Apple-brined, apple wood smoked Thanksgiving Turkey

This year I decided I wanted to do the Thanksgiving turkey on the grill. I have tried other methods that were still relatively safe...brined and oven roasted; in a roasting bag or not...etc. But other than deep frying the bird, which from a logistics and safety perspective doesn't really interest me, roasting the turkey on the grill had sufficient risk to make it interesting and had the most potential for being extremely tasty. Said risk was a concern that Gigi had especially because we were bringing the only turkey to a gathering of nearly 20 people.

The preparation was actually very simple. I got the recipe from a Weber newsletter that I get. It is a apple juice brined and apple wood smoked turkey with gravy.

Most of what I needed was typical for any Thanksgiving preparation except for a few items:

The apple wood purchased at one of my favorite stores, the Kansas City BBQ Store.



While I was there I found these food gloves that Isaac is trying on for me. Halfway through the cooking I was going to have to flip the bird (snicker) and really need something that would work well for that. These were perfect! I also found brining bags large enough for the turkey.


As so often happens, I always forget to take the pictures at the right time. This is after the turkey has been flipped so you can't see the beautiful color on the bottom. Man, it smelled so good!


Here, however, you can see the color that developed with the apple wood smoke after time on the other side. It is gorgeous!


After I pulled it off the fire, I bundled it up and took it to our friend's house, giving it time to rest, and then carved it.



Here is what was left. Barely anything! Everyone really liked the flavor. It really managed to permeate throughout the whole bird.

Grill Anything is back for Thanksgiving!

So while haven't been diligent in blogging about the grilling, the grilling has continued. Sometimes it is just so danged hard to find the time. And I still continue to grill anything. Earlier last summer I did some Ahi tuna steaks. I've done some BBQ chicken quarters and of course plenty of hot dogs, burgers, chicken breasts, etc.

Tomorrow's Grill Anything item might be the doozy thus far. Note the date? I will be roasting our Thanksgiving bird on the grill! My wife has her reservations. She asked me if anyone else was bringing turkey to the dinner tomorrow. So little faith! It's going to turn out fantastic! I got the recipe from the Weber newsletter. It is an apple-brined turkey roasted with apple wood chunks for extra flavor! Really looking forward to it.

I've got the bird in the brine already. It calls for 18-24 hours of brining. I will tell you, I will never cook another turkey without brining. It is the best thing. We've brined our T-birds for at least 4 or 5 years now and there is no comparison. It's as good or better than the deep fried bird and 100 times safer.

The brine called for apple juice, kosher salt, sage, rosemary, thyme, and pepper. I wasn't sure exactly what to brine it in. In the past I have been able to use one of the kids' plastic toy bins (yes, it's true), but didn't have one this year. So, when I went to the store to get the wood chunks, I found these huge brining bags--10 for $3.99. A fantastic bargin. I also picked up some food handling gloves so I could pick up the turkey and flip it during cooking.

Everything is ready for tomorrow! Additional items to cook: 8 lbs of mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, and taffy apple salad.

Mother's Day Dinner - Entirely On the Grill

Fortunately, the new grill came just in time for Mother's Day. I could really put the grill to the test with Gigi's favorite meal? But what would she choose? Steak? Chicken? How about both in the form of fajitas! So, the menu consisted of:

• Steak and chicken fajitas with peppers and onions
• Spanish rice (from a bag)
• Lemonade (nothing fancy, just the concentrate)

The recipe we have for the marinade for the chicken is pretty incredible. Lime juice, olive oil, crushed red pepper, garlic, salt. Wow! It ends up muy rico! It was my determination, however, to fix as much as possible of the meal on the grill. Thanks to some great cast iron ware I have, it was easy.

Using a heavy duty freezer bag makes for easy marinating.

Man, that's some pretty looking skirt steak!

Vanna shows off the coals.

I cooked the rice in the dutch oven. I had to add some extra water as the water was evaporating pretty quickly in the oven. Doing it again I would just pull the oven off after the water boiled and let the rice cook by the residual heat.

I prepped the peppers and onions with some oregano, olive oil, and kosher salt, sauteing them in a heated cast iron pan.

Here is a sideways picture of the chicken.

I really like this pictured because of the bright colors of the meat and the veggies. Just looks pretty!

The foil packets are the flour tortillas warming up!

In retrospect, I would have marinated the steak a bit longer, added a few more briquettes to get the fire a bit hotter, and would have left it on just a tad longer. It was still pretty tasty.

Here is the family enjoying Mother's Day dinner outside. I enjoyed my fajitas with a few cubes of fresh avocado. There were very little leftovers--which is great and a bit of a shame!

What's next? Can't wait to find out!

