I know it's early to think about it.... Smoking a turkey on the 22 kettle?

[dbhost]

So the story is, I want to do a smoked turkey this Thanksgiving, and I don't really want to knock my budget to pieces and clog up what storage space I have with a WSM smoker or similar.... So.... How about it, what is the method folks are using to smoke a Turkey on their Weber 22" kettles, and what do I need to watch out for?

I typically won't even try a bird over 14lbs if I am smoking it so size shouldn't be a problem. I am figuring on filling the drip pan with apple juice, loading the coals up getting the temp right and while that is getting ready, brine, and inject the bird with the Cacheries Cajun Butter for Turkey, rub it down with butter and a blend of freshly ground poultry seasoning (Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme) combined with some special sauce rub that shall remain secret...

How long should a 14 lb bird smoke for? I am seeing from Butterball they recommend 30 minutes / lb which means about 7 hrs...
 
Should the bird be straight on the grate or in a foil pan? Looks like, and again this is from Butterball, straight on the grate.

And lastly, should the bird be rotated and if so how often? No mention of that but I suspect since the heat source is on the one side of the drip pan, that is unless I move the configuration where drip pan ins in the center and the coals are on both sides outside of the drip pan. I might have just answered my own question there...

Anyway, I am thinking about doing one this summer to try it out before it is critical for the holidays to get the method under my belt... THEN we do our proper holiday cook...

What other "holiday dishes" can be done on the Weber?

[Schaefd2]

I do two turkeys every TG. Both turkeys are about 12-14 pounds and both are cooked on a 22 kettle.

I always do one of them on my roti attachment. The other has been spatchcocked. Both take about 3 hours or so. I use a full chimney on each of them so my temp is probably around 350-400 but just remove the birds when the deepest part of the breast reach 160 IT, then let them rest a bit. You can easily smoke either of them by just placing wood chunks (I suggest peach wood) on top of your coals. In my experience, the dizzy bird is always the crowd favorite.


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[CarrieAnn]

Oh dizzy turkey. Yep. I’m doing that this year. I will need to practice this summer.

Awesome. And I’m thinking drip pan stuffing might be a thing of beauty....


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[dbhost]

Unfortunately no rotisserie, and not likely to be in the near future...

[Vette10R]

Definitely spatchcocked! Should only take a few hours and will be delicious! I did one last year and I believe I had a thread about it with my method and pictures. I know it turned out great and I'll be doing it again this year!

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[LiquidOcelot]

Oh dizzy turkey. Yep. I’m doing that this year. I will need to practice this summer.

Awesome. And I’m thinking drip pan stuffing might be a thing of beauty....


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Yup i need to do a practice spin also. Did turkey breast last year came out alright

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[bbqking01]

Just did one a week or two ago. I put onion and citrus inside it. Put butter under the skin. Little Tony's on outside. Indirect in the middle. Turned out great.

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[jmiester]

If you get the Weber app on your device there are some good recipes, I love the Turkey Brine recipe in there, used it the last 3 years for Thanksgiving and also in between times, have also always used a fresh not frozen bird


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[jcnaz]

I like to spatchcock turkey on my 26" kettle, but I think that a 22" would be too small for a turkey.

I have had very good luck roasting a turkey "in the basement" on a 22", though...

http://weberkettleclub.com/forums/grilling-bbqing/turkey-just-because-i-want-to!/msg87946/#msg87946

[HoosierKettle]

Just did one a week or two ago. I put onion and citrus inside it. Put butter under the skin. Little Tony's on outside. Indirect in the middle. Turned out great.

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Sounds very similar to what I do. Turkey can be as over complicated as you want but at the end of the day, you can make an excellent turkey with just a little seasoning and a piece of smoke wood cooked indirect. It’s very easy to make a juicy delicious turkey.

One thing I’ll add to this method is I usually start it out breast side down the first half and flip it right side up. I use a pan and rack. Keeps the color from getting too dark but either way it always turns out great.


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[bbqking01]

I did add some Apple juice about 1/2 way through and basted it several times

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[HoosierKettle]

I did add some Apple juice about 1/2 way through and basted it several times

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Whatever you did, I would have had several helpings. It looks great and I love turkey.


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[bstarr3]

I spatchcocked a Turkey on my 22 2 years ago. It came out great. Think I used a 12 lb bird, and it fit just fine.

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[Cellar2ful]

Here is a quote from a previous thread on cooking turkeys you might find useful.

I cook a turkey on the Weber every Thanksgiving and several more during the rest of the year.  I use to cook them in a roasting pan on the cooking grate indirect.  The last few years I have spun them on the Weber using a rotisserie (thanks to urging and prodding by @Travis ).  The weather in California around Thanksgiving is usually in the 50's. I start out 25 lit briquettes in each charcoal basket.  I add 9 unlit briquettes per side every hour.  A 14lb bird will usually take about 2 hours on a Weber.  Figure about 11 minutes per pound in computing cook time.   Make sure your bird is totally thawed and remove it from the refrigerator 2 hours prior to cooking. 

Also, arrange your charcoal baskets more to one end.




When you place your turkey on the grill, make sure the legs and thighs are closer to the charcoal baskets.  This allows the breast to be slightly further from the heat source and helps keep it from overcooking and drying out.  If you want some smoke flavor, add some apple wood chips or small chunks at the very beginning.  Using to much wood can turn the skin very dark. I like the skin to look like this



as opposed to this. I went overboard on the apple wood chunks on this one

[SmokenGrill]

Smoked a turkey for 2 hours at about 200-225 due to cold temps and 16# turkey on a 22.5 kettle. Dropped in apple chips about every 20 mins. When the turkey came out the breast was barely at 90° due to the cold temps. Put in a bag in the oven for 1.5 hours at 350 convection (325). Came out at about 165°. Turkey was moist, tender and best flavor of any turkey I ever had. The trick to it was the smoke, and then in a bag in a pan in an oven where all of the smoke/fat flavor settled in the bottom. I then mixed some of that in with the pulled turkey and it was off the hook. I will do one like this for Christmas and Thanksgiving for years to come.