Thanksgiving Practice


 

R Cain

TVWBB Fan
Decided to cook my turkey on the kettle this year and did a practice run yesterday. Turned out pretty good and I'm glad I did the trial run. 1. I love turkey and 2. I will tweak a few things for the big day.

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All brined up and ready to go. Brined in apple juice, sage, rosemary, thyme and salt for 24 hours. Coated with melted butter salt and pepper

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The setup. I used Kingsfor Mesquite charcoal. I angled the baskets thinking the dark meat would take longer. Next time I wont do that as they almost overcooked and I had to foil to protect them after while.

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On goes the bird.

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Looking pretty good. I ended up moving the baskets to the sides near the end.

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All done. It came out delicious and moist. Right at 2.5 hours to cook. I think I will reduce the number of coals at the start to slow down the cooking and I will change the brine formula slighty (less herbs). Bring on Thanksgiving.

-rog
 
Mike,

I'm not sure if it helped the flavor but those breasts were awesome. Besides a little butter never hurts does it? The skin was crispy, near the end of the cook I was thumpin' that area where the neck was and it sounded like a drum.

-rog
 
Great looking bird, Rog. Were you able to use the drippings for gravy?

I did. I had the neck heart and gizzard in the drip pan, took the drippings and chopped up the neck meat and heart and gizzard. I made a butter/flower roux chicken stock and man was it good. I'm a sucker for some giblet gravy.
 

 

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