Spatchcocked Turkey on BGE, Skin rubbery... Help.

[Mettius]

I tried to cook the turkey via the website instructions yesterday (325 degrees).
I had the plate setter installed so I could catch drippings in a pan, and a good 2 inches of space above the pan and the bird. (With ceramic grill store adjustable rig) This was a 13 lb turkey.

At 60 minutes into the cook, the skin was still pale and rubbery. I chickened out and cranked the heat to 400-425 to finish the cook and cooked until the skin looked decent (which of course meant I want a bit too high on the breast, but it was still good).

Anyway, skin wasn't awesome. It was rubbery. Should have taken a picture, but was too hungry.

I see lots of photos of folks who have followed the 325 on the smoker/spatchcocked method and the skin on the photos looks wonderful. Anyone have suggestions?

[Max Good]

Did you use a digital thermometer to gauge the cooking temp? Where did you place the probe?

[Mettius]

Probe was as far away from the turkey as I could manage about 1.5" and still over the plate setter "leg".
I was using my BBQ Guru Cyber-Q temp probe (and fan to regulate temps).

Not that it matters much, but the dome thermometer was reading about 25-50 degrees higher which is consistent with what I've observed in previous cooks.

[Mettius]

I guess I'll have to try this again with a chicken, but I've had similar results with chicken unless I cook direct. I'd all but previously decided that perhaps the BGE just retains so much moisture that the skin won't crisp up indirect.

(In fact I now do my chickens rotisserie on my Weber Kettle at 500-600 dome temp with the fire off to one side of the spit. That works great.)

But since I've seen posts from others using the BGE successfully with this method/temperature... I'm stumped. Is it that the other folks are cooking direct? (But then how to collect drippings....) Color me confused.

[m.mayo]

Did you brush the bird with butter? Say in the last hour or so. We do ours in our Primo. Skin was fine. 325f 4-5 hours basting in the last hour. We did two 15 lbs birds.

[LA Pork Butt]

@MattiusI cooked mine in my large BGE @ 250 whole for 3 1/2 hours until an internal temp of 170 in the thigh. Skin was not rubbery, but not crisp either. The turkey was brined for 12 hours, dried and rubbed with oil. Smoke flavor was good. I used one fist size chunk of pecan set right on top on the small fire in the center of the egg after the egg and plate setter stabilized at 250.

[Huskee]

Some things I know- Dry brining or wet brining will help the skin crisp up some. Don't coat the skin in any oil. Dr Blonder has recommended in the past using a little baking soda with the dry brine to change the pH of the skin to help it crisp. Also, airflow helps too. Ceramics have a little less airflow which is what adds to their efficiency, but their unique properties also change some things up from the other cookers. If you cooked at 400 on a kettle or offset you'd have potato chip skin. Lastly, I'm no expert in this but my hypothesis is some brands of turkey could be different breeds of turkeys, or at the very least differently fed & raised turkeys, which could affect the traits of the birds they sell- in other words do some brands of turkeys or chickens have thicker skins than others? I don't know but I've noticed plenty of differences in chickens I've cooked to form this hypothesis.

[LA Pork Butt]

At 250 I would get rubbery skin on chicken and would have to go significantly higher if I used a plate setter. On the other hand with a raised grill at 350 or 375 I would get really crisp skin. I love doing chicken wings for 30 minutes that way.

[josht138]

I have really struggled with crisp skin on my Weber Smokey Mountain, which has a decent amount of leakage unlike a ceramic. Sometimes I struggle to hold 325, which could be the problem, but I have also done hotter cooks at 350 and not had success. I have a Maverick 733 and my WSM is an older model so it does not have a lid thermometer. Smoked turkey thighs in S&G rub are probably my favorite smoked meat but I still have yet to master crisp skin. I have only had success with direct cooking.

I usually dry brine, pat dry, apply oil, and then apply rub. Next time I'll try leaving out the oil and maybe a little baking soda as Dr. Blonder and Huskee suggest. Chicken and turkey are nice short cooks which just gives me more incentive to practice to get it right.

[LongIslandEd]

I spatchcock my birds and usually pull the skin, putting a dry rub on the flesh. The last time I left the skin on I rubbed the bird under the skin and it came out crispy. Could just as well just have been a bird with a diet that made the skin tough which would make it rubbery?