1st Kettle Turkey for Christmas

Hi All. I am planning my first Kettle Turkey for Christmas. I have used my smoker and been happy with the results but I feel I can manage a bad weather event more successfuly with my Kettle. I was planning an 18lb fresh bird with stuffing in the cavity. It will not be brined. I did the apple brine last bird so this time I am going to do a butter injection with Simon & Garfunkle seasoning.

My questions surround the technique and clearance between the bird and the lid. I have been watching a number of videos using the kettle but in most cases the birds are smaller. I would prefer some advice from this forum. I thought about cooking the bird a bit lower into the kettle by laying two fire brick flat on the charcoal grate and then placing a broiling pan with a rack on top of the brick. This will allow me 2" more clearance between the bird and the dome. I can still catch the drippings and place coals on either side of the pan. I also thought I would use some foil along the sides of the broiling pan, not much, but enough so as not to burn the outside edges of the drums and wings considering I would be a little closer to the coals. I am thinking about turning the bird breast down for the first hour or so to avoid over cooking the breast. I know I could ice the breast also just not sure which would work better.

I would appreciate any comments on my intended method of cooking and the approximate cook time. I'm thinking I would plan a 5 hour cook running around 350F dome temp, and using applewood for smoke. Is cooking lower into the kettle a good idea or even necessary?

I would love to hear your comments.

Thanks

I did a 16 pound turkey in my kettle for Thanksgiving and it took almost 5 hours. So I am sure your 18 pounder will require a minimum of 5 hours and likely a bit more. I use a Smokenator setup, so the heat is from the side and top down. But I lowered the turkey in the Weber by sitting the roasting pan on an upside down pot. I am sure your firebricks or an old pot of similar size would do fine.

You will be very pleased with the turkey after injecting. The only thing I suggest is flipping it breast side down for the last hour or hour and a half of cooking. It moves the juices back into the breasts and allows the bottom of the turkey to brown up as well. The browning part may not be so necessary if you have the charcoal under the turkey instead of beside it. But getting the juices and butter in the breast before carving is the main idea.

Also, we had to travel our turkey which gave it a good 30 to 45 minutes in foil to rest. That probably helped too. We wrapped it in foil and blankets, then put it in a ice chest that had been warmed with hot water (which was poured out before putting the turkey in). Worked like a charm. The turkey came out of the ice chest nice and warm, as was the stuffing and mashed potatoes we put in there too.

Good luck, I'm sure you are going to have an amazing bird for Christmas!

I like Steve above just did one a few weeks ago on a kettle with the smokenator also. I did a 17lb turkey and found a great way to do it in the kettle without hitting the dome. I went to the dollar store and bought 2 of the small meatloaf pans and covered them in foil and they are a perfect size and reusable. I then placed these in a disposable foil pan so I could catch the drippings on the lower grate so the top one wasn't needed. After and hr an a half I rotated the Turkey since one side was close to the heat to make it cook more evenly.
I used the plain turkey brine recipe here on the site and then used some rub under the skin all over and then sprinkled some on the outside. It came out great and the skin got brown an crisp but did take about the 5 hr mark also. I let it rest about 45 min and enjoyed it..

I`m planning on doing 2 this weekend with apple brine but on the WSM...

Thanks Steve & Mike for your replies. Did you guys use the waterpan in the Smokenator or just leave it out all together? What kind of temps were you getting with it?
Steve how did you brew up your butter? I've read using some chicken stalk with it and whatever seasoning works well. I am trying to create an airspace under my turkey as opposed to laying it inside a pan so hopefuly the airflow will aid with the cooking.

I get rotating the turkey Mike but I am curious about your meatloaf pan setup. Did you simply lay the turkey across the top of the two meatloaf pans? Were they upside down in the foil pan?

Thanks for the great advice.

Glad to hear the skin turned out well.

Gary,
Yes the pans were upside down in the foil pan so they acted like a stand. I was able to just spin the turkey across the pans when I turned it which was nice and they had a minimal contact area so more air/heat flow under bird. I did use the water pan when cooking the turkey and just had to refill it a bunch of times. They also make small aluminum pans that hold more water and will sit in the same area on top of the insert I may try. They are taller and would require less refilling but I'm also not sure we really need the water pan with a Turkey. I was able to maintain temps at 325-340 pretty easy the whole time at the top of the turkey area.

