BIG BIRD - NEED HELP!

[smcmanamy]

I've got a house full of people coming next week, and a 20+ lb. bird ordered from my friend the butcher. Let me give you a few "knowns" and a bunch of "unknowns" - would love any suggestions this community has on the unknowns!

Known: bird will be spatchcocked; pellet grill; desire juicy meat (obviously), and the crispiest skin possible.

Unknown: Temp?; time?(not going to cook to time, but need ballpark since I'll be drinking and need to pay attention); brine or no brine; rub (bbq style or poultry style like meatheads poultry rub)?

I know that's a lot - but thanks for whatever thoughts y'all have! Happy Thanksgiving.

[mrichie1229]

smcmanamy This thread may be able to help you: https://pitmaster.amazingribs.com/fo...ns-and-results

As for what type of rub; that really depends on what you/your guests like and your side dishes.

Good luck!

[captainlee]

A little salt and the ole parsley sage rosemary and thyme, you can't go wrong.

[Davek8282]

Definitely brine, will save the day if you should over shoot the temps as it really helps keep the meat juicy.

[Huskee]

Meathead's Turkey Article will help you immensely, with everything from thaw time (when needed), to prep, dry brining, seasoning, and cook time, cook temp, crispy skin, etc. And don't forget, as a paying member you get all 6 of our Deep Dive Guides free, one of them is allllll about Turkey (it's big!).

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

You're probably gonna wanna throw the bird on cold and shoot strait to 375 and then bump to 425 or higher. Spatchcock I would guess 3 hours, a whole 17.5 lb bird at 375 the whole way is like 4 hours from the time I press start.

[SmokeyGator]

+1 on the turkey article link posted above. That is really all there is to know. I mostly follow the recipe, modifying the gravy mix a bit by throwing in about 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar and one fresh squeezed orange with about half of the peel thrown in because Florida. Gotta do something with the piles of oranges that do not grow in my yard so I have to buy them. I also throw in the turkey neck and backbone and any other parts I cut off it.

Cooking temperature is the same as an electric oven. 325-350, I go with 325. Gets the skin nice and crispy. Lower than 300 and the skin tends to be soggy and just not as good.

Cooking time varies by weight and thickness. You want to use ye ole thermapen or whatever digital food thermometer you have and yank it out at 160-165 in the middle of the thickest part. FDA food safe for poultry happens at 165, but yanking it at 160 still allows for carry over cooking and really what is 2 or 3 degrees. You CAN use a leave in place food probe but I just go with the general temperature chart included with the turkey article and use my thermometer when the guide says 1 hour remaining and adjust up or down as needed. But when the thermometer says it is done, the clock does not get to argue.

You will see that smoking the bird is the way to go. You free up your oven for other stuff. And this is never a bad thing.

[PGH_RAM]

I've had a 17 lb spatchcocked bird cook in 90 minutes at 350F. So, roughly three beers when my rate of alcohol consumption is set to "reasonable".

A 20 lb spatchcocked turkey will probably take less than five beers at 350-375F.

[realdocBBQ]

I'm doing my first 20+ lb bird, but we did an 18 a month or so ago on my offset. Currently thawing a 24 lb'er to do on Thursday. Mine has been in the bottom of the fridge since... Tuesday evening. So this was only 3 full days but it wasn't even remotely close to being thawed. I managed to get the wings cleared away from the body, but the cavity was a giant frozen ice cave and it was a solid hunk of ice the entire body. So last night I put it in a brine bag, then submerged it in an ice chest full of water, putting a cast iron Dutch oven on top of it to weigh it down and keep it under. Probably later today I'll pull it out and see if it's thawed enough to empty the cavity and bag it up with the brine I made up.

At this point, it's Saturday. No way your 20+ lb bird is going to thaw in the fridge by Thursday. If you've ordered it from the butcher, is this a fresh bird? Is it going to be thawed? I hope so.

If you're cooking on a pellet and wanting crispy skin, I think you've got to go high heat AND you need to dry your skin out beforehand.

Spatchcock your bird, put it on a rack in the fridge for 2 days before cooking. Dry the hell out of it, salt it and put it in to dry the skin. I still don't think this gets the skin as dry as I want, but it helps. Pull it out of the fridge and blot it dry with a bunch of paper towels again - get as much moisture off that thing as you can. Then cook at 350 on your pellet smoker. That bird, prolly will be a 4 hour cook or so - plan to rest for an hour, so put it on 6 hours before carving time, at least.

I'm actually going to brine mine for 3 days after injecting with the brine, then dry for 2 days as well. I think this will help me with the skin - but we'll have to wait and see!

[realdocBBQ]

I just realized my above post had been sitting there waiting for me to hit "Post Reply" since this morning before 6AM.

So I cooked up some stuff for my men's group this morning and then when I came home I went to town on my turkey.

Pulled the 24 lber out of the ice chest and it was mostly thawed, so I gave it the business. Took the brine that I made up last night with dried herbs (all I had), a couple of fresh heads of garlic, a couple additional tablespoons of chopped garlic from a big jar from Costco of prepared garlic, and about 5 or 6 dried bay leaves, and a bunch of salt and sugar. 5% salt brine about 1/4 of that of sugar as well. 8000g of water, 400g of salt, 100g of sugar. Injected about a quart or so of the brine into the bird, then put it in the bag and added the rest of the brine into the bag.



Now she's brining in a bag in the fridge.

I'll jostle her around a few times over the next couple of days, pull her out Monday evening or Tuesday morning and spatch, then put back in to dry the skin.

I think I'm going to add a compound butter under the skin just before cooking, as well. I'll cook at high heat with implanted probes to 150 breast and 170ish thigh.

Hoping for the best!

[bbqLuv]

That is my suggestion: "Known: bird will be spatchcocked; pellet grill; desire juicy meat (obviously), and the crispiest skin possible."

[Polarbear777]

If spatchcocked, cook above 300F. If you can break the breastbone to make it even thinner you can go above 325F.

dry brine in fridge at least 36 hours so the skin dries out.

Most important: 5 minutes at 150F is bacterially just as good as 14 seconds at 165F and there will be carryover anyway.

I check when the lowest temp in thickest part of breast is 150F, then set a timer for five minutes and pull immediately after that.

The breast at ~155 is way juicier than if you let it reach 165. Since you are spatchcocking, the thighs should be closer to 165 and they are ok even above that.

The only trick is what temp between 325 and 425F will crisp and darken the skin at the same time you reach inside doneness as described above. Thinner bird you want to go higher oven temp, thicker go lower.

[fzxdoc]

There are turkey cooking times/temps on the link below. They're for the PBC, but I find these times for most meats translate well to my kamado and kettle cooks also.

https://pitmaster.amazingribs.com/forum/charcoal-drums-barrels-and-bullet-smokers/pit-barrel-cooker/12774-pbc-cook-times-including-pbc-temps-and-meat-veggie-weights-if-possible

Kathryn

[Michael_in_TX]

The title of this thread reminded me of this image from the month of November from the 1974 Sesame Street calendar. If you look closely, you'll see that Big Bird has a bag of bird seed in front of him. If you think about that, it starts off as really meta....then gets abjectly horrifying.



(Also, Guy Smiley has had just about enough of this gathering lol.)