This Thanksgiving, I’m using all the finesse techniques I’ve learned to cook my Turkey. Here’s what I’m going to do.
My first trick is to dry brine the turkey. For years, my gold standard for turkey brines was the apple cider brine from Weber’s Art of the Grill
*You’ll see some bay leaves in the pictures of the dry brine. Ignore them. They’re not really there. These are not the bay leaves you’re looking for. (Waves hand in dismissive manner.)
**OK, OK, you caught me. I tried to crumble them by hand, and I couldn’t break them up small enough to use in my dry brine. I should have used my spice grinder, but I didn’t want to get it dirty just for the bay leaves, so I left them out. It tasted great without them.
The next step is cooking the turkey to the appropriate level of doneness. This is tricky. The white meat in the breast should just cook to 160*F so it doesn’t dry out. The dark meat in the legs should be cooked above 170*F; it needs extra heat to break down the connective tissue. The problem is – they’re both on the same bird, and cooking for the same length of time. I used two techniques to help solve this.
Following the suggestion in Weber’s Barbecued Turkey pamphlet I set up the charcoal in a U shape on one half of the grill. This focuses the heat on the turkey’s legs, and lessens the heat on the breast.
I also used a trick from Harold McGee. Mr. McGee recommended strapping a couple of ice packs over the breast of the bird after removing it from the refrigerator, so the breasts start out colder than the thighs. His family told him this was “too unappetizing”, so he switched to zip-top bags full of ice. Since McGee’s On Food and Cooking
The turkey is cooked on my rotisserie, of course. Nothing comes close to the crisp, crackling skin from the constant convection caused by the circling bird.*
*Sorry, got stuck in a “C” rut there.
The result of all these steps is the best turkey I’ve ever made. Can you skip all this detail? Sure. Dry brine the turkey with salt, cook it on the rotisserie, and you’ll get a great bird. But if you want to take the bird from great to sublime, have I got the recipe for you…
Recipe: Rotisserie Turkey, Dry Brined with Orange and Spices
Inspired by: Lots of different sources.
Cook time: 180 minutes
Equipment:
- Grill with Rotisserie attachment (I used a Weber kettle with the Rotisserie attachment. Kettle is here,
and rotisserie is here
)
- Aluminum foil drip pan (11″x13″, “turkey size”, or whatever fits your grill)
- Cotton twine
- Gallon zip-top bag full of ice (optional)
- Instant Read Thermometer
Ingredients:
- 12 to 14 lb Turkey
- fist sized chunk of smoking wood (hickory, oak, pecan or a fruit wood; I love oak wine barrel staves
)
Dry Brine
- 1/4 cup kosher salt (I used Diamond Crystal; reduce to 3 tbsp if using Mortons, because it is denser).
- Zest of 1 orange (save the orange, cut in half and wrapped in plastic wrap to stuff the turkey)
- 1 teaspoon brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger (about a 1/2 inch piece)
- 1 teaspoon grated fresh garlic (2 cloves)
- 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
Directions:
Note: for an overview of the technique, see my rotisserie poultry post.
1. Dry brine the turkey: 1 to 3 days before it is time to cook, dry brine the turkey. Mix the dry brine ingredients in a small bowl, then sprinkle and rub evenly over the turkey. Make sure to rub some inside the cavity of the turkey as well. Put the turkey on a rack over a roasting pan or baking sheet, and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate, removing the plastic wrap the night before cooking to allow the skin to dry. (If you are only dry brining for 24 hours, skip the plastic wrap.)
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2. Prep the Turkey: One hour before cooking, remove the turkey from the refrigerator. Stuff the turkey with the halves of the orange, then truss and skewer with the rotisserie spit. Put the zip lock bag full of ice on the breast, not touching the legs or drumsticks, to chill the breast meat until cooking. Put the wood chunk in a bowl of water to soak.
3. Prep the rotisserie: Prepare the rotisserie for cooking on indirect medium heat (see details here). For my Weber kettle, I light a chimney 3/4 full of charcoal and wait for it to be covered with ash. Then, instead of pouring it in my usual two piles on the side of the grill, I pour it in a U shape at one end of the grill (see picture below). I put the drip pan in the middle of the U of charcoal. Finally, put the wood chunk on top of the charcoal, and give it five minutes to start smoking.
