Cooking the stuffing in the turkey

[Bill Herns]

Has anyone cooked the stuffing inside the turkey while using kettle grill? (I am not a fan...but a request from sister!). My stuffing consists of bread, celery, onion, sausage, seasonings. Any advice? Safe to cook it the whole time? Weather calls for a high of 40.
Thanks in advance and happy grilling!

Bill

 

[John Solak]

I can't remember if I have done a turkey this way but I have done a chicken stuffed. I turned out good and the only thing that really stood out that I remember was it took way longer than I thought it would. Sorry I can't be any more help, I did this a long time ago.

 

[Alan D]

I have done it without issues. I have also done it outside of the turkey as well. My wife prefers to do it outside of the turkey, and I used to think it would be less flavorful, but she's proven me wrong. She still uses natural broth with it. For the last few years I've done the turkey with salsa and no stuffing. I miss the stuffing for sandwiches.

 

[Timothy F. Lewis]

I used to, decided it wasn’t worth the extra time and it seemed like it got soggy.
The old booklet advised 11 min per pound unstuffed and 13 minutes per pound stuffed.
There was a big bacteria scare about it for a few years. As long as it gets to 165, I don’t see why there would be any issues.

 

[Dustin Dorsey]

My concern is mainly the cook time and the chance that by the time that stuffing is cooked your breast meat is likely to be dried out. That said, my butcher showed me a pretty enormous Turkey that he deboned and stuffed with stuffing. The bird was tied up with butcher's twine. It seemed pretty amazing. I'm just not sure how you cook that. It seems like lower temps would be better and then try to crisp up somehow.

 

[BFletcher]

I don't have experience doing stuffing in the bird but here's a little write-up under Cooking Topics: http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/turkeyselect.html#stuff

And I bought a turkey from Bowman Landes. Here is what they suggest regarding stuffing (it is under "The Turkey is Done When:" http://bowmanlandes.com/our-products/cooking-tips/

Good luck and Happy Thanksgiving!

 

[ChadVKealey]

Growing up, we always had the stuffing in the bird, but not all of it fit, so the leftover went into a casserole dish. Over time, more people ate the casserole (loved that crunchy top that it got) and less ate what came out of the bird. So, eventually, we stopped stuffing it. What I think would be awesome would be spatchcocking the turkey and cooking it on a rack over the stuffing. That way the stuffing (well, dressing, I guess, at that point) still gets the flavor of the dripping juices, but no worries about it not being fully cooked.