Though enamored with the
boneless turkey roasts, my daughter decided that I should go back to
the whole bird for the sake of the grandkids so they might experience
the Norman Rockwell Thanksgiving of days gone by. I have to admit
there is no romance in the boneless roasts, though they do resemble
a football, which is appropriate considering the relatives sleeping
through the Giants game in the living room. I had cooked the whole
bird when my own kids were smaller. I used the oven, turkey bags
(which work very well) , and finally the grill. Once I plopped ol'
Tom Turkey on the hot grids I never looked back, though there was one
episode that didn't go as planned.
Turkzilla
We were going to celebrate
Turkey day with some friends and they said they'd provide the bird
and so they did on the day of the festivities they brought over a
monster turkey, perhaps the biggest I'd ever seen. The 23 pound beast
did fit on my grill, however when I tried to put the cover on my
Weber to commence roasting, it just rocked back and forth on top of
the bird. The clock was running on this meal with only a few hours
until meal time so I had to do some fast thinking. I tired jury
rigging the grill by using bricks to prop the top, but that still
didn't allow for covered cooking, so violating every rule in my
microwave owner's manual, I stuffed the behemoth in the microwave and
cooked the hell out of it, finishing it in the oven to get some brown
on the skin. The fowl came out very nicely despite the unorthodox and
potentially lethal cooking methods.
Prep
Getting the bird ready for
the grill is half the battle, maybe even ¾ as the prep will help
determine if the bird is a dry chunk of meat in a rubber bag of skin,
or a moist bird with crispy golden hide. This is also your chance to
introduce a bit of flavor by separating the skin form the breasts
(carefully) and inserting various food related items. Herbage is
always welcome, moisturizers such as strips of bacon or pats of
butter are also a good addition, or for something off the scale try
Martin Yan's Chinese Roast Turkey – possibly the most flavorful
bird I ever grilled up. In fact I may do that this year accompanied
with Yan's superb stuffing recipe.
As for the skin, salting
the outside of the bird with kosher salt so that the salt is visible,
then wrapping and refrigerating for about 2 hours puts you on the
road to crisp skin. After the two hours, bring the bird out and rinse
thoroughly to get all the salt off. Them pierce the skin with a fork
and part way through the cooking mop the skin with some oil –
olive, not motor.
Fire it Up
Once you have pimped out
your bird the next step is to arrange indirect heat on the grill by
placing coals on either side leaving an open area in the center. This
open area is a great place to put a pan full of beer or water, you
can use one of those disposable foil pans. The fluid filled pan will
do two things, help with the moisture and catch grease from the bird.
I like to place the bird on a roasting rack atop the grids, and clip
the wing tips and tuck up the end of the drums, finally placing a
tinfoil shield over the breast for the first hour of roasting. To be
honest I use whatever wood I have on hand, generally mesquite, but
starting with hickory or oak and finishing with apple or cherry would
be the way to go. Maintain around 250-300 and use a meat thermometer
stuck into the meaty part of the thigh to see how Ol' Tom is
progressing. Remember for poultry you want the temp at 165. Generally
I pull the bird when it his 160 and allow it to rest and cruise up
toe 165 – remember you can always cut it up and microwave if the
meat still looks a bit on the rare side.
Don't Poison Anyone
As with an food it is
important to observe all safety guidelines – ignore these and you
may well wind up killing guests instead of entertaining them. Go
HERE for some sound advice. I don't normally trust our government, but as
they didn't name the item “War on Turkey” I figured it was
probably going to be successful advice.
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