Grilling a Turkey

[the squirrel]

Does anyone know of some good maranaides and if so do you inject them in the bird? Do you use any wood chips as well. Cooking one in a brinkmann this weekend mmmm!

[jeffreyd]

i just put a whole breast on the gas grill, little salt, pepper, poultry seasoning, touch of old bay, and rub with olive oil. put it on the middle grate with indirect heat cooking at 350 give or take for about 3 hrs. It is bone is so breast side up. I soak my chips for a hr or so before and put them in my smoker box and let it go. if the smoke is too heavy looking then will pull the box as not to overwhelm the bird. i am not big on poultry marinades so that is why i went with the basic. good luck

[IFallsRon]

I've soaked a turkey overnight in apple cider.

[BobT]

When I do my turkeys on the charcoal grill I don't marinade them at all. I use indirect heating by separating my coals to opposite sides of the grill. Place the hand grips of your rack so they are over the coals. Makes adding coal easy without lifting out the rack.

I use a roast rack to keep the bird breast side up and season it well, inside and out, with Lawry's season salt. During the last hour or so I begin to baste it with butter or margarine. I prefer butter. Takes about 3 hours for a 10# bird but be careful! At all costs avoid taste-testing the skin toward the end no matter how scrupmptious is looks and regardless how many beers you've had. Get help if you can't control yourself.

[Dave Benkufsky]

I just sent my sister in-law my recipe for grilled trukey for a family cook book.

I do not get into the details on grilling but here is how I do my birds

Grilled Turkey

It is a 4 step process

Brine, inject, rub and cook

This makes the best turkey that is moist, flavorful with a grilled flavor.

It takes time but it is well worth the work. This turkey is better than deep freed for flavor, moistness and is healthy.

This process is designed for a 12-16 lb bird.

Make sure bird is thawed before beginning this recipe.

Step #1 Brine

This is important step since it adds moisture and helps stabilized the turkey for cooking

Brine

Ingredients:

• 1 gallon cold water

• 2 quarts apple juice

• 2 quarts orange juice

• 2 cup salt (3 cups Kosher or coarse salt)

• 1/2 cup brown sugar

• 10 whole cloves

• 1 tablespoon ground nutmeg

Preparation:

Pour apple and orange juice into a large pot over a medium heat. Add salt, brown sugar, cloves and nutmeg. Simmer for 15 minutes until salt and sugar are completely dissolved. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Add cold water.

Place poultry in a large plastic container. Pour brine over top. Brine poultry for 1 hour per pound in the refrigerator.

Thoroughly rinse all the brine from the turkey before cooking. Otherwise there will be a salty flavor to the turkey.

Step # 2

Inject Bird

This adds more flavor to the bird. The turkey skin prevents flavor from being absorbed so added flavor needs to be injected in.

Use a large syringe type injector

Injector Marinade

Ingredients:

• 1 cup olive oil

• 1/2 cup soy sauce

• 1/2 cup lemon juice

• 1/4 cup prepared mustard

• 1/4 cup minced fresh chives

• 1/2 cup chopped fresh sage

• 1/2 cup fresh chopped oregano

• 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley

• 1/4 cup chopped fresh thyme

• 1 clove garlic, minced

• 1 tablespoon paprika

Preparation:

In a small bowl, whisk together, the olive oil, soy sauce, lemon juice and the mustard. Add all of the rest of the ingredients. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes to allow the flavors to blend before marinating the meat.

Inject bird using syringe into the breast and thighs on bird. Inject several points and twist and twist needle while in the bird to distribute the marinade in bird.

Pat Bird Dry

Reserve leftover marinade for basting bird while grilling.

Step #3

Rub Bird

The rub adds flavor and helps seal the skin to keep moisture in bird.

Ingredients:

1 jar of McCormick’s Gill Mates Montreal Chicken

1 jar McCormick’s Gill Mates Roasted Garlic and Herb

Preparation:

Dump both jars into plastic bag. Shake bag to mix seasonings

Dry turkey.

