Happy Thanksgiving all! I did my first turkey yesterday and it came out great but I'm looking to improve next year. My problem was my setup on my KJ Classic. I followed Meathead's recipe for a traditional bird plus the gravy made from the drippings.
My issue was the setup of the disposable roasting pan for the gravy. The recipe calls for 3 quarts of liquid in the pan, much more than the capacity of the drip pans I usually use under meat. I picked up a deep, wide pan that barely fit under the grill surface (should have checked that before it was too late). In fact I had to bend it a bit to get it to fit.
Meathead suggests that the bird sits on the grill at least three inches above the pan but I had no way of getting that gap with what I had available. I always use a few one inch square ceramic pieces between the drip pan and deflector plate to keep the bottom of the pan from burning.The turkey basically sat directly above the broad steaming pan throughout the cook making the bottom skin soggy and preventing browning of the bottoms of the legs and wings.
My second issue, which I think was also the fault of the roasting pan size, is I could not get up to temp! I'm shooting for 325 and I got there after some time with the drip pan in when I was preheating. Once the bird went on it cooked at just 275-300 with both vents wide open, dropping after a couple of hours to 250, which is when I decided to just finish it in the oven. I was measuring with both a grill-level thermometer and the KJ dial and they were in agreement throughout the cook by a few degrees. I had cleaned all ashes out of the grill, stacked KJ big lump at the bottom of the pile and Royal Oak on that, which is pretty much always my setup and normally works fine for me at any temp. I didn't peek at all for the first hour and then only in about 30-45 minute intervals after that to top off the water in the pan. It was raining steadily but I can't imagine that would be such a factor as to keep my temp under 300.
I've attached a few pictures of the setup and finished bird (no, the bottle of ranch dressing was not used on the turkey!). Any suggestions on a better approach? I'm not sure how I'd do a smaller pan size as the liquid was less than an inch from the top lip and nearly overflowing as it bubbled. Plus I had to add boiling water two or three times so if I went smaller with less liquid I might risk it all boiling off.
I've also attached a picture of the remaining lump I found this morning. I went out to light my grill for a cleaning and took this picture after stirring the ash out. This was a full firebox that ran under 300° F for just a few hours. I would expect to find just a small portion of the lump used up but what remains tells me that this fire was raging.
My issue was the setup of the disposable roasting pan for the gravy. The recipe calls for 3 quarts of liquid in the pan, much more than the capacity of the drip pans I usually use under meat. I picked up a deep, wide pan that barely fit under the grill surface (should have checked that before it was too late). In fact I had to bend it a bit to get it to fit.
Meathead suggests that the bird sits on the grill at least three inches above the pan but I had no way of getting that gap with what I had available. I always use a few one inch square ceramic pieces between the drip pan and deflector plate to keep the bottom of the pan from burning.The turkey basically sat directly above the broad steaming pan throughout the cook making the bottom skin soggy and preventing browning of the bottoms of the legs and wings.
My second issue, which I think was also the fault of the roasting pan size, is I could not get up to temp! I'm shooting for 325 and I got there after some time with the drip pan in when I was preheating. Once the bird went on it cooked at just 275-300 with both vents wide open, dropping after a couple of hours to 250, which is when I decided to just finish it in the oven. I was measuring with both a grill-level thermometer and the KJ dial and they were in agreement throughout the cook by a few degrees. I had cleaned all ashes out of the grill, stacked KJ big lump at the bottom of the pile and Royal Oak on that, which is pretty much always my setup and normally works fine for me at any temp. I didn't peek at all for the first hour and then only in about 30-45 minute intervals after that to top off the water in the pan. It was raining steadily but I can't imagine that would be such a factor as to keep my temp under 300.
I've attached a few pictures of the setup and finished bird (no, the bottle of ranch dressing was not used on the turkey!). Any suggestions on a better approach? I'm not sure how I'd do a smaller pan size as the liquid was less than an inch from the top lip and nearly overflowing as it bubbled. Plus I had to add boiling water two or three times so if I went smaller with less liquid I might risk it all boiling off.
I've also attached a picture of the remaining lump I found this morning. I went out to light my grill for a cleaning and took this picture after stirring the ash out. This was a full firebox that ran under 300° F for just a few hours. I would expect to find just a small portion of the lump used up but what remains tells me that this fire was raging.
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