Best Roast Turkey in the world!

Toronto James

We celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving this past weekend. I thought I'd report in and give our American friends six weeks notice if they want to do a Thanksgiving bird.

I think there are three Bs -- Bird, Brine and BBQ (Egg of course) -- to deliver a great turkey.

Bird -- we had a fresh, free range, organic turkey weighing in at 19 lbs.

Brine -- I mixed 4 cups kosher salt and 1 cup raw sugar with a few allspice seeds and a bay leaf in a big cooler quarter full of water then dumped in the bird and filled it up with water to cover the beast. Sometimes they float and you have to weigh them down. I left in the brine all day then took it out to air dry in the fridge overnight.

BBQ -- I set up the Egg for indirect -- pizza stone & platesetter and managed to negotiate the bird on a rack in a foil pan under the dome. With the foil I can bend it a bit to make it fit and I just throw it out at the end. I cook my turkeys hot so go the temp up to about 500 and kept dome temp around 450 through the cook. I basted with pan drippings after 1 1/2 hours then every 1/2 hour. Total cook time was 3 hours for the 19 pound bird. I did not stuff but did stuffing in the oven for ease. And don't do any smoking or add any spicing other than a turn of pepper (remember there is lots of salt from the brine).

The finished product was a wonderful brown and very moist.

Took it out, let it sit for 1/2 hour and carved a perfect dinner.

Sorry no photos -- next time.

For people thinking about doing a big turkey on the Egg I can't recommend it enough and still can't believe how wonderful the results are.

Enjoy!

Unknown

Thank you for the recipe. Did you make gravy from he turkey? If so, was it salty from the brine marinade? What is a platesetter? Did you use a regular oven rack ot eh v-rack that comes with the egg? I'm anxious to try this.

Bo