*If you are using a gas grill, check out my basic Rotisserie Turkey recipe for setup instructions. If you’re using a Weber Summit with a infrared rotisserie burner, set the grill up as shown in this recipe. If you don’t have a rotisserie, Weber Kettle instructions are in this recipe.
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4. Cook the turkey: Put the spit on the grill, with the leg side of the bird inside the “U” of coals. Cook the turkey with the lid closed; it will take 2 to 3 hours (usually about 2 1/2 hours for a 12 pound turkey). Every hour, add 24 fresh charcoal briquettes to the grill, nestling them into the burning charcoal. Start checking the temperature in the breast with an instant read thermometer at 2 hours. The turkey is done when the breast meat registers 155*F to 160*F in its thickest part. Remove the turkey from the grill, remove the spit from the turkey, and cut the trussing twine loose. Let the turkey rest for 15 to 30 minutes before carving.
5. Carve the turkey: If you have a favorite way of carving a turkey, go ahead and use it. My preferred method: Cut the legs free from the body of the bird, and cut the drumsticks away from the thighs. I leave the drumsticks whole (my favorite part!) and slice the meat from the thighs in 1/2″ slices for dark meat lovers. Next, I cut the entire breast half from one side of the bird by working my knife down the keel bone from the top down to the wing, following the inside of the ribcage. Once the breast half is free of the bird, it is easy to slice into 1/2″ thick slices on my carving board. I repeat with the other breast half. Finally, I cut each wing away from the carcass, and separate the drumette from the wing, and the wing from the wingtip. I arrange all these pieces on a platter and serve.
Notes:
*Fresh vs Frozen: There are two advantages to a fresh turkey. The first is they are rarely pre-brined, which is redundant because of the dry brine. (Watch out for the words “enhanced with a X% solution” or “pre-basted”) The second advantage to fresh turkey is no thawing is needed! If you have to get a frozen bird, make sure to leave an extra three days or so to thaw it in the refrigerator before staring the dry brine; start thawing it about a week before you’ll need it.
What do you think? Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.
Related Posts:
Basic Rotisserie Turkey
Rotisserie Turkey Breast
Click here for my other rotisserie recipes.
 Check out my cookbook, Rotisserie Grilling. |
Everything you could ask about the rotisserie,
plus 50 (mostly) new recipes to get you cooking.
It’s a Kindle e-book, so you can download it and start reading immediately!
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The icepack on the breast idea(gosh that sounds a borderline inappropriate) is an exceptional one, thanks for sharing Mike! You’ve outdone yourself this Thanksgiving with the insights you’re giving to your readers.
Dan
Casual Kitchen
@Dan: Thank you! The ice pack trick helps; I’m a dark meat fan, so I want my legs and thighs cooked to 175*F or so. I don’t want to overcook the breast meat while I’m doing it.
And I have a hard time with all the talk about breasts myself. There was something I was writing that seemed like it would get me into sexual harassment class if I said it at work. It’s a good thing I’m talking about poultry…
@Yossi:
You should NOT brine kosher birds. You are correct, the koshering process results in a pre-brined bird; brining it again would be too salty.
I once used this to my advantage, when a last minute illness cancelled our Thanksgiving plans. I picked up a kosher bird the day before Thanksgiving, and didn’t have to worry about brining – it was ready to cook.
I have a question about brining in general. Is it necessary to brine kosher birds? Since salting is part of the koshering process this may cause the bird to be “over”brined, and too salty.
Have you heard anything related to this before? Do you have any experience with kosher birds?
Please advise as I want to get the most out of a brine but dont want to ruin the bird.
@Yossi:
If you’re using a kosher turkey, don’t add any more salt. Unfortunately, that means you lose salt’s ability to pull the flavors into the meat while you brine.
With a kosher bird, skip the brining step, and the salt in the rub; you can rub the bird with the other spices ahead of time, but it will be just about as effective to rub them on right before cooking.
It won’t be as thoroughly flavored with the herbs, but the turkey will still taste great.
If you dont recommend brining kosher poultry, what do you recommend to do for the “brine” step for kosher poultry? Perhaps skip the salt ingredient? or maybe minimize the amount of salt?
@Yossi:
Duck has a LOT more fat under the skin than chicken and cornish game hens. That’s where the drippings come from. Chicken and cornish hens will have less than a duck.
