Anyone doing a turkey on a PG500/1000? Anyone brining? Cutting up to cook white and dark meat separately? What are you doing/what do you recommend?

Last year I did out second turkey in pieces all separately. I loved it. Everything got better color and smoke flavor as well as cooking to its own best temperature. I think I will do it this year as well. I plan on a dry brine of just salt if it is thawed enough ( i was a bit behind the game on that) if it is not then just a saltwater brine to also help thaw.

Try looking up:
Latin American spatchcock a turkey.
Easier than normal spatchcocking (don't need to remove the backbone), and separates the white meat from the dark meat allowing you to get both to the right temps.

I just did 2 Turkeys on my FEC120 but have done them on my PG500 that I use to own. I always brine my Turkeys and do them whole. One was for a friend for Thanksgiving and one was used for pulled turkey that I vac seal and put in my freezer. I have never done one spatchcock but I know a few friends who has and they love it.

Try looking up:
Latin American spatchcock a turkey.
Easier than normal spatchcocking (don't need to remove the backbone), and separates the white meat from the dark meat allowing you to get both to the right temps.

This old thread addressed it too.

I have an 18 pound turkey that I will be putting into the Pit Boys Apple Cider brine this morning.  Then I plan to smoke it at 225 for about 2 hours and then turn up the heat to 325 for another 4 hours or so.

I am thinking smoke breast side up, then go breast side down for a bit with high heat, and then finish breast side up.  I might be over complicating it there.

This is all done on a PG500.

I have a 23 pounder on my DB now for our neighborhood get-together.  It had a dry brine on it for 36 hours in the frig.  I have done this for three years now.  The first year I did a wet brine.  Last year and this year I did a dry brine.  It has turned out great each year.  I will have to put up my umbrella in a little while due to rain coming.  I smoked it at 200 for one hour and then turned it up to 275.  It has been on for a little over two hours and should be finished in about four more hours.

Thanks for all the good info guys. By the way, I have a 25lb turkey. I am concerned that I do not have the space to spatchcock the turkey. I think I am just going to have to separate the individual sections.

I currently have a ten pounder in a curing brine. I plan to pull the drip pan and suspend it from the top rack in a cheese cloth sling. This should allow it to get complete smoke coverage for a true smoked turkey. I'll be running at about 200°. At $0.49/lb. I'm not out much if the plan fails. I'll be posting in the main section when it comes out.

I don't want to imply that I think that you should reconsider your plan, but I have a couple of questions–

• Will you catch the rendered grease in a pan in the warming drawer?
• Wouldn't you get the same "complete smoke coverage" by placing the turkey on the zone four grate?

This old thread addressed it too.

Paul,

That's it exactly.

Thanks, I didn't know that thread was here.

Yes, our members have a wealth of knowledge that they generously share.  Just use the search feature and you can find all sorts of great info.

Kristin,

I thought I had searched here before prior to wandering around the Internet.

I definitely try here first as AFAIK, there isn't any other site that comes close to the knowledge base here.

Figuring I must have had a senior moment, I just tried searching for spatchcock again, and the only four results I got were for this thread.

Perhaps my browser/computer is causing problems (in addition to my personal whoopses)....

I went and looked at Paul's thread and I think it didn't pick it up because he said "spatchcocked" instead of "spatchcock".  Paul, do you feel like adding to your thread's title to just put the word "spatchcock" in someplace so searches pick it up?  Thanks for the headsup W6YJ, maybe we can improve this.

That shouldn't be necessary, Kristin.

The search with the keyword spatchcock will produce a hit on spatchcocked in the same way that you'll get a hit when your search word is part of a larger word (i.e., press will return pressure).

At least, that's how my searches work.

Looking good.