to use a lot of salt, so I'm wondering what this would do to it. I was thinking about a brine, but am steering away from the idea.

Maybe I'll get a smaller (not for thanksgiving) turkey sometime and try a brine.

A brine should taste like ocean water....so yes it should be salty. I would also balance it with some sugar...also this is a good time to add extra flavour...bay leaves, peppercorns, thyme...you name it.

One tip is if you are brining a bird, after the brine period rinse out the cavity and the outside well with cold water to get rid of any excess salt and pat it complety dry with a paper towel. Wet meat cooks like crap, drying the meat=crispy, golden brown flavour.

I did a brined turkey last year for the first time and got rave reviews. It was possibly the juiciest turkey I've ever had. I used an Alton Brown recipe from the Food Network site.

I like a lot of Alton Browns methods. His chicken wing method is brilliant. I also like his idea about marinating small cuts of meat such as beef/pork tenderloin while it is resting after it is cooked rather than marinating prior to cooking/raw. Knowing Alton Browns history I bet his brined turkey recipe is killer.

OK, I couldn't stand all of this talk. I cooking a chicken on the rotisserie now.

Nobody fries their turkey?

We've been frying a turkey every year for a long time. Usually my brother in law fries one and does another in the smoker. No injuries so far, and only one fire (the window has been replaced and everything is fine now, thanks for asking).

I've tried doing a turkey in the charcoal kettle (Weber Performer) a couple of times but each time I try something bad (and unrelated) seems to happen to a family member so the cook gets interrupted. I have a spare turkey sitting in the freezer waiting for another attempt.

My wife's Aunt has a real antique log cabin out behind her house - one that her Uncle purchased, disassembled moved it to their house and reassembled. Complete with wood stove. Every year we do Thanksgiving in the cabin. 8 or 9 years ago the Uncle passed away close to Thanksgiving. To try and take everyone's mind off the passing, I announced that We would provide the turkey that year. So I showed up early on Thanksgiving with my fryer and made a big show out of cooking the turkey. That particular year, it happened to be a wild turkey (the breathing kind) that I had shot. Long story short, it sorta worked to lighten the mood but definately became an instant tradition. We have done it that way ever since.

We've also been frying our turkeys for the past several years ... sans the fires or injuries so far. (knockin' on wood)

I've never had it that way, but it sounds like it takes something that is pretty healthy for you and makes it not so healthy.

Then again, it's hard to worry about eating healthy on Thanksgiving with all the food!

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.

"Exploding Turkeys" would be a good band name.

Makes "Counting Crows" seem so lame.

I'll go with "Flaming Buzzard".

Me, I want some "Dodo Doo-doo," the extinct stink.

The Police had a song with that line in it didn't they?

....that's all I want to say to you.

I have no affiliation with The Police.

I like Scrantonicity.

My first attempt at frying a turkey - it came out black with the legs and wings kinda stickin out - not to mention it was a scrawny wild bird that I had shot. My wife just cracked up and said it should have the caption "KABOOM" underneath.

Did you buy an Acme brand fryer from a certain long eared long eared Canid?

You get the picture!

I'm getting a little concerned about the size of the turkey that will fit on the grill. We are now up to 17 people, which would tell me about a 17lb turkey. Is this going to fit on the grill though is the question. It's a Weber Genesis

Maybe I'll be ok...found this on the weber site, although it doesn't mention which weber it is referring to.

Size: Weight is not really an issue as long as the turkey fits in your grill with the lid down to allow for Indirect Cooking (note that turkeys over 24 pounds may not fit under your grill lid). At least one inch clearance between the turkey and lid is ideal. So think structure. A broad, flat bird will fit better than one with a high breast bone. To determine the size of turkey you need to feed a specific number of guests, see our Portion Guide

Hi Zarak,

If you find the whole bird doesn't fit on the grill you can use this method of removing the backbone and laying it flat on the grill in a pinch.

http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/butterflychicken.html

So I used the Bon Appetite recipe I linked to at the beginning of the thread. We had 17 people, and I was debating how much turkey to buy. I didn't want to get one too big due to concerns of it fitting. I ended up with a 16.35 lb turkey, but had read 1 lb per person, with up to 1.5 for a good amount of leftovers. Since our family tends to eat more white than dark meat, I decided to also get a 5 lb turkey breast to cook on the grill as well.

I started the main turkey at 10:45am on the grill. I don't seem to remember having this issue the last time I tried turkey on the grill, but regulating temperature proved to be difficult. I had to keep going out to make sure it was staying at 350, making small adjustments to the amount of heat to keep it there.

Around 12:30pm, I put the breast on as well. They both ended up finishing around the same time, probably around 2:45, with the main turkey maybe 10-15 minutes earlier than the breast.

Anyway, took it all off, carved it up, made the gravy from the recipe, and it all turned out great! We ended up with a LOT of extra turkey though. We didn't even have to carve into the extra breast. The 1 lb per person rule would have been ok, with some leftovers, but not a ton of them. With the extra breast, we have a lot of leftover turkey to eat.

Good thing I like having leftovers after the holiday!

I hope for you the leftovers are turkey and not relatives?

Some of both. My inlaws are here. Parents in law arrived Tuesday night and are leaving tomorrow. Bro in law arrived Wed evening and is leaving around noon Sunday.