I was used to the drippings from chicken, and was amazed the first time I cooked a duck how much fat was rendered from it. (To make matters worse, I slipped, and dumped the pan full of hot duck fat into my grill…)
For some reason when I rotisserie birds (chicken and cornish hens) I always put a drip pan underneath and there didnt seem to be much there. (this was obviously not the case when I rottisseried duck which i pked holes in the skin and had about 1.5 inches of drippings). Should i poke holes in the skin of my chickens to increase the drippings? or what would be the reason that I dont get the usual drippings?
2 questions.
Do you think that the webber rotisserie attachment and genesis 310 can handle a 20lb turkey if it is trussed well and loaded onto the spit tightly?
How much smoke do you think should be used with a turkey?
@Yossi:
A 20 pound turkey is pushing it. The spit will be fine; I’m worried about space. I *think* it will fit, but just barely. I don’t think I ever cooked a bird above 14-16 pounds in my Genesis. (Back when I owned one).
I don’t like a lot of smoke in my turkey – I’d use a fist sized chunk of wood or two, or 1 to 2 cups of soaked chips.
Your recipe and technique looks amazing, I am thinking about using it for Thanksgiving this year. One question, after looking at other dry brining recipes…does yours turn out a bit salty since you do not rinse the brine mixture off the bird before cooking?
Thank you
-Margaret W.
@Margaret W:
Too salty? No, I’ve never had that complaint.
Now, saltiness is one of those things that different people taste more or less of; If you’re really sensitive to salt, you might find this a bit salty. But some members of my family are very sensitive to salt, and they enjoyed the turkey last year, so I think you’ll be fine.
Great, thanks for the reply. I will definitely be using this for Thanksgiving!!!
-Margaret W
Mike,Once again you have inspired the amature chef hiding inside all of us.This year,mother asked my wife and I to host Thanksgiving dinner(panic)and instantly thought of the rotisserie for the bird.My question for you,do you prefer the gas or charcoal version.I am going for a straight wet brine,such as your old school weber apple juice spiced brine.I am leaning on the charcoal,but the convienience of gas…..im torn!
I prefer the charcoal version – you get better browning on the skin, and a little more smoky flavor. That said, I usually cook two birds, one on charcoal and one on gas, and they both come out great.
Good luck, and remember, the key to Thanksgiving is having a plan. If you know what you need to do, and when you need to do it, you’ll be ready.
Howdy. Thanks for this recipe. I plan to use it for Thanksgiving in a few weeks. I’ve seen a couple of videos on YouTube where they wrap the turkey in aluminum foil for the first hour or more and then finish without foil. Have you ever tried that technique and if so how did it turn out?
Sid
I’ve never tried wrapping the turkey in foil. I’m not sure what that’s supposed to do. Steam it, maybe?
It doesn’t seem like a good idea to me; I want the turkey skin to brown and crisp, and wrapping it in foil would get in the way.
Okay. Thanks for the quick reply. 🙂
Can I use your dry brine if I’m using a gas grill? Any thoughts on pros and cons on that? Thanks.
The dry brine works great on a gas grill. I do it all the time. Go for it!
Great. Thanks.
Hi Mike. I notice in your “Rotisserie Chicken, Dry Brined with Rosemary, Lemon, and Garlic” recipe, you put the dry brine ingredients in a “mortar and pestle or spice grinder, and grind until it is a fine powder”. In this recipe you mix the ingredients in a bowl. Is there any reason why you didn’t mix them in a mortar or grinder in this recipe? Or does it matter?
For the Rosemary, Lemon and Garlic dry brine , you need to mince the rosemary and garlic – the spice grinder does that for you.
For the Orange and spices dry brine, everything is already minced (or grated fine), so it is ready to be mixed.
You could mince the ingredients for the Rosemary, Lemon and Garlic dry brine and then mix them if you don’t have a spice grinder or mortar and pestle.
Ok, thanks 🙂
Hi Mike. I used this recipe last Thanksgiving and my family loved it. A question: this year I’m using a frozen turkey that will take 3 days to thaw in the fridge. Do you think it is safe to thaw it and then dry brine it for another 2 or 3 days before cooking? Got your new book by the way. Looks great.
Forget my last question. If I had read all the way through your recipe I would have seen you answer that question at the very end. Thanks anyway.
Brad,
Thanks for reading through to the end. And yes, you should be fine; my turkey is thawing in the refrigerator as we speak, and I’ll be dry-brining it on Monday night.
I’m very excited to follow this recipe. Slightly nervous. I am using the Webber with the Rotisserie. What temperature of my grill should I try to maintain?
