Try this at Thanksgiving and it was pretty awesome. Best thing is I can sit here and drink beer and look at the view while it's cooking. Only 2 hours to a perfect bird.
Try this at Thanksgiving and it was pretty awesome. Best thing is I can sit here and drink beer and look at the view while it's cooking. Only 2 hours to a perfect bird.
I want to know more.
We spatchcocked ours and it came out great in the oven, but that looked like an interesting method.
If it's not too big, I'll smoke it. I made the mistake of smoking a 22-lb bird one year. Had to get up at 4am to light a fire.
I make a paste with butter, rosemary, thyme, tarragon, garlic, and salt and shove it under the skin. Smoke til 150 in the breast, then tent the breast and put it back in until 165. Super juicy.
Then I'll make soup stock out of the carcass. Smoked turkey broth is pretty awesome.
Spatchcock, or deep fried.
This year it will be duck.
Deep fried. 24-48 hours in a brine then a good deep fry. 45-60 minutes and done. Its quick, its easy, and its by far the best tasting method of preparing a bird. I've tried them all over the years and any time I deviate from deep fried the family complains.
Triangle rack so it cooks upside down.
But I don't like turkey.
So this is how I'm cooking Christmas dinner
I'm not. We decided about a decade ago that we didn't really like turkey all that much, so we switched to beef. Much tastier, much easier to cook -- with a good piece of beef the less you do to it the better it tastes. :)
This was a couple years ago:
In reply to bearmtnmartin (Forum Supporter) :
More info on the process? Do you foil the bird before you put the coals around it? Plus, that view....damn son. 
Get three bags of brickettes burning, lay some tin foil down and pound a stake through the middle. Stand a can of beer beside the stake, put the turkey on the stake and over the beer can, put a steel garbage can over the turkey and rake the coals around the base of the can and pile some on top. Takes 90 minutes to perfect for a good size turkey. Very moist and a nice smoky flavor. I put a door on the can so I can check the temperature but really 90 to 110 minutes gives you a good result.
codrus (Forum Supporter) said:I'm not. We decided about a decade ago that we didn't really like turkey all that much, so we switched to beef. Much tastier, much easier to cook -- with a good piece of beef the less you do to it the better it tastes. :)
This was a couple years ago:
Dang that brisket looks good.
Traditional turkey isn't hard. You season it's cavity with fresh rosemary and thyme. Rub the skin with your fat of choice. I prefer bacon grease but butter will do. Then you need to steam cook it from the inside so you fill it with either quartered apples or lemons or both. The fruit keeps the turkey moist and carries the rosemary and thyme into the meat. Same method makes great roasted chicken if you want to experiment smaller.
I get a turkey from work every year and I never know what to do with it. Last year's bird sat at the bottom of the freezer until I found out that a coworker unexpectedly had two Christmases to put on, and needed another turkey, so off it went. When I got this years bird I put it in the freezer at work, and when apprentice #2 was ready to leave that day he discovered that somebody had made off with his. So I immediately found a use for this one.
The family always thanks us for not making turkey on Christmas and Thanksgiving.
You'll need to log in to post.
