My first attempt to barbecue a turkey wasn't a complete disaster, but it wasn't anywhere near a success. Weds I spatchcocked the bird (no big deal there, I spatchcock chickens all the time) and dry-brined it overnight, uncovered in the fridge. On Thurs rubbed it down with a wet rub made of S&G and olive oil, including under the skin over the breasts. I built a medium-sized pile of charcoal in my KJ Classic II with a smallish block of apple at the bottom. After getting the oven settled in around 325, I put the deflectors in and, on top of the deflectors, a roasting pan with water, onions, celery, carrots, apple pieces, the juices from the bird, and some bay leaf, sage, and thyme. Over the roasting pan I put in the grills and and the turkey. I put the temp probe in (what I hoped was) the thickest part of the breast and closed it up.
What went wrong:
What went wrong:
- The biggest problem was that I ran out of fuel. The meat probe was reading 140 when the temp in the kamado started dropping. It got down to 280 or so before I declared an executive emergency and pulled the turkey out of the KJ and put it in the kitchen oven. I've been working on getting cleaner smoke in the KJ and one way of doing this is to build smaller, hotter fires that do a better job at burning the wood. If you load up any kamado with a lot of charcoal you are going to have to damp it down so low that any wood in the pile is just going to smolder. The lesson here is that it is better to err on the side of too much charcoal than too little.
What also may have been a contributing factor to the fuel exhaustion was a hot start. When I first fired up the coals the temp got up to 380 or so before I pulled it back down to 325. Had I not consumed all that fuel, I might have made it. - The skin was pathetic - mostly pale and flabby. You would have thought that, at the point I took the turkey out (breast at 140 or so) it would have started getting crispy, but it was not. I tried to remediate this by turning the kitchen oven to 375 for the last bit, but met with limited success. I'm pretty sure that, even if I hadn't run out of coals, the skin would have been pale and flabby.
- Meathead's cooking temps do not work for my family. When the turkey was in the kitchen oven I kept close watch on the temp with my thermapen. When the breast hit 160 I pulled the turkey out. After letting the turkey rest for a bit the carryover took the breasts to 165 and the thighs to 175. Perfect, right? Not for my family. The breast was perfect but the thighs and legs grossed everyone out. They still had a good bit of red translucence around the bones and joints and, even though everyone was sure that the dark meat was *safe* to eat, no one wanted to eat it. So I put the legs and the thighs back in the oven while we ate the breast meat.
- The stock/gravy came out okay, but I think putting the roasting pan on the deflectors caused it to dry out faster than it should. Unfortunately, there just isn't that much horizontal space in a KJ Classic II. I have spacers for just this problem, but they were too big for this job. Next time I will go with small balls of wadded up aluminum foil.
Comment