Roasted turkey.

[HankB]

I did a turkey earlier this month. It was a frozen Butterball that was injected so I didn't bother to brine it. I followed Alton Brown's recomendations and started it for half an hour in a very hot grill.  (Too hot for my Maverick which goes a little over 400°) Here it is after a half hour in the 26" with two chimneys of lump and a couple chunks of apple and cherry:


After the initial hot period, I reduced the temperature to 350°, covered the breast with a foil shield and cooked to a breast temperature of 161°. Here it is resting before I package and carve it.


You can see where the skin on the breast tore a little and then really opened up, but the meat was still moist when carved over an hour later. (I had to transport to a party. I put it in a roasting pan that was preheated and then put that in a picnic cooler that I had preheated with hot water. When ready to carve over an hour later, the breast temperature read 170°!)

Everyone liked the turkey and one party goer claimed (several times) that it was the best turkey she had ever had.

PS: I have lots of apple and cherry to share with anyone in the Chicago area.

[1911Ron]

WOW!!!!! that looks good.

[Jeff]

Hey Hank
Is that the one you made the day after Thanksgiving when it was so windy and cold?  It looks great.  Glad everyone liked it.  So yeah, I'll be needing some more cherry and apple too.  I'm about out of what I got from you before.  Any pear left?  That one was good too!

I also notice how much extra room there seems to be around that turkey...so nice to have the extra real estate of a 26!!!  Can't wait to try mine for the first time!

[Craig]

That looks good!   

Craig

[Duke]

Looks great Hank! The 26'r dwarfs that turkey. How big was it?

[1buckie]

Now THAT belongs in PRON !!!

Nice lookin' bird !!!!

[HankB]

Thanks all for the kind words. Apologies for the delayed reply. Need to turn on email notification! (Which I just did.)

Hey Hank
Is that the one you made the day after Thanksgiving when it was so windy and cold?  It looks great.  Glad everyone liked it.  So yeah, I'll be needing some more cherry and apple too.  I'm about out of what I got from you before.  Any pear left?  That one was good too!

I also notice how much extra room there seems to be around that turkey...so nice to have the extra real estate of a 26!!!  Can't wait to try mine for the first time!

Hi Jeff, I did that one the first Friday of December for another occasion, but the actual roasting used the same technique.

Looks great Hank! The 26'r dwarfs that turkey. How big was it?

I usually snap a picture of the label and make a note of the weight but I neglected to do so this time. I think it was 17 lb.

The 26 is nice for this because I can get a lot of charcoal in it for high heat the first half hour and still have it be indirect.