Rub turkey with blend evenly inside cavity and on outside skin of the bird

Step# 4

Grill

Equipment

Gas grill or charcoal grill that has a closeable lid

Meat thermometer

Hickory or apple wood chips (optional)

Set grill up for indirect grilling on either gas or charcoal grill. This means the bird is not on direct source of heat. Either place bird on ½ of gas grill with burners off underneath and the other side is on medium or place of charcoal grill with coals on opposite side of bird.

Do not place bird directly on flame because bird will drip fat and cause flare ups.

Add a few hickory or apple wood chips to flame for flavor

Cook bird at 275-350 grill.

Check bird every 15 minutes for flare ups and dryness.

If bird appears to be to dry, brush with marinade.

If bird is getting overly brown add foil tent to portions that are overly brown so they do not get burned.

At 160 degrees brush remaining bird with marinade.

Cook bird to 172 degree internal temperature. Use a meat thermometer and not pop up timer. Pop up timer are inaccurate and will cause you to overcook the bird. When measuring temperature get tip of thermometer in the deepest part of the bird without touching bone. This is the deep part of the breast next to wing .

Take bird off grill and wrap in foil to finish cooking bird will rise 8-12 degrees wile resting.

Let bird rest 20 minutes and then slice to serve.

[croixflats]

I do the Brine thing also and man that makes a differance.

Tip; as said you want indirect heat. To protect the bottom sides of the bird from to much heat I buy one of those cheap tin foil roasting pans, big enough for the bird, and cut the bottom out then place the top portion around the bird acts as a scirt to help sheild direct heat on the bottom sides of bird.

[Phred52]

squirrel, The easiest way to do a turkey on the grill is to rub it down thoroughly with peanut oil and grill it over 'indirect heat'. If you have a gas grill, don't use the burner under the bird. If you have a charcoal grill, put a pan under the bird, to catch the juices (that'll give you a grilled/ smoked flavor). I use a 7"x10" foil pan and double layer my coals around that. Sometimes... I need to add an additional layer of coals. Good Eats!! Phred52

[the squirrel]

This one turned out top 5 guys thanks. It was not my first turkey on a charcoal grill just on the brinkmann that has a thermostat on it which is nice. Injecting the bird with some carbiean jerk was great.

[Deitz Dittrich]

I'm going to try and do a rotissery for thanksgiving I think.. Been doing a fried turkey for the last 5 or so years, but at $40 a pop just for the oil, its gets expensive.

[BobT]

Rotisserie is a great way to do a bird. When we go on our annual Canada fishing trip one of the guys brings his LP infrared rotisserie along. We season the bird and put it on at lunch time and come back at dinner to a golden brown turkey.

Okay...where's that bird I had in the freezer? It's here somewhere....

[Deitz Dittrich]

Great to knoow bob.. gonna try a trial run tomorrow(sat) to see how good it is.. dont want the trial run to be thanksgiving.. LOL

[Jim Almquist]

I'm going to try and do a rotissery for thanksgiving I think.. Been doing a fried turkey for the last 5 or so years, but at $40 a pop just for the oil, its gets expensive.

I have the rotisserie kit for my Weber along with the little metal baskets for holding charcoal and it has been one of the best cooking things that I have ever bought. I did have to mod it with a larger counter balance so I could do turkeys larger then 16 pounds. My biggest to date was 26 pounds but that is a little hard on the motor. By using the rotisserie you can now use a flavored brine and not worry about causing a grease fire and you can also throw in some of your favorite wood for a nice smokey flavor. I put a drip tray under the bird and toss in a can of Swanson's chicken stock in that so the drippings don't evaporate and the stock gets seasoned for making gravy.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Great idea Jim.. thanks for the tip!

