It's TURKEY DAY!

[PappyBBQ]

Ok, so not officially anyway, but it's turkey day at my house. Finding a turkey around these parts any time of the year not close to Thanksgiving is tough. I mean, this IS Los Angeles! Brother! Anyway, I scored a nice kosher turkey at Costco in the 14 pound range and I've been wanting to try that turkey hanger ever since it showed up!! Excitement!! I figured I'd get a good dry run for our annual holiday party as I've decided to add smoked turkey to the menu, along with the traditional prime rib and ham.

Until I announced the plans to my family and they burst my bubble. Half of them don't want smoked turkey (not huge fans of smoked meats period [I know, I know])! Oh the horrors! So much for using the hanger! So, it's compromise time. I cut the bird in half, oiled it up and used a nice amount of PBC All purpose rub. Not a huge S&G fan and I want to see how the all purpose tastes on turkey. So I'll hang half of the bird in the PBC the old fashioned way and do the other half in the oven.

Now the up side of this is that I can make MH's famous gravy since I'm doing half in the oven. Now I like my broth to get a bit more cookin' time than the bird is going to take, so I threw all of the ingredients into the roasting pan along with the backbone, neck, wing tips and tail and they are cooking away in the oven for an hour before I start roasting the bird. Already smells like Thanksgiving in the house!

[smarkley]

Awesome! Compromise is hard sometimes... And really hard to believe someone is not as crazy about smoking as we are!

I have seen it too... I would be tempted to tell them to go to Applebees if they dont like it... Hahaha

Iam sure you did an amazing job though!

[Jerod Broussard]

Way to compromise.

I just got an 18lber to cook in the Pit Barrel for a coworker.

May have some more to cook come Thanksgiving. Good thing I am off that week.

[PappyBBQ]

So when you cook for others do you "deliver hot" or what?

[JPP]

About how long would you expect an 18lb turkey to take?

[JeffJ]

We are doing 2 birds this year just like last year. One will be in the oven the other on the kettle with a little bit of wood. That way everyone is happy.

[JohnF]

My wife all of a sudden don't like smoked anything, so I asked her why she buys smoked Bacon, I got that deer in the headlight stare! LMAO

[PappyBBQ]

Yeah! Lately I'm doing half of everything in the oven. Oh well, whatever keeps everyone happy!

[PappyBBQ]

Well, both cooks turned out yummy though my definite preference is the smoked turkey outta the PBC. It WAS nice having the oven cooked half for the gravy it gave up! Interesting, I always adjust the indoor oven to match the temp reported in the PBC, so as the PBC "wanders" I make the oven follow. Still, the PBC was done 30 minutes before the over bird was done.

[JPP]

I have the turkey hangers which I'm going to use on Thanksgiving for sure... (bought the "holiday pack" since I'm outta PBC rubs and needed a nice pair of gloves anyway...)... but I was wondering... I have an "old fasioned" turkey rack that fits into a stainless pan... and was wondering if I put a bird in that and put pan, with rack and turkey on the grating how that would work out. Of course there'd be no dripping on the coals and there'd be no direct heat on the bird at all but the pan would catch drippings for gravy.

[fzxdoc]

You'd have more of a PBC oven that way, JPP. To my mind, the smoke that comes from the sizzling juices hitting that hot charcoal is part of the PBC's flavor machine.

You can make really awesome turkey gravy from homemade broth made from the carcass of a roasted chicken (even a rotisserie chicken from the grocery, although I use the carcasses from chickens I smoke on my PBC), chicken wings, and some aromatics. You can make it ahead of time and store it in the fridge for a few days or freeze it.

Use the broth (along with the neck, etc. from the turkey) in the turkey gravy recipe. When you pull your turkey off the PBC to rest, collect any juices and toss that in to the gravy as well.

Here's how I make the chicken stock I use as one of the gravy components:

http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/10/h...ken-stock.html

And here's the recipe I use for turkey gravy (scroll through the recipe until you get to the gravy part). It's pretty doggone good. Scroll down to steps 3 and 4 for the gravy-making info.

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2...vy-recipe.html

HTH,
Kathryn

[JPP]

Awesome! Thanks!

[Doublejab]

Quick Question: Whenever I smoke a chicken I use mustard as a binder for my rub. Has anyone used and/or recommend using mustard on a turkey?

[JeffJ]

I use vegetable oil.

[Doublejab]

Thanks, Jeff. I usually use oil on turkey, too. I don't think I will deviate on Thanksgiving.

[JeffJ]

This is what last year's bird looked like: