My Thanksgiving Challenge: Using an unfamiliar (to me) Charcoal Grill

[MarkN]

Visiting my daughter and her family for Thanksgiving. I have and am familiar with a Weber kettle grill, a PBC and a Charbroil gas grill. They have none of these but rather a RiverGrille.



It is not an offset smoker.



The real challenge is that they have two turkeys for me to cook, one 12-lbs and the other 16-lbs. My thought is to make a snake around the right hand side and light it at both ends to generate a little more heat. Then spatchcock the two birds to place in the middle and left hand side, both with legs toward the heat. About halfway through, I'll switch the birds places. I'll be monitoring the temperature of the grill and have meat probes in both turkeys.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

[rickgregory]

Interesting. Another way to do it might be to have the fire on both left and right sides with the birds in the middle if that helped with more space. But your way sounds fine too.

[Reds Fan 5]

I see what looks like a gasser in the background. Are you able to smoke the smaller bird on that?

[MarkN]

You are correct however it is a tiny two burner and even the smaller turkey covers the whole grate.

[jfmorris]

I think your plan is ok, but I don't think a snake will generate the heat you need. Just bank the coals on each end, put the turkeys in the middle, and be prepared to need to lift the grate somehow to add fuel mid-cook.

I am also with Reds Fan 5 - that sure looks like a gas grill in the background. I've roasted a turkey and a ham before by putting a sheet pan or thick aluminum foil on top of the flavorizer bars on my Weber gas grill, under the cooking grate, leaving about a 2 inch gap all around the walls for heat to come up. Basically I turned the gas grill into an indirect gas oven. That's how most ovens work - the gas heat in the broiler compartment down below comes up through some slots into the upper cooking chamber. In those cases I just went by dome thermometer, and used my Thermapen to check the meat periodically. It all worked out.

So I am thinking if you CAN use the gasser, you can do one offset from the fire on the Rivergrill charcoal grill, and one on the gasser.

[MarkN]

My biggest concern is generating and maintaining enough heat (might be OK in a Weber kettle but I feel like it might not work here), so I tend to agree the snake may not be hot enough. I took some measurements and two spatchcocked turkeys take up too much room to allow for me to lean coals on both left and right sides. I'll either have to "two zone" it and switch places or not spatchcock, place them side-by-side and go with the two piles ("three-zone"?). Thanks for the feedback.

Next year I need to host Thanksgiving at home.

[JoeSousa]

One good thing about turkeys is they aren't too finicky on cooking temperature. Anywhere from 275 to 425 will cook a bird just fine. I think 350-375 is the sweet spot but don't sweat it too much if you are higher or lower than that.

If you can only have the coals on one side I would put the 16lb bird on that end closer to the heat and the 12 pounder on the end away from the coals. Keep an eye on the meat temps and move them around if needed.

[bmillin]

if it is deep enough, could you just do a light single layer of briquets and go direct?

[MarkN]

It's not very deep and I am even a bit concerned about how close the birds will be to the drip pans.

[Red Man]

The PBC is pretty portable, any way you can bring it with you?

[HawkerXP]

+1

[MarkN]

That would have been my first choice and I actually did bring it along on an earlier trip, but this time we had a full carload and couldn't fit it in.

[Jessterr]

Agree with JoeSousa. Since the exhaust is at the left rear corner pretty much, I'd put the fire on the right side, the smaller bird over to the far left, with the larger bird nearer to the coals. May not even need to switch birds due to the size difference. Got any bricks or such to use as a zone separator?

[MarkN]

I'll have to look around and see what I can find.

[rickgregory]

A thought - cook one in the oven if it's available. My cousin does that - one traditional roasted, one smoked. That way people who don't really want the smoked turkey don't have to eat it, those that do, can.

[JoeSousa]

I did that a couple years ago. Put them both out on the table and the smoked one was pretty much all gone before anyone took a piece of the oven roasted one. I don't have any problems at all with an oven roasted turkey. If I had both in front of me I would just pick which ever looked juicier.

[rickgregory]

Yeah, it depends on the crowd

[MarkN]

This is a possibility.

[Clawbear57]

Just asking not as experience as most people here., but could you start them both on smoker and after a hour or so finish the small in oven after it get smoke?

[rickgregory]

This is actually a good idea, too.

[MarkN]

This may be my go-to option as I see how things are going.

[MarkN]

Thanks everyone for all of the suggestions. And adding to my challenge:

[MarkN]

All's well that ends well.

[Greygoose]

Perfection !!!!

[fzxdoc]

All's well that ends well--indeed!!! They look beautiful.

How did they taste?


Kathryn

[MarkN]

I was satisfied with the results and many guests left with the leftovers. So I will call it a win.