[Jim Almquist]

One other thing that I forgot to add and that is to get some cotton string and tie it up VERY tight so that it can not move at all and make sure it is also tied to the skewer. By the time it is done it will shrink and the meat will be so tender it will fall off if not tied in place. I also make sure the tips of the wings are tied tight to the body so they don't burn off.

[chaffmj]

Jim that sounds great. You should bring that rotisserie setup to Burntside for the bash. I'll bring the turkey and all the fixings!

[Jim Almquist]

Jim that sounds great. You should bring that rotisserie setup to Burntside for the bash. I'll bring the turkey and all the fixings!

Oh sure then I would get the blame for everyone going to sleep at 8:00 because of the belly full of turkey

And the fact that it takes about 3 hours plus some prep time and when I am on Burntside I would rather be jigging for Lakers.

I was thinking about pork loin sandwiches. Cut them 1/2" thick and put a little Montreal steak seasoning on both sides and about 4 minutes a side with a nice bun that is warm-Dang I have to go fix lunch

[hattlequin]

I normally hate turkeys in general, but I love the grilled taste. Don't know why?

Brining and injecting is a must.

[Deitz Dittrich]

OK... UPDATE,, and very sorry for hyjacking this thread..

I did the rotisserie turkey. I didnt brine it, as I really didnt have time, I thawed it and injected it. I used a muskeet/lime injection. HATED IT. all the turkey that didnt have the injecting was AWESOME.. but the lime was way overpowering. It was a Numans Blend... Anyway, I think for the actual thanksgiving, I will just skip the injection as now I am scared, unless someone knows of just some home made garlic butter or something like that?

[fishinchicks]

If you can't find a good injectible, just brine it. Last year I posted a recipe for Cider brined turkey that would work equally as well on a rotisserie or grill.

I bought a 5 gallon water cooler to do all my brining in. If you add ice for some of your liquid, you do not have to find fridge room for it.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Thanks Chicks.. found your recipe. and will maybe try that.

[BobT]

Deitz,

You could just season it with Lawry's seasoned salt inside and out and bake it on the rotisserie that way. Simple and delicious. Could baste it with a little butter toward the end but probably not necessary.

[jeffreyd]

I did another whole turkey breast yesterday. rubbed down with butter and some olive oil salt pepper, poultry seasoning, and made sure my wood chips were in good order. Let the breast grill on 300 for 3 hrs, checked it with thermometer and it was 180. let it sit for a while then carved it down. man it was good, this coming from someone who is not a bird fan at all. My family would eat turkey or chicken everyday, i would starve as i can take it once in a while. I make a turkey breast for them couple times a month they can eat what they want and i will have my veggies.

[Deitz Dittrich]

BobT- I like your thinking with this. Was thinking a little spray olive oil near the end to crisp the outside?

[Jim Almquist]

The best way I have found to get flavor through out the turkey is a flavored brine. I have tried the injection method and it is good but only close to the spot were you inject it. I have used the cajun flavored packs that are yellow and the flavor is great but I sure wish I could get that flavor through out the whole bird. Maybe this year I will try to make the cajun blend a brine by throwing a couple of packs in with some salt water and boil it and cool it down and soak the bird for a day or 2.

[ddsbyday]

I am with you on this. The only difference is I put the coals all around the periphery instead of 2 sides. The most important thing as with your technique is no coals directly below the bird. ( Which is in the tightest bondage you could imagine). Wings tied to the side,legs pulled as tight as possible. I just use kite string. Adjust vents so coals are glowing. I will add fresh coals after the originals are going but before I put the bird on. I pull the new coals on top of the glowing coals. If you can keep the venting to just keep the coals burning you will not have to add any. Place a loose tinfoil tent over the breast and small alum. pan underneath. Place a little seasoned h2o in the alum. pan,set the bird in it and your are 2/3 done. Do not open the lid until the last hour to quickly remove the breast tent and brush with butter. 3-3.5 hours total time if you don't lift the lid. The bondage deal will keep the wings and legs from getting dry.