Thanksgiving Turkey with Pictures and my Experience

havertyj

Had a fun two days preparing for Thanksgiving. Nothing special, but did a turkey back-to-back days. I used the same process on both. A pecan seasoning we got from our local BGE store a year ago which is really good. We used it all up and I forgot to get the exact name, but I know our local store carries it, so I will go back to get some more.

Both turkeys were about 12 lbs. I did the first one on Wednesday after I got home from work. Sprinkled the pecan seasoning all over the turkey. Stuffed it with celery, carrots, and apples. Pretty simple, but it worked out well. I put it on the BGE with a raised rack. Cooked about 2.5 to 3 hours. It turned out good, but a little black on the top. No pictures from this one cook, but the meat tasted good. Nice and moist but a little black on the top.

For the second cook, yesterday, I did not use the raised grill and kept the bird down a lower. Again, this was another about 12 lb turkey and cooked it for 2.5 to 3 hours. Lower gave it a nice color on the outside. Used the same seasoning and stuffed it with everything we did the day before except for apples.... we ran out.

Pre-picture before going on the grill. Had it in a pan to catch drippings for gravy. Some onions, celery, and chicken broth in the pan. Did this for the turkey the day before too although did not keep it filled throughout the entire cook. Started it off to give a little moisture and basically to catch drippings.

Had to get a picture of my dog helping me with the lookout. He wears himself out going in and out of the house with me anytime I grill. He gets very excited each time I grab the lump to take out and start getting ready.

While it was cooking, did not open the lid at all. Let it cook and trusted the process as I have seen on here many times. Target temp was 325 which it went to immediately for this cook. In the cook the day before, I had a difficult time getting the temp up to 325. Odd how some days I go to cook and it is easy to get high temp and other days it is difficult.

I think it came off looking really good. Better than the one the day before. It had one of those temperature pop-out sticks in it. My wife pulled it before I snapped the picture. I was pleased with how it looked as a final product.

A final picture of everything on the table. Made a lot of turkey this year as we were giving it out to my family as we were social distancing and sharing food with one another. We made the turkey, mashed potatoes, and gravy for us and shared it with everyone else too making plates for them and delivered on my in-laws driveway about 3:30 during the day. Ham was done by my brother-in-law and then two different kinds of dressing. I forgot we also did giblets and neck in the gravy which we had not done in a long time... it was so good!

Following dinner, we played Yahtzee and I probably had way too much to drink. It was a good day even though completely different from any other Thanksgiving, it was the first Thanksgiving that my wife and I had together with just the two of us since we were married which in a way made it special.

I wanted to share as I had not done pictures of previous turkey dinners I had cooked. Last year was the firs time I had ever done a turkey on the BGE and it turned out great, but did not take pictures or document it at all. I wanted to get this one recorded so I could reference back next year to what we did.

lousubcap

Thanks for the write-up and your means to cope with the times at hand.  You definitely made the best of it with your extended family.  Bird and table look great.  Congrats across the board.  

gmanrva

Great write up and good looking bird!!

havertyj

@lousubcap and @gmanrva, thank you for the comments. It was fun! Helped it was a beautiful day too. Originally I had planned on doing both birds on he grill at once, but space was going to be too tight. Worked out well though doing two different cooks as gave me more time outside and at the BGE.

stv8r

Great post!  Glad you had a Happy Thanksgiving!