Trial By Turkey

[MrHoss]

Christmas day was at my Mom's. I was meant to take a turkey down with a Kettle and my roti attachment but my foot has been hobbled the last couple weeks so I waited till Boxing Day to do it at home. Lucky me cause things did not go as planned.

Picked up a fresh, free range young turkey for a real good price. Christmas Eve I brined it with oranges, Slap Yo Mama Cajun, Uncle Henry's Pecan Rub, salt and brown sugar:



Removed, padded dry with paper towels, coated in a thin layer of olive oil/ s+p and into the fridge on a rack for a few hours to dry up some:



It was due to rain so I had my 2 Kettles on the front porch hillbilly style:



Onto the cooker she goes with a hunk of cherry on a mix of lump and Coshell:



Half an hour later I am out watching the cooker when the skewer on the roti starts having trouble. The motor would turn it only so far then reverse. I figured my forks were not holding the bird well enough so out it came to be made more secure. The damn thing behaved the same when returned so I took a look more closely. The metal ring past the handle on the roti skewer was loose. Also loose was the handle, counter weight and screw on the end. Nothing I did could tighten the damn thing and my bird is in the danger zone! I contemplated moving to my oven then thought of all the 22.5 grates I have in the garage. So leaving the roti ring on I repositioned the drip pan, popped a grate in and placed the turkey indirect.

Here she is done:



I make a stuffing that is cooked on it's own. Partway through the prep....I am drizzling browned butter over my mix of bacon, onion, celery, cubed chibata bread coated in a egg/milk bath, celery tops and thyme. This stuff comes out crunchy and decadent.....I add more browned butter during the cook:



Tabaled with peas, my wife's sweet potato casserole....the bird has lost it's wings to cook's privilege at this point: 





Turkey came out on the dry side....not my normal juicy result. Right now I am thinking it was the increased chamber size and leaky nature of the roti ring that were my undoing. Perhaps I could have kept it moist with a pan of water over the coals. Taste on the bird was great and I had a smoke ring on the white meat.

If this cook had happened at my Mom's there would have been no cooking grate handy AND the only oven there was cooking a 22 pound turkey already. I'd have been screwed.

[MacEggs]

You cooked it on a kettle ... And it was edible ... So ... Nice save ... Just sayin'. 

[mattmountz94]

Still looks good!