Turkey planning


 
Dwain Pannell

Dwain Pannell

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Each year there is a rush to learn to cook the Thanksgiving turkey. If interested, I recommend cooking a practice turkey while you have a cpl months to research and plan. There are some great recipes and processes archived here and on other sites. As always, folks will answer questions and offer solutions in an effort to make you successful. Cheers!
 
Good advice, Dwain. Even though I'm not cooking this year, I just practiced a couple weeks ago myself. ;)
 
Local store had bone in turkey breast for $.99 a pound so I picked up a couple. I'm a turkey junkie, about a month ago did a whole turkey on the kettle gasser and it came out great really moist and tender. We do a few each year so I'm good to go.
 
Going to be doing a roti turkey on the performer this weekend. We usually do one about a month and a half before Thanksgiving, since it's always a good idea to do a practice bird before the Big Day. I actually have down pretty good now, but cooking a turkey on the roti is just plain fun, not to mention good eats! :)
 
I have a Genesis 1000 gasser and want to do a turkey on it. I may go ahead and do a practice one before Thanksgiving, but I was wondering if I could do it on my rotisserie. I have done a couple chickens on it already, but was unsure what a bird three times that big would do. The rotisserie is a Weber #9891 https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005JD3E/tvwb-20

The problem I see with it is that it will likely be off center since it would be so big and this rotisserie doesn't have any counter balances.

If not, I will just do it on the cooking grates, but would love to use the roto if possible.

Let me know if you have any thoughts or advice.
 
I might do a breast to make some stock for gravy beforehand but, I'm not too worried about the thanksgiving day feast! Maybe brined and bacon blanketed again this year, maybe not brined, the bacon blanket does add a measure of "pretty" for the presentation.
Until it's sliced to bring to table anyway.
 
Timothy F. Lewis said:
I might do a breast to make some stock for gravy beforehand.
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I would think drumsticks, thighs, and wings would do better for stock and also be significantly cheaper than breast.

My local farmers market store used to do all their own butchering. I loved it when they had boneless chicken breasts on sale because they'd have a ton of breast bones on hand. Normally I wouldn't use them for stock because it's almost impossible to get enough of them, but when you can get enough to fill a 12 quart stock pot and it doesn't cost you anything, I'll definitely go with breast bones for my stock.
 
I will start with a drumstick in a couple of days, then a couple of smaller whole turkey's and by Thanksgiving my technique should be good to go.
 
I just did a 12lb turkey on my genesis 1000 with a rotisserie. It came out good. Though not real flavorful and not real juicy like I expected. I think the problem was that I used a generic turkey and I didn't put any seasoning on it before hand. I plan to do another one for Thanksgiving but will use a Butterball this time and probably some seasoning before hand. I have always had good results with Butterballs in the oven.

I had done a couple of chickens on the roto already this summer and they came out great. I used the Roadside Chicken recipe on those.
 
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