Good luck and great thinking DH!

Yes, that's the right thing to do. Good luck! For future reference, I understand about desperate times/desperate measures, but you could damage your oven by putting the pan right on the floor. The BBQ grate was an excellent idea. Perhaps not "recommended" but it should keep the bird and the oven happy, and the convection will get the air all around, even though it's tight.

Keep an eye on the part of the bird nearest the fan, and also for reflections from the walls and door, just in case they're making hot spots that require turning.

Next time, consider taking a page from Annie (I think it's Annie), and butterfly or spatchcock the bird and roast it on top of the stuffing. :) So long as you have enough surface area, that won't require the same kind of height.

Or buy a smaller bird !!!!!

Thanks for the input. The bird is looking good but I had to lower the temp of the oven and tent it, it was browning so fast. Times like this makes you realize just how much your cooking experience kicks in.

Thanksgiving we requested on our order to have the smallest bird. Under 12. We ended up with a 9lb. Perfect. If we had many guests we would do the second on the grill spatchcocked or a ham back-up for quantity. Even a couple ducks on the rotis grill. 15 is max in our new smaller oven. 12 perfect, 9-10lb even better and plenty big for a meal of 6 people.

Good save by tenting and lowering the temp. I love my new wall oven at standing height side opening and under it a steam oven. Used more often but both are much smaller than a big standing stove.

Turkey turned out OK. Maybe a tad over but thank goodness for gravy. It was devoured so must have been OK.

Big lesson learned , never occurred to me the oven would be too small for my big bird. Next year, smaller turkey and bigger ham .

Or if you have a barbecue grill with a lid, you could use that :-)

Sharon, I'm sorry I'm so late on this. I'd have been no help, because I purposely chose to not have convection in my new ovens. Elery had a fancy stove at his Spring Arbor house and it had convection. In two years I never cooked one single thing in that oven that came out right, LOL. I'm stuck in the dark ages, I guess!

I'm glad your turkey came out OK. I am chuckling at the thought of you trying to cram a huge bird into your too small oven, but I sympathize. Good idea by Himself to add that rack on the bottom!

Merry Christmas anyway, I'm still trying to figure out how to not overcook that 7 rib standing roast I have for Sunday!

Annie

Be determined to under cook it and take it's temperature often. You can always cook more but you can't "un cook".
All the talk of stuffing a turkey into a too small oven reminds me of a new fancy-schmancy dark anodized roasting pan with wonderful stainless handles situated in such a way as to be easy to grab....but those handles wouldn't fit into my oven....so I took the bird out and plopped it into an old roaster, washed and dried the hotsy-totsy new pan, put it back into it's box and returned it. Broke my heart because it was on mega big time sale moments before Christmas!

coulda donated it to the church kitchen … and still been able to use … or 'visit' it from time to time …..

LindaC, I know HOW, but somehow I always get interrupted, distracted or called away. "Get the He!! away from me and out of my kitchen" seems inhospitable, somehow. Actually, I could do that with my family and they'd just chuckle, but I didn't dare with Elery's grandkids, they'd cry. So, check the roast, direct traffic to the garage for bottled water, find AA batteries, now find AAA batteries, now a screw driver, now one needs a glass, a pencil, a charger for their phone. (sigh) No matter how many times I say "ask Grandpa" they end up with me, because Grandpa can never find anything! By the time I realize the thermometer isn't working correctly, it's too late for the beef. (sigh) So the darned instant read fancy schmancy thermometer is staying in the drawer and I'm using my fail safe and easy to use $5 dial thermometer with no extra buttons to push to screw things up.....

Annie

I set the timer on my phone.....there is no kid on earth that doesn't know that when your phone signals....you MUST pay attention! ;-)...really...I do that and it works! "Gramma....your phone!!"
But alas my babies are now 21...yes the twins are grown up....and I still can't tell them apart!