Grilling the turkey

Yeah, baby! If you live in Florida, I'm pretty sure that it's state law that you have to own a grill -- and use it a lot. So we try to be good Floridians. When our house was being built, we were originally told that the house would be finished by November (2004). Our plan, therefore, was to grill the turkey for last year's Thanksgiving. Alas, we've since learned that Florida houses are never completed by the originally-forecast date. We moved in at the end of January 2005. But this year we are in the house and we do have a grill and we are grilling this bird! I basically prepped it just like I would if grilling a chicken: coated the bird with olive oil and then some Cholula rub (chili lime rub in this case). As per grilling suggestion from Weber, I'm expecting this to take around 3 1/2 hours (it's an 18 pound turkey). I put the bird on the barbie at 10am, so sometime around 1:30pm I hope to be snapping a pic of the finished product.

later that same day...
It only took 3 hours and the turkey was done to perfection. Since the first football game was starting, we decided to move the tv outside and load up the table on the lanai. So we had a bit of a feast, watched some ball, then after cleaning up and having some coffee, we all took a little dip in the pool before dessert :) Gotta love Florida!

Comments

[Duffbert]

You are getting *so* freaking soft in your old age!!!

[Joe Litton]

Well there, Duffy, I *would* say you're jealous (ok, you are ;-) ...but I also know that you're about to embark on your Carib cruise, so I do believe it is YOU, not I, who is getting soft :)

[Stan Rogers]

I'd'a thought that anyone with one foot nearly in the Caribbean would have figured out that you don't GRILL turkey, you JERK it. Lemon grass, pimento (allspice) and a few dozen scotch bonnets under the skin -- yum!

[Joe Litton]

Stan, Now THAT is a great idea for next year! We love jerk chicken, so why not turkey!

[Duffbert]

Truth be told, the "jealousy" angle is more correct than I want to admit...

[wayne]

Jerk turkey? I promise to love it if you invite me over! and I'll bring a bottle of wine to boot!

[Brian Benz]

One suggestion for the grill - Try brining the turkey before - soak it in salt water (toer stuff too if you wish) for about 48 hours then season and grill - makes it extra-tender, flavorful and juicy.

[Paul Bayne]

I have grilled two turkeys on the Bar-B-Q in recent years, and they turned out so good that I prefer not to eat turkey prepared any other way now. The flavor and tenderness of the turkey are unmatched. This year, besides doing all the pre-cook rubbings of olive oil and butter, I'm going to try and give the turkey some apple flavor. Instead of using apple chips, which would work very good alone, but time does not permit me to go find them, I'm going to try adding a cup or so of apple cider and a sliced apple (McIntosh) inside the bird, and grill as normal. I recommend that you cook the bird 11-13 minutes per pound, and baste with the drippings about every half hour.

Enjoy and Happy Holidays y'all.

PaulValparaiso, Indiana