RED Rosemopped Turkey

[Ka Honu]

So I decided to try something a little different (for me) and grill a spatchcocked turkey on the RED.  Brined overnight in salt & brown sugar and then rubbed down (mostly under the skin) with a paste of fresh rosemary, garlic, black pepper, and olive oil with a sprig of rosemary under the skin of each breast.  Probably should be some bacon in there somewhere (There probably should be some bacon in almost every recipe) but decided to do without today.  Made a mop out of some rosemary.  Let the Meleagris rosemaro sit in the fridge for a while - more later this afternoon when I do the "real" work …

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Pappymn]

Sounds solid to me. It is the only way I do chicken

[squirtthecat]

Watching this.............

[smokeasaurus]

Me too Squirt, the Turtle is gonna impress us today!!! Haven't tried a split turkey...interested to see how it comes out!!

I am guessing the cooking time will be shorter than if you did a whole one (like chickens), is that correct Ka Honu??

[Ka Honu]

...cooking time will be shorter ...

From what I can figure out, it will take somewhere between 1.5 and 3 hours but I really have no clue.  Luckily we are fully prepared with plenty of appetizers and adult beverages to help while away the hours.

Oven-roasted the backbone, neck, tail, wingtips, and giblets (without the liver), then boiled/simmered with some celery tops & onion for stock to make gravy later.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Ka Honu]

... On RED (low temp, indirect heat).  Had to be a little creative to put the bird in and still have access to the drip pan for basting since it covered both grates on the "big side" of the RED and was too big to put on the "warming shelf."  I used an aluminum tray for drippings and put the turkey over it on an inverted Bradley rack.  I guess we'll see how that goes.  Threw a foil packet of chips on the hot side for a "touch" of smoke.

Despite the lousy photo (I'm taking lessons from dee so they should be better soon), it's "cross your fingers" and hope-that-damnfool-knows-what-he's-doing time.


[attachment deleted by admin]

[Ka Honu]

Change 1 - It occurred to me that when the smoke was done that since I had the huge drip pan, all heat from the burners was relatively "indirect" and I should get better (more even) cooking by turning the 2 left burners on low and turning the right burner off.  So I did.

Mopped it with its own drippings every 20 minutes or so until done and flipped/rotated to get even coverage a time or two.  Took almost 3 hours to get to the right IT (but I kept it on pretty low heat and opened the cover a lot, so that wasn't unexpected).

Threw some olive oil and garlic on some veggies and roasted that, too.  Defatted the drippings and added to the stock for gravy while the bird was resting.  Served with spinach salad, and the aforementioned veggies.

It didn't suck; our guests were pleased.  More importantly, SWMBO was pleased and therefore I was (or may get) pleased.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[squirtthecat]

That looks fantastic!

[mikecorn.1]

Turned out great!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[smokeasaurus]

That is one good looking turkey!! Gotta try splitting one next time!!

[Old Hickory]

Looks real GOOD, moist and tasty.

[Wing Commander]

Looks really juicy!