Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!
Have any of you ever cooked your turkey (I'm referring to the traditional Thanksgiving dinner bird. But, pun intended...) in a Weber grill? That's been my modus operandi for years. It's so easy...especially since my DH is in charge of that. We came to this arrangement several years ago when I "fussed" that baking the turkey in the oven made it hard to get the pies and homemade rolls into the oven in a timely manner.
Being an engineer who loves to solve problems and be my hero, he suggested that we put that bird on the Weber. Good idea. He just looked at the Weber cook book...and Voila! Problem solved.
I have a large, flat, sturdy metal roasting pan into which I just plop the turkey (after I've "trusseed" it with skewers and twine). I do nothing to the bird other than making sure that it has been rinsed well, inside and out.
Then, using extra heavy duty Reynolds aluminum foil, I tear off 2 stirps of foil that are long enough to go over the turkey and to tuck over the handles on the end of the pan. I lay those pieces of foil, one on top of the other with the long edges even. Taking one side of the foil "stack" I fold about 1/2" the foil toward me and smooth it. I repeat the process, making a double fold.
I carefully open the to "joined" sheets and drape them over the turkey, "pinching" the foil to the pan. It takes a bit of time, but the object is to get the turkey completely covered and the pan sealed.
My husband puts the wrapped turkey on the prepared Weber, puts his meat thermometer into the turkey through the foil, and shuts the lid. He only opens the grill so as to check whether or not he needs to add more charcoal. He uses his wireless meat thermometer so that he doesn't even have to go outside to check the internal temperature of the bird.
We have the wireless thermometer more for convenience than necessity...as we live in the SF Bay area and it's usually about 65 degrees on Thanksgiving.
Thus, I have my kitchen and oven free to bake and putter with all the other stuff of the day.
When the turkey is done, we just bring it in the pan into the house and remove the foil. The bird is perfectly and beautifully golden brown, moist and tender. The pan has a large amount of "drippings" that make a good "pour" over the turkey, should somone want that. We're not big gravy fans at our house.
The point is that I don't do anything special to the turkey before cooking. Cooking it on the Weber causes it to look like a Norman Rockwell turkey, keeps it moist, and preserves the mild taste.
It has no "smokey" taste at all. We left the foil off one year...not a good idea since we don't like smoked turkey.
This method works well if the temperature outside is relatively mild. We tried this once when we lived in the Chicago area...the cold air temp made it nearly impossible to keep the grill hot enough to cook the bird.
Anyway, this method removes a hassle for me and my DH continues to be my hero! Now, that's something for which we're both thankful!
Madolyn