Sorry, I didn't catch your comment earlier. I make my turkey stock in advance using turkey parts, and then took some of the juices from the smoked turkey while it was resting to finish my gravy off
Spinaker, Enjoy every damned thing your Dad will stuff down your neck, even if you don't like it! I lost my Dad the end of March, we Hunted, Fished and cooked together for over 50 Years, there were even Days we Worked together? What ever there was the Right Way, the Wrong Way and Sonny's Way (the Only Way). May your Dad Cook the Turkey for the next 100 Years! Dan
Looks awesome, it make me want to make one for Thanksgiving. Although I usually get requests to smoke other things. We are more of a Cattle and Hog type a group. Plus we have a turkey roaster that my family has been using since the 50''s thats still does a great job. So its a tradition that will probably stay around till my Dad doesn't want to do the Turkey anymore. It was hard enough to get him to let me do the Prime rib at New Years.
Sorry to delay in responding, work has been a little crazy lately. I'm planning on doing another dry run or two before Thanksgiving to make sure that I have the technique down. Again, like chickens on the PBC, the turkey was so ridiculously juicy that I can't see ever going back to the oven. Even though we have a double oven at home, we're still usually scrambling for oven time for the sides so moving the turkey outside will be a great help.
And to cook a 15 pound bird in under 2 hours with limited prep work and mess to clean up afterwards is a beautiful thing. I used to cook turkeys at around 350 which took a good 4 hours or so if I remember correctly. Then I moved to cooking them hotter (if I recall correctly, 500 for a half hour, then dropped down around 425 or so for the remainder), but that still took over 2 hours. Then of course there was preparing the wet brine in advance (which involved throwing a whole bunch of ingredients in a boiling pot for a couple of hours), finding large brine bags, brining the turkey for a few days, etc. etc. The PBC is just so much easier.
Skin was great. I think putting the turkey in the oven for the last 5 degrees really helped get it to a better texture. I might try putting it in for a little longer next time at 400-500 to get it even crispier. The turkey was so juicy that I don't think a little extra time in the oven will hurt it.
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