Spun Turkey for Thanksgiving


 
You are a lucky man! I have always been the one in the kitchen and wife took care of clearing the “entertainment areas” but, this year after her back surgery, that has all fallen to me, I’ll enlist the grandchildren to do some table work but, I have things to do right now!
Great looking buzzard!😉
 
Timothy F. Lewis said:
You are a lucky man! I have always been the one in the kitchen and wife took care of clearing the “entertainment areas” but, this year after her back surgery, that has all fallen to me, I’ll enlist the grandchildren to do some table work but, I have things to do right now!
Great looking buzzard!😉
Click to expand...
Thanks. Truth be told, we have a very small kitchen, so it's best that only one of us work in there at a time, particularly when one is slinging dishes in off the grill or in and out of the oven.
 
To show how much I've learned in the past few years, largely from these forums, here's a picture of a spun turkey I did for Thanksgiving in 2021:

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Note that one got a bit more done. Putting the fire only on one side, making sure the fire was on the upward rotating side of the bird to promote self-basting, and cooking by temperature, appearance, and tenderness rather than just time all makes a big difference. So thank you all.

Also, I marked my rotisserie motor with the direction of rotation, so that I don't have to figure it out each time.

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Nice looking turkey.

Do you remember your temp and about how long it took to get it done?

I'm curious because I cooked the same size (14 lb) turkey (spatchcocked) set at 325 (actual temp likely lower) on a pellet cooker, and it took 3.5 hours to get it fully done. A YouTuber did the same cook on the same cooker and said his was ready in a little under two hours.
 
Chris in Louisiana said:
Nice looking turkey.

Do you remember your temp and about how long it took to get it done?

I'm curious because I cooked the same size (14 lb) turkey (spatchcocked) set at 325 (actual temp likely lower) on a pellet cooker, and it took 3.5 hours to get it fully done. A YouTuber did the same cook on the same cooker and said his was ready in a little under two hours.
Click to expand...
I was attempting to maintain a temperature (by a Tel-Tru thermometer in the kettle lid) of about 350F, but it did fluctuate between 300F and 400F during the cook.
I found I had to make a number of adjustments to the bottom vent during the cook, and sometimes I was a bit slow at making those adjustments.
Also, not unexpectedly, the lid temperature spiked up when I opened the lid to check the bird's temperature, and I did add some more {lump) charcoal at the 2 hour mark.
I cooked the bird until it was getting readings of 175F to 180F in the thighs with an instant read thermometer.
I pulled the turkey at 2.5 hours.
I hope that information helps, and apologies for the slow reply - it's been a busy week!

An additional thought: I noted that you mentioned that you were cooking your turkey spatchcocked, so I am a bit surprised that it took 3.5 hours to finish it. I wonder if your pellet cooker was indeed operating a temperature below 325F, as you hinted might be the case.
 
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