I have not grilled a turkey but I have notes from baked and smoked. Baked at 325 degrees a16 lb unstuffed turkey takes 2:30 hours. A 14 lb smoked at about 200 - 225 degrees took 6 hours.

I bet it is delicious.

Here's how the turkey looked after 2-1/2 hours of cooking. It tastes okay but is a bit dry and a tiny bit more tough than usual. I think it would have been perfect at two hours, and I'll make sure to check temperatures more often. It was really easy to cook in the BGE and did not heat the house at all. I think I will want to make this again in the future, but this amount of turkey will last me for a while. I'm going to freeze most of it.

I was surprised at how quickly the charcoal burned up - I added more to the fire after 1-1/2 hours, and after the turkey was done, the temperature never got above 350, but that was enough for the potatoes and corn. I put in garlic toast after that with the temp barely above 200 or 250, and that came out very nice without burning and with little attention.

Lars

Yum, Lars, that looks delicious and perfect.

New grills certainly do take some getting used to, don't they?

Annie

Yes, Annie, new grills do take time to get used to, and Kevin reminded me that this was only the second time we had used this one. As it turns out, it uses a lot more charcoal and wood than the smaller ones we have, and we have a very large Weber grill, which might be big enough for a turkey. I was really surprised at how fast the charcoal burned out, and I want to see if I can find a source for charcoal in larger chunks - or just use a larger proportion of wood to charcoal. We are almost out of wood, and so we'll have to get more of that before our next experiment. The instructions said that we should use the BGE four times at medium temperatures before we attempt a really high heat, but we came close to getting high heat today at 550, which is the highest we are supposed to go until we have used it four times.

The dark meat turkey came out almost perfect, but the breast was a bit dry near the skin, but moist and tender closer to the bone. The skin was very tasty and crisp, and I usually don't like the skin. Maybe next time I should stuff the turkey - there was a lot of room for stuffing. I froze the neck for making stock later, and I'm glad I didn't make the stock before, as I would not have room to store everything. I will make stock later this week so that I can make gravy for the dry parts of the breast.

Lars

That bird looks amazing.

For sure you will have to learn the personality of the BGE because it is a very different cooking environment inside.

I assume that the high insulating quality and the egg shape of the ceramic enclosure give it the ability to retain high heat and therefore have the ability to cook better with radiant energy in addition to conduction by hot air. You can see how evenly it can roast the turkey, all over, top and bottom.

I would not set cooking time based on air temperature inside, because air temperature is not related to radiant temperature. For instance, you can get burned in front of a radiant heater even in below freezing air temperature. The best thing to do is to measure internal temperature.

I am not sure why you are using more charcoal in the BGE than with the Weber grill. I think you may want to consider getting a BBQ Guru, which will give you much better temperature and burn control.

Great achievement with the turkey.

dcarch

Oh wow. Way too long. 450ð-550ð, that bird is gonna cook quick. And 185ð-195ð=dry bird. Alton Brown's method starts at 500ð and reduces to 350ð after 30 min and he suggests a 14-16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours of roasting. So 550ð/450ð will take less yet. I'd be checking that thing at 90 minutes at the latest and see how it's going.

I never cook turkey by time. Always by temperature. Best investment I ever made for turkey cooking was the probe thermometer with the alarm on it. I set the alarm for 145ð-150ð depending on how much advance warning I want since I know it'll come up to 155ð-160ð quick enough. They even have versions that have a wireless remote you can carry with you so if you need to move around a lot or might not hear it you'll still have the alarm and you can monitor the temp of what you're cooking. I haven't had dry turkey since using the probe thermometer.

Cooking a whole turkey can be problematic anyway to get the right temperature for the meats. Often when cooking the dark meat to 175ð-180ð or so the white meat is usually going to be way overcooked. Dark meat can handle the higher temps and actually becomes more tender at a higher temp, like 180ð, where white meat gets drier and tougher over about 160ð-165ð. That's often why so many people say they don't like white meat, it's usually overcooked, then they say they don't like it because it's "dry".

There's different things to do to help. Some butterfly it and that will protect the white meat. Some will cut it into parts and cook them that way, again protecting the white meat with the dark. Some cook the bird breast side down which I understand tests have shown actually does give more moistness to the breast. But the best thing still is get a good probe thermometer and use it.

It looked nice though. You'll get used to cooking on it in a while.

BTW, all temps referenced are ðF.

I'll look for another thermometer - that might be a good solution.

If I am going to spatchcock or otherwise cut the turkey, I will separate the white meat from the dark and cook them separately - and freeze what I do not want to cook immediately. I wanted to cook a whole turkey more or less as an experiment, and because it is easier for me to put it away once it is cooked. I would probably not use the BGE for just a turkey breast - I would cook that in the smoker at low temp and only roast the dark meat. Two thighs and two legs would easily fit in the Weber grill that I have and probably use less charcoal.

I doubt I will cook another whole turkey until I have a party, but if my sister comes to visit in August (to escape the Texas heat), I might cook one then. My sister loves my back yard, as does her husband.

Lars

It looks great. 2 hours sounds about right. Barbara Kafka's high heat turkey recipe calls for roasting at 500 degrees at about 8 minutes a pound.

Did you have any liquid in the pan while the bird was cooking, Lars? My BIL uses a big grill to cook our T'giving bird - in a roasting pan, but with an entire bottle of white wine in the pan to add some moisture. The bird turns out beautifully cooked and moist every time. But he did have a learning curve at first and sometimes served a slightly under-done turkey the first couple of years.

Teresa

Teresa, I did have water at the bottom of the roasting pan to start out and then sprayed with turkey with water during basting to add more water. But perhaps I should have added even more water, and maybe I will use a bottle of white wine next time! That sounds like a good idea for adding flavor.

Lars