Thanks Mike that's pretty cool. I'm thinking I will use the Smokenator, don't know why I didn't think of it considering I have one. I really only used it a few times and then bought the WSM.
I'm not convinced the water pan is necessary either. I could always put a small amount of liquid in the drip pan just to start things off, wine or beer or stalk. The Smokenator will certainly make for a tidier grill and without the water pan will allow for the easy addition of coals and wood. I like it. I have a porcelain broiler pan and the grate is coated so that should work similar to your design. The pan is about 2" deep and the fire brick on their flat are about 1".

I'm thinking you and Steve have solved my problem.

Well I pulled it off on the Big Day with an 18lb., stuffed, kettle roasted, smoked turkey. We did sausage and mushroom stufffing using Simon & Garfunkle seasoning for the homemade sausage and Newfoundland Savoury seasoning for the dressing instead of sage/thyme/poultry seasoning. The bird was fresh and 100% natural. I injected it the evening before with a half chicken stock and salted butter mixture using Simon & Garfunkle seasoning with the injection. I used a little over a cup of liquid for the breasts, drums and thighs. I can't say enough for this mixture. It was outstanding. I could not get over how much better the drums tasted. They were very moist and tastey. I brined a turkey a couple of weeks ago but we preferred this to anything we've had so far. I left the turkey out in the fridge to air dry and rubbed it down with o/o just before going on the kettle.
When planing this cook I was concerned about the clearance between the dome and the breast. I used a 2" deep broiler pan, 1 1/4" fire brick and set the turkey into the kettle using the charcoal grate. I used a roasting rack that gave me another inch in height setting it on top of the broiler pan. It work out really well as I had three inches of clearance under the dome and was able to keep the bird out of the coals. I kept coals on either side of the broiler pan and maintained a dome temp ranging from 300-310 degrees adding a few coals every hour or so. I placed a quart of stock in the bottom of the broiler pan to keep the drippings from burning. The bird went on at noon and came off at almost 5:00pm with internal temps slighly higher than required. I wanted to err on the side of safety with the stuffing. I used only one piece of applewood but it was about 4 inches long and about an 1 1/4 inches in diameter. About half way into the cook I covered the bird with foil. It came out a very rich dark brown. The skin was crisp and shiny. The aroma in the kithcen was awesome. Got so busy at the end with 12 people I forgot to take the finishing photo. Everything turned out really well.
Here are some pics.
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Wow, nice looking turkey! I do a mix of corn starch, salt, pepper, and a small amount of spice (sage or whatever you like) to rub the exterior, that helps the skin come out a bit more crisp. But sounds like yours was excellent, did you do anything special for the skin?

Okay, trick number 2: Save the carcass! Use your pressure cooker and the carcass to make "turkey stock" instead of chicken stock. Whether you use it to inject your next turkey or make gravy, it is a great way to kick your turkey flavor up a notch. You can chop the turkey up and freeze it for later, or make now and freeze the stock.

Edit No 2: Stuffing

CI had a turkey stuffing that was cooked "partially" in the turkey's cavity. They put roughly half the stuffing in the turkey's cavity for about half the cooking time. One way to do this is put the stuffing in a cheesecloth, then insert. This makes it very easy to remove when the time comes. So the turkey gets to cook for half the cook time with stuffing and half without, allowing the hot air to get inside.

The cheesecloth stuffing cooks for inside and gathers flavor, then it is removed from the cavity and mixed into the rest of the stuffing and finished in your oven. You get the flavor of the turkey into your stuffing but not the worry about undercooked contamination. I did this a couple years back and liked it. We didn't do this time because we had "turkey stock" to add flavor to the stuffing instead of chicken stock, so it still picked up a turkey flavor.

Thanks Steve. I just used olive oil on the skin. It was plenty dark and had crispy areas. For Christmas I got a Thermapen so I actually paid more attention to the dressing as a result. It was easy to do. I love my Thermapen!! The dressing came off at 170F. Overall I would say I probably overcooked the turkey by about 20 minutes or so but the compound butter injection saved the day. I actually think I like this method better using the kettle instead of the smoker. I think the trick is to add coals every hour and not use too many so that the heat is not extreme. I used an all natural briquette made up here Quebec. I also find the kettle vents allow you to be very precise and it responds more quickly to adjustments.
I know what I have read about stuffing but I have eaten stuffed birds for over 50 years and I like to do it. I have also cooked dressing in the slow cooker with good results. You're right, turkey stalk is the best. Actually some of the very best turkey stalk I have ever made comes from deep fried turkey. I've cooked several of those too. Always after the "big meal" I have the carcass in my caldren with onions, celery, carrots and some salt. I believe the salt helps to draw the flavour from the bones. I simmer for about 4 hours, let it cool some and toss everything but the broth, separate the fat and freeze in one qt. containers.