Grilled Thanksgiving turkey - made easy

I saw a strange comment in some gourmet magazine article recently - how Weber grills were actually good for more than "the occasional Thanksgiving turkey". Huh? Did I miss something? I've been grilling for several years now, and while I know I'm not the first to do a turkey on there, I always thought it was more of a novelty than anything. Apparently, there's a whole bunch of people who only grill their turkeys - and not much else. Weird.

I found a roasted turkey and gravy recipe in "Fine Cooking" magazine (the only issue of that magazine I've ever seen) a few years ago. It was intended for the oven, but it works wonderfully on the grill. I wrote about this last year, but will repeat here - to remind myself how good it is. Actually, this method makes grilling a turkey even easier - no need to regulate the temperature for hours, get up at 3 a.m. to light the grill, etc etc etc. Here's what you do:

The night before: rinse the turkey, then salt it well, inside and out. Put it on a wire rack and let sit overnight in a cold place. This is a dry brining.


4 hours before: light the grill, indirect method, coals on both sides. I pretty much filled up a chimney starter with heat beads - thus, it resulted in a hot grill.
I need a big drip pan plus a smaller one to fit across the whole way under the bird.
Cut up 2 onions, 2 carrots, 2 celeries. Put half inside the cavity, the rest in your main drip pan, plus a bit of water. Tie the lets together, tuck wings back behind neck.





When coals are ready, (plus I added a chunk of alder wood), start with turkey upside down - that is, breast side down on the rack and close the lid. Vents slightly shut on bottom, all the way open on top. Give it one hour.

After an hour, turn the bird over, breast side up. You'll need some wads of paper towels to hold inside the cavities to do the flip. Add 1/2 cup of water to the drip pan, close the lid. Go away for another hour or so.

Come back and wiggle a drumstick. You can check with a thermometer inside the thigh - if it reads 170 F, it's done. Mine was done - after only 2 hours! (14.3 pounder). Let it sit an hour or so before carving. Wonderfuly tender and juicy.
(We've also started using the same farmer every year for our bird - a strange, eccentric place on the way to the train in Hornslet. But they feed their turkeys well, resulting in lots of meat and not too much fat.) The original recipe says if you want to do this in the oven, just use 400 F. Some other minor details are different, but mostly the same recipe.

By the way - I've tried this a few times with our usual bread stuffing, but it's not good this way on the grill. It gets too smoky and doesn't allow enough heat inside the cavity. So I just cook that in the oven now. I moisten it with some juice I simmer of the giblets, neck and tail plus an onion.

That's it! The gravy is also amazing and this year was the best ever. Just strain all the pan drippings into a saucepan (won't need to scrape them over a burner or anything - they pour right out), add some vermouth and cognac, plus 2-3 cups of the giblet juice, plus some fresh thyme leaves. Let it boil then simmer a bit. Then add a paste of flour and cream, whisking well. Let it boil then simmer for 10 minutes or so. Wowza.