Roasting the turkey

With Thanksgiving coming up my thoughts have turned to the subject above. I am going to do it on my Kamado, and am wondering if it would be better to do it breast side up, breast side down, or sitting on it's butt like a beer can chicken. Roasting in an egg shaped cooker like the Kamado, we are utilizing a convective style as a deflector directs the heat out and up and it then falls as it cools only to be reheated and rise again. This facilitates an even cooking on all exposed sides at once and the sitting end can be browned at the end by taking the deflector out and exposing that side to the heat source. So, given the options as l have laid out, which procedure would you follow. I have only done one turkey on the Kamado, breast side up, and it turned out great, but I am always looking for improvement. Maria, I especially want your input on this, since you also have a Kamado.

Simply put, here's one of the tricks to keep poultry one is roasting from drying out - the thing is to defeat gravity. So the juices do not drain out.

A rotisserie does this elegantly.

But, you can achieve a similar result by rotating the bird a quarter-turn every half hour or so. When doing this in the oven I have the bird on a bed of mirepoix so it will stand at any angle I choose.

A rack would be helpful in your circumstance, I think.

I've done smoked turkey in my electric Brinkman and found that it cooks more evenly if the legs are removed. I've found that while the rest of the turkey would be just right, the inner part of the thighs on a whole turkey would not be done, whereas, if I cook until until the thigh meat is done, the breast gets overdone. Also, I always cook breast side down.

[Jenise]

Bob, I suggest Thai Volcano Turkey. I don't think it's been done before, but that pioneering spirit is what this holiday is about, don't you think?

Bob, you might consider de-boning the turkey before roasting it. It's my favorite way of roasting turkey these days. I just lay the bird down on the breast and make a cut straight down the middle of the back bone and then just carefully cut along the body cavity on both sides. You need to be careful when you come to the breast bone but it actually pretty easy to do. I also remove the thigh bone on both sides and leave the drum sticks and wings as is. I then run three or four long metal skewers to re-form and keep the bird together and about the same thickness. I roast them in a disposable sheet pan on my gas grille and they usually take about 1.5 - 2hrs for a 15lb bird. They come out very moist and are a snap to slice for serving. I also use all of the carcass to make a nice batch of turkey stock for gravy and soup with the leftovers.


-mike

I've done smoked turkey in my electric Brinkman and found that it cooks more evenly if the legs are removed. I've found that while the rest of the turkey would be just right, the inner part of the thighs on a whole turkey would not be done, whereas, if I cook until until the thigh meat is done, the breast gets overdone. Also, I always cook breast side down.

You've hit the nail on the head, Howie.

I do not roast turkeys whole. They need to be dismembered into parts that will cook in the same amount of time. Given the same weight,dark meat takes longer to cook than white meat. More blood, more muscle. Remove the leg/thigh quarters. Leave the breast/wings intact.

You will now have two smaller dark meat roasts and one large white meat roast. And, wonder of wonders they will now cook in the same amount of time since the more densely muscled legs take longer to roast and the light blood flow through the breast meat allows it to roast in a much shorter time than a dark meat roast of comparable weight.

It's all about muscles of locomotion. They are always tougher and take longer to cook.

Oh, and dismantling the bird in the fashion I advocate will please both the cook and the diners who prefer a traditional look to their bird on the table - you can put it back together with a couple of long skewers and they will be awed by the moistest breast meat they've ever eaten and marvel at how you roasted a 22-pound turkey in under two hours.

Bob...I haven't done a turkey yet, but plan on doing one for Thanksgiving in Henry...I may do one before just as a trial.

I think I am going to spatchcock it though, like the chickens. I have had incredible success with the chickens. I literally spatchcock them 3-4 days in advance...rub them with EVOO, and my spice rub and let them sit in the refer for 3-4 days uncovered. Then kook on Henry 375 for 1 hr...AMAZING! So I will try with a turkey...not sure how long to kook it though. I am going to get a smaller turkey so I guess I wil check at the 2 hr mark.

Let me know how yours comes out in Hot Mama! I am so excited to make a good turkey this yr!

A side issue:
Trader Joes is selling fresh, not-frozen, Turkeys now stamped "sell by Nov. 30" so I guess these are the Thanksgiving turkeys and they're going to sit in the refrigerator for two weeks. Is this okay? When I asked a clerk, he said he thought brining preserved them.

We learned a couple of years ago, and I think it was on this forum, to put two steel skewers into the fleshiest part of the thighs, and tenting the breast only with foil after browning at high temp. The whole thing then cooks evenly at lower temp.

upside down for all but the last hour or so