You want to keep the temperature around 350*F, plus or minus 50*F. There will be some falloff in temperature with charcoal later on in the cook. (This is a good thing – start with a blast of heat, then ease off as you get into the later cooking.)
I live in Northeast Ohio, so the weather on Thanksgiving can be interesting; on cold and windy days, if I can keep the temperature above 250*F I’m happy. The turkey works out fine even if I’m fighting the cold; it’s just a matter of when the turkey finishes. I try to leave myself at least an extra half hour, and an extra hour is better; I cover the turkey with aluminum foil when I bring it in to the house to keep it warm.
do you have a time per pound rough idea Mike.I was handed a 20 lb turkey to cook on the rotisserie,any idea what time after midnight on Wednsday I should start cooking for a noon meal on Thursday?
Ha!
I would guess a little under 3 hours at 350*F for a 20 pound turkey – it took about that long for the 23 pounder I used for my Rotisserie Turkey Wrapped in Bacon: https://www.dadcooksdinner.com/2012/11/rotisserie-turkey-wrapped-with-bacon.html
Of course, weather and wind may affect that time, so start checking the temp in the thickest part of the breast at 2 1/2 hours.
So I got stuck with the rare fresh turkey with a 3% saline solution. Can it still be dry brined a couple days early by cutting the salt down, or am I best served rubbing right before cooking?
I don’t think a 3% solution is enough to worry about. I’d dry brine it using the usual amount of salt.
If the turkey has a 6% solution or higher, then I cut way back on the salt (only 1 tablespoon for a 12 pound bird.)
Thanks for the quick response! Really dig your recipes and the cookbook!
You’re welcome. Thanks for reading!
Thank you so much.I admire your dedication to this blog.and apreciate all you have taught us!
I Plan on using hickory to smoke my bird. Should I only smoke for the first hour or so then stop? Also is apple wood a good wood to smoke turkey with?
Yes, the first hour is best; you don’t want to over-smoke the bird.
I don’t worry about time. I control the smoke by controlling the amount of I do it by wood. I put two fist-sized chunks of wood on the coals right before I add the bird.
Usually this means piecing together four or five smaller chunks to get to fist-sized; my chunks are smaller than my fists. Or two cups of loosely packed, soaked wood chips.
I’ve used hickory, apple, cherry, and oak wood with turkey; they’ve all been good. My current favorite is oak, but I wouldn’t turn any of them down. The only wood to avoid is mesquite, which has a very bitter flavor over the long cooking time of a turkey.
Thanks for responding. That was fast?
Mike,
I have a gas rotisserie any tips on the smoking and heat? Is it all indirect heat or can I use the infrared heat parallel to the meat? Thanks for your help.
If it is a 12 to 16 pound turkey, set the grill up like the pictures in this post: https://www.dadcooksdinner.com/2011/11/rotisserie-turkey-with-cajun-dry-brine.html
…if it is larger, you should probably skip the IR burner – turn it on for the last half hour of cooking if the turkey isn’t browned enough, but it probably will be plenty brown. See this post for larger turkey details: https://www.dadcooksdinner.com/2012/11/rotisserie-turkey-wrapped-with-bacon.html
Two choices for smoking in a gas grill. 1. Skip it. The turkey will still be great. 2. Soak a cup of wood chips for an hour, then drain them, wrap them in foil, and poke a couple holes in the top of the foil. Put the package of chips on the burner cover over one of your lit burners.
Awesome, thanks!
That worked really well! Thank you.
You’re welcome. Glad you liked it!
Hi Mike,
Any advise on how long should I cook 6-7 pounds turkey in Webber with the Rotisserie (charcoal)? Do I need to reduce the heat since it is much smaller than the one that you have in this recipe (so for using half chimney vs. 3/4 chimney)?
Thanks and Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family from Down Under (Australia)!
Don’t reduce the charcoal, reduce the cooking time. I’m guessing a 6-7 pound turkey will take about an hour and a half; cook until you get an internal temperature of 155*F in the breast.
Good luck!
Wow that is fast 🙂 .. Thanks for the speedy response!
I tried this with my Weber kettle on Thanksgiving and it was a huge hit. Outstanding! Thanks, Mike. BTW, I’m a drumstick guy also.
You’re welcome, glad you liked it!
And, I had the last leftover drumstick today. It was a perfect lunch.
