Drip pan in the OG?

[DrJimmy2112]

Tomorrow I’m doing my first whole turkey on my OG. I will spatchcock a 10 pounder. In the past I’ve put a drip pan under the grill grates on my gasser. However the heat deflector drip pan in the OG is slanted to the back. I’m not sure how to place a pan on it without the drippings spilling over. Also I’m not sure how to make it fit under the grates.
Anyone else use a drip pan on that OG drip plate?

[MBMorgan]

The OG deflector gets mighty hot … maybe a little too hot to avoid burning drippings. In my OG, I generally set a large foil pan on the OG lower grate. I set another grate on the pan and the meat on that. Works quite well.

[DrJimmy2112]

Oh excellent. That sounds like a good idea. Thank you so much for the reply and help. So I assume/hope that the bird will fit in the OG even when place up on the foil pan. O am assuming also that the fail pan can support that weight of the bird.
I imagine I will have to remove the upper half grate, but that is no big deal, I was not planning on using it during the turkey cook time.
Thank you again MBMorgan and happy Thanksgiving!

[MBMorgan]

How did your bird turn out? Did the extra-grill-on-a-pan work for you or did you resort to something else? FWIW, if in the future you want to smoke a moderate sized bird on the OG, you might consider getting the upper grill grate extension from Grilla. It really adds a lot of elevated cooking space and makes it easy to set a pan (or pans) below on the main grate.

[DrJimmy2112]

MBMorgan Sorry for the late reply- I think it went well. I did not put water in the drip pan as we were making gravy elsewhere, and that dried out the meat a bit. The legs and thighs were done before the breast. I learned a lot, those who ate were happy, though I see quite a bit of room for improvement. Thank you for the help!

[DrJimmy2112]

Oh yes I put the bird in as the OG went from 125 -> 225 deg to get extra smoke flavor...it worked too well. I found the smoke profile a bit strong...