First Run

Tuesday, May 5, 2009 was the day--about 3:30pm when the truck arrived. I saw the truck drive by the house first. I ran outside and stood by the street. I adjusted the crooked license plate on my car as to not look too eager. Too late. The truck pulled up and the guys rolled up the door on the back. There is was! The Weber Performer. The guys hauled it out (carefully, please), and set it in front of the garage. One of them struck up a conversation.

"Hey, that's a pretty nice grill, there."

"Yeah. My dad got it for me for Father's Day."

"Is it charcol or gas?"

"Charcol. But it has a propane ignition system that lights the briquettes!"

"That's pretty sweet!"

"Yeah. Yeah, it is."

They were actually impressed. And so was I. I opened up the garage and busted out the tools.

The box was huge! Isaac wasted no time calling dibs on the box; I hadn't even got it open yet.

I was so excited about getting it put together that I forgot to take some pictures of the process! Here's the finished product. The blue turned out to be a nice choice. Classic black is nice, but common. It comes in green also, but my dad had that color. I needed it to be different--unique!

Again, I was so excited to get the thing fired up that I didn't take any pictures until after the whole experience was over! Since it was a Tuesday night we did burgers and chicken--something easy.

I tried out the briquette holders that can be used for both indirect and direct heat. I think I prefer to just push the coals around to where I want them--although it is extremely convenient and less risk of burning myself. I filled them up and placed them over the ignitor. I then turned the propane on and pushed the ignitor. Pop! and it was on it's way! Talk about easy and the coals were lit lickety-split!

Here is the grill after first use.

Here is the left over grilled chicken. Just seasoned with salt and pepper. Very tender!

Here is the remaining burger. Delish!

In all, it was a great inaugural run. I was glad we had tried it out right away. Now I had to plan Mother's Day dinner. I resolved to cook then entire meal on the grill. But what to have?

The Beginning

I've always been a fan of outdoor cooking ever since I started helping my father grill growing up in the Chicago suburbs. Hot fires and lots of chicken, steaks, bratwurst, burgers, and dogs were ever present at birthdays, Mother's Day, Father's Day, 4th of July--any excuse for a party.

When my wife and I were married and living in married student house at college where large grills were not allowed, we had a Weber Smokey Joe and grilled whenever we could, including when there was snow on the ground. Nothing like fire and ice!

When we moved from school back Illinois and into a home where we could have a larger grill, I was lucky enough to have a brother-in-law hand his Weber charcol kettle grill down to us, saving us on some expense, and enabling us to continue the outdoor cooking for our growing family.

This wonderful Weber served us well for five years in that home and followed us to Kansas City where we moved for a job. Suddenly, we were exposed to a whole other side of outdoor cooking--barbeque. Our first lesson was learning that barbeque does not mean sauce. It's the way that you cook it and that Weber grill learned new lessons in smoking!

Alas, the Weber grill had been through much. It had toiled well for us and unfortunately, I never did take the best care of it and so heat, water, and rust had it's way with it and it was retired. I figured it was okay since we were going to buy a Weber to replace it. Well, at the time, finances didn't allow and so the summer slipped away without a new grill. My wife would talk of buying me a new grill for Father's Day, but I would always feel a little guilty because there was always something more important to spend the money on. So, another year slipped away.

Now, facing another summer grill-less I was bummed, but took to cooking on my cast iron grill on my stove in the house. It was an acceptable substitution, but still not the same. I didn't get that charcol smell on me after cooking. And while the stove top grilling did produce copious amounts of dramatic smoke, it really isn't quite as enjoyable when it is billowing through the house. But this was all to come to a happy end just a few weeks ago when my father phoned me from Illinois and offered me a combined Father's Day, birthday, Christmas, etc. gift.

He reminded me of my covetous reaction to the new grill that he had purchased just a couple of years before. It was a beautiful Weber Performer. He had had it assembled for an entire summer and hadn't even used it yet. Needless to say I was mortified and quickly planned a meal requiring the need of said grill. I loved it! The propane ignition system, the table space, the lid holder. It was blissful. And I had to leave it behind in Illinois as we traveled back to Kansas City. Anyway, he reminded me of how much I liked that grill and offered to purchase one for me.

Now, I know how expensive that particular model was, but who was I to deny my father the satisfaction of giving me about the best gift I've ever received! So, I accepted. He purchased it that same weekend and had it shipped to me. Oh, it seemed an eternity--waiting for that new gift. Still, it did arrive sooner than I expected and with a grill cover that my dad threw in for protecting the investment. Oh, the joy!

Taking the time to put it together was relaxing and a couple of my boys helped me out. It was a beauty! I picked the blue color for the kettle found it a satisfying alternative to the black or green.

That very night I created this blog so that I could start recording my journey with this new grill. It has already pleased us with wonderful results that you will read in other posts. I am looking forward to a long and satisfying relationship. Grill anything!