My First Kettle Cooked Turkey

[MacEggs]

I have smoked whole turkeys before, but only on the ECB.
Had to give it a go on a Weber kettle.

A big thanks to all of you who have posted their kettle cooked turkeys! Great inspiration. 

Picked up this 11.5lb bird before the holidays for 75¢/lb. Couldn't pass on this price.
It was a utility bird, so it was missing the wing tip on one side, and tip and wing on the other.












I put together a simple brine.
Used just over 6 litres of water, plus:
1 cup Kosher salt
½ cup sugar
¾ cup minced garlic
1 orange (quartered)
2 trays of ice cubes

(also put the neck and heart in the brine)






20 hours in the brine. Removed, and gave it a good rinse, and patted dry.
Back into the fridge for the air dry stage. About 5 hours in this case.




I wanted to use the 2 baskets I fabricated last summer, as well as a drip pan.
I loaded each basket with lump, but not too full.




The drip pan consisted of celery, onion, neck and heart, plus some seasoning. Then added 1 litre of boiling water.
10 lit briquettes on each basket.






The outside temperature was around 40℉ with some light rain.
Sure beats the polar vortex we endured earlier this week. 

The bird going on. Some onion and apple chunks in the cavity. Some foil on the grate to prevent possible charring.
1 chunk of apple wood on each basket. I kept the intakes fully open for most of the cook.
After 15 minutes, the ET-73 was reading 250°+.






After 1 hour ... that was fast!




Removed after close to 2.5 hours. Rested for a bit then carved.










Had plenty of drippings. Removed the celery pieces, and the neck and heart ... promptly ate the heart - delicious!
Then put all the liquid in the blender for a quick break-down of any chunks ... about 5 seconds.
Didn't use all the liquid, as there was a lot! Saved what we didn't use for future gravy.

Added some water / flour mixture to thicken. No added salt was required. It was just right. 








The remaining charcoal. Appears some of the lump did not catch.
Over-all, a great cook-up. Thanks for looking. 

[salad]

That bird looks fantastic!  Nice job and nice kettle!

[MaxBobcat]

love to see cooks on ole mbh's.  well done!

[Jeff]

Looks so tender.  I bet it tasted superb!

[Prof.]

great! if I were to make a turkey for sure I would choose this your preparation..

[Weber MD]

Love the plate pic!

[wyd]

Looks great.  Plated up looks awesome.

[jcnaz]

Very nice!

I like your baskets too.

[OGlenn]

Nice cook there!  This will be the first weekend since Early November that I'm not doing a turkey on the 22". My oven will never have another turkey in it. It's just so right on a grill.

[Craig]

Great looking bird, Mac! There's so many ways to prep and flavor/brine these that I think I'll be eating turkey a couple more times throughout the year. I've always been a turkey junky but now that I've done them on the kettle.....I'm going to need to get my fix more often. Nice job!



Oh and +1 for doing the turkey on an MBH! They are my favorite!

[nuts4ribs]

LOOKING GOOD!! You're a genius on the Weber.