Pan or No Pan below the Bird?

[Jeff B]

I've seen a lot of recipes calling for a pan under the turkey - some call for chicken broth added to the pan - and I have also seen pointers about putting the bird directly on the grill. The "Cooking Topics" (from the bullet site) has some tips for collecting drippings by putting the bird directly on the top grate and placing a pan on the bottom grate to catch drippings. I tried the pan below the grate once but I did this on my gas grill. I placed the bird on the grate and the pan on the bars below. The center burner was off but most of the juices still cooked off before I could use them. Maybe that wont happen with the WSM because of the distance between the grate and the heat. I'm considering cooking Tom this year directly in a pan with chicken broth because it says that method helps keep the meat moist - but - you cant use the drippings at all. How does everyone else feel about the pan if needed at all?

 

[Josh J]

I've seen a lot of recipes calling for a pan under the turkey - some call for chicken broth added to the pan - and I have also seen pointers about putting the bird directly on the grill. The "Cooking Topics" (from the bullet site) has some tips for collecting drippings by putting the bird directly on the top grate and placing a pan on the bottom grate to catch drippings. I tried the pan below the grate once but I did this on my gas grill. I placed the bird on the grate and the pan on the bars below. The center burner was off but most of the juices still cooked off before I could use them. Maybe that wont happen with the WSM because of the distance between the grate and the heat. I'm considering cooking Tom this year directly in a pan with chicken broth because it says that method helps keep the meat moist - but - you cant use the drippings at all. How does everyone else feel about the pan if needed at all?

I've smoked four turkeys now on the WSM and I have decent gravy results putting a roasting pan on the middle grate and the turkey on the top grate - nothing underneath the turkey. The turkey is amazing every time, but I do tend to have the same effect you described with the drippings burning off. Once I had hardly any drippings of value, once I had more than enough, and twice I had a lot but still had to add stock to get to two cups of usable drippings. I actually came on the site tonight to get a recipe to just cook with giblets. When I did have minimal drippings and ended up making most of the gravy from stock (chicken stock, at that), the smoke flavor was still noticeable, so I considered it a success. This year I think I'm going to prepare some stock-based gravy while the turkey is smoking, then pour whatever I have into the gravy mixture. We'll see!

 

[Jeff B]

Thanks Josh - and good luck with the giblet gravy. I tried that one year and I really liked it - very rich. My 2 cents on that is that it took a lot longer than I thought to make - more than an hour so start early.

 

[Dwain Pannell]

I agree with this: collect drippings by putting the bird directly on the top grate and placing a pan on the bottom grate to catch drippings.

 

[Marc]

I agree with this: collect drippings by putting the bird directly on the top grate and placing a pan on the bottom grate to catch drippings.

Agreed, however, I usually add some stock or even a bit of water (just a good splash or two) just so that the drippings don't cook down.

 

[Jeff B]

Agreed, however, I usually add some stock or even a bit of water (just a good splash or two) just so that the drippings don't cook down.

This sounds like a good plan. It should keep the drippings from turning into brown varnish on the pan.

 

[JimK]

I'll be putting a 9x13 pan on the lower rack, with the bird on the upper. I like the idea of a splash of stock in the pan and will try that.

 

[Marc]

You can even through a couple of stalks of celery, couple of carrots, few cloves of garlic, etc. along with the stock, water, or wine.