Orion Turkey

[MossyMO]

So I have had this Orion Cooker a for a while and all I have used it for is ribs a few times and they taste ok but nothing compared to off a pellet grill or a Weber kettle, but it will do 3 slabs of ribs in 90 minutes (in the summer).

Now I have always heard how great a turkey is from an Orion and had to give it a try. Started out by putting the 10 lb. turkey in Mad Hunky Poultry Brine that was planned to be an 8 hour brine but North Dakota weather switched my plans and it ended up being a 32 hour brine.


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Now here is the turkey on the Orion poultry stand rubbed with Simply Marvelous Season All.


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The Orion Cooker is designed to add smoke taste if you choose to add wood chips around the drip pan, instead I thought I would try 2 hand fulls of pecan pellets.


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Here is the turkey loaded in the Orion.


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Here is the Orion with the coals lit.


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Orion cooks by time, not temp; and Orion suggest 7 minutes per pound for turkey. Well, North Dakota winter temps seemed to not work well with Orion's directions cause at 70 minutes this turkey needed more cooking time. Ended up going an hour 45 minutes which still is not that bad to cook a turkey in freezing temps! Here is the turkey when I pulled it.


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Check out the juices!


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Turkey, dressing and mixed veggies!


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I really like this turkey; great taste, the brine and seasoning made it moist and delicious... and most surprising was the smoke flavor, it really had a deep pecan smoke flavor. I like the Orion for cook time and flavor, but I will say with this style of cooking the turkey skin was terrible.

Thanks for looking!

[TentHunteR]

Very interesting Marty. I've wanted to see an Orion cooker in action.

I know one thing; that plate of food sure looks awfully good!

[drholly]

As a guy who grew up in ND - Good Job! ND temps / winds and ghosts can be difficult. I am sorry to hear the skin was not what you were hoping - but the pics look great. Good for you and thanks for the report!

Cheers,

David

[Keymaster]

Good looking Turkey and neat looking cooker.

[mikecorn.1]

The bird looks great! So your comment about the skin; was it that is was rubbery?


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[squirtthecat]

Bird looks good!

[muebe]

Great looking bird Mossy

That thing looks like a charcoal big easy. Being that the skin is not crispy means it probably does not generate the type of heat that a big easy does. And as cold and windy as it was probably played a huge factor. Bet during a warmer day you would get more crispy skin.

[MossyMO]

The bird looks great! So your comment about the skin; was it that is was rubbery?

The skin was tough like shoe leather.

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That thing looks like a charcoal big easy. Being that the skin is not crispy means it probably does not generate the type of heat that a big easy does. And as cold and windy as it was probably played a huge factor. Bet during a warmer day you would get more crispy skin.

You may be correct, have to try it again in the summer and use less charcoal.

[Pappymn]

I can appreciate the effort it takes to cook outside in the winter. It does take a lot of the fun out of it. Nice looking bird!

[smokeasaurus]

It is like Thanksgiving all over again!!  That looks great!!

[Merrick Bill]

I find that brining makes the skin rubbery unless you let it dry out in the fridge for 24 hours after the brine. 

Bill

[TentHunteR]

The bird looks great! So your comment about the skin; was it that is was rubbery?

The skin was tough like shoe leather.

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That thing looks like a charcoal big easy. Being that the skin is not crispy means it probably does not generate the type of heat that a big easy does. And as cold and windy as it was probably played a huge factor. Bet during a warmer day you would get more crispy skin.

You may be correct, have to try it again in the summer and use less charcoal.

I have been on a quest this past year for crispier chicken/turkey skin. Someone else was doing some playing around with this too earlier this year too and posted about using higher temps (400°+) to get better skin. That got me to thinking, so I did some checking & lots of testing.

One thing I've learned is that you need that higher temps to get the fat hot enough to fry and crisp the skin before it melts off.  With lower temps, in 275° range, it's just high enough for the fat to melt off leaving it to dry out and get tough.

Ever since I turned the heat up, I've been getting much better results.

[sparky]

turkey got great color.  looks real juicy. 

[MossyMO]

I think if I try this in the summer without brining the bird I will get better skin results. When I try this next I will use an infrared thermo to try get a semi accurate cooking chamber temperature.

[LostArrow]

The bird looks great! So your comment about the skin; was it that is was rubbery?

The skin was tough like shoe leather.

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That thing looks like a charcoal big easy. Being that the skin is not crispy means it probably does not generate the type of heat that a big easy does. And as cold and windy as it was probably played a huge factor. Bet during a warmer day you would get more crispy skin.

You may be correct, have to try it again in the summer and use less charcoal.

I have been on a quest this past year for crispier chicken/turkey skin. Someone else was doing some playing around with this too earlier this year too and posted about using higher temps (400°+) to get better skin. That got me to thinking, so I did some checking & lots of testing.

One thing I've learned is that you need that higher temps to get the fat hot enough to fry and crisp the skin before it melts off.  With lower temps, in 275° range, it's just high enough for the fat to melt off leaving it to dry out and get tough.

Ever since I turned the heat up, I've been getting much better results.

Cooked poultry several times on my cheap Kamodo @ 350-375F & the skin is yummy, specially coated with butter , birds were brined & not dried.