Made this today, loved it. I dont have a rotisserie attachment for my weber (only for my gas grill) so I just did it on the grate. Came out almost as good as it would have turning round and round. Gotta get me a rotisserie for my weber!
Excellent! I like it when people show adaptability!
Hi Mike,
I just want to drop by and letting you know that the Turkey worked really well! Thanks again for all your help 🙂
You’re welcome!
This sounds great! We are having Thanksgiving on Saturday and this will be our turkey! I have a large DCS gas grill with rear infrared rotisserie burner so can’t do the U shape with charcoal. I will do the ice bag, any other suggestions? Should I just preheat the infrared on medium? Can’t wait to try it.
If you can, set your grill up like the picture about halfway down this post: https://www.dadcooksdinner.com/2011/11/rotisserie-turkey-with-cajun-dry-brine.html
—
Sent from Mailbox for iPad
Used both burners like you outlined; worked great! Everyone loved the turkey. Thanks for the great recipe and tips.
You’re welcome – I’m glad it was a success!
Mike,
I have a Weber Summit 470 and plan to try this recipe – my turkey is about 15 lbs. A couple questions – should the infrared burner stay on the entire cooking time? I have often only had it on for the first 20 minutes or so. I am happy to try something new. Also, did I read correctly that I should try to keep the temp of the grill around 325 to 350? I thought I saw somewhere else that it should be high indirect heat. Thanks – I am looking forward to trying this on Thanksgiving.
John,
I start the infrared burner on medium, and keep an eye on the turkey – when it gets nice and brown, I shut off the IR burner. (With the sugar in the dry brine, I think it will only need a half an hour to an hour with the infrared burner.)
Keep the temp at 325°F to 350°F. High heat will probably burn the turkey before it cooks through. (That said, you will probably set some of the burners to high to maintain that temperature – it depends on your grill, but I have to turn two burners to high to hold 350°F, if my IR burner is off.)
Set the grill up like I suggest in this recipe (for a Summit-650, which is similar to your grill:)
https://www.dadcooksdinner.com/2011/11/rotisserie-turkey-with-cajun-dry-brine.html
Thank you for the quick reply. There are several ideas I’m looking forward to trying.
Hi Mike,
I’m using this recipe for our Thanksgiving turkey. I put the dry brine on last night. The turkey is 20 pounds. Any suggestions for a turkey that size ie: cooking time, temperature, when and how long to use the IR burner. I’m using a Summit 670.
Can’t wait to taste it. All of your recipes I’ve tried have been great!
Thanks,
Cabot
Set the grill up like I show in this post:
https://www.dadcooksdinner.com/2012/11/rotisserie-turkey-wrapped-with-bacon.html
Summary: Indirect medium heat (325 to 350*F), burners all on the leg side of the bird; about 3 hours, no infrared burner unless you need to brown the bird for the last half hour.
Good luck!
I brined my 14.75 lbs bird this morning. I will also do the bag with ice about an hour before putting in on my Genesis S-310. It seems that I have plenty of clearance without having to remove the middle three flavorizer bars. Hoever, if I have to, I have a disposable aluminum cookie sheet that I can wedge into the grill. If you want me to, I can take a photo and send it to you.
How long do you think it will take to grill this bird with my rotisserie if I keep the temperature at around 350 degrees?
I am also thinking about adding the strips of bacon over the breast as you suggest in one of your other recipes. Do you think that this would be too much added flavor or is it worth doing? I like the idea that the bacon may slow down the cooking of the breast, but the added flavor may interfere with the many different flavors of the dry brine. What are your thoughts on this?
Going to do a test turkey this weekend. Suggestions for altering this rub on a grocery store turkey (the “enhanced” kind)?
Cut the salt in half.
Sorry, meant to say to a quarter, not a half. Use 1 tablespoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt in the rub.
Have you ever stuffed the cavity with stuffing?
I don’t stuff my turkeys, because the breast meat will be wildly overcooked by the time the stuffing is heated enough to be safe to eat. If you HAVE to have stuffing, follow the technique in this post to pre-heat the stuffing before cooking:
https://www.dadcooksdinner.com/2012/12/rotisserie-capon-with-chestnut-stuffing.html/
…but again, with a turkey, I don’t recommend it.
Loved Loved Loved this rub! I am very thankful that when I realized my rotisserie motor was dead this morning my next door neighbor let me borrow theirs! Everyone said this recipe is a keeper!
Great! Glad you enjoyed it.