I do mine on the barbecue. I use a charcoal grill, indirect heat, and a drip pan. I cook it until it is almost done, then smoke the hell out of it the final 30 minutes or so. The gravy made from hickory smoked drippings is AMAZING!

How do you do your bird?

pre-heat oven to 500 degrees, put completely thawed turkey in aluminum pan, put turkey in oven, 3 hrs or so later when correct temp on meat thermometer remove delicious, juicy, golden brown properly baked turkey....none of that slow cook them until you could start a fire with them they are so dry junk!!!


Mike

First thing in the morning put turkey in the oven overcook until it takes a glass of milk to swallow each bite. Throw turkey out and cook prime rib.

My wife has used an oven bag for years now.
It cooks it quicker, and keeps the moisture in.

I coat it with olive oil, sprinkle it with salt, pepper and other spices then slow roast it in the oven at 325* until done. I get some deer hunting in while it's cookin'. I make gravy with the drippings. Now I'm hungry! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

Bob

Brined, lightly stuffed with herbs, garlic, onions, carrots and celery, then in the oven.

Home made gravy, garlic mashed potatoes, steamed carrots with white wine butter sauce, curried cranberry chutney..

Pumpkin pie for desert..

Sierra Nevada Celebration ales and lots of football.

Fry it in peanut oil.

This. Deep fried in a stainless gas heated pot. Best way I've found for juicy deliciousness (Technical term).

One of the best I've done was a diestel turkey on the weber with grape vine cuttings.. Big bird, took all day, but was amazing.

Hutterite turkeys up here are just as good, IMO..

Deep fry. Once of these years I'd like try smoking.

Wife and I are both 48 years old and never have cooked a turkey.

Generally we are deer hunting that day anyway and have sandwhiches, and now and then have to make an appearance at a family shindig, but try like hell not to have to....

Sandwiches have worked just fine over the years.

Roasted with sourdough sausage stuffing.

Usually brined then on the smoker grill. I hickory smoke for the first hour or so. Indirect heat and charcoal.
This years we have two boneless turkey breasts. No brining this year. Just smoke grill.

Ernie

how do i cook a turkey? The obvious answer, get the wife in the kitchen.

That's just plain weird.

An hour or so of smoke and then into the oven.

+1, never had a bad one!

Oil-less turkey fryer. No oil crisp brown skin and super moist

turkey cooking is women's work, while the men are out hunting. least wise thats how it works here.

Yeah, you have seasons open there... We dont.

Don't cook, just eat.

Gunner

well in all honesty i probably won't go deer hunting in the morning like i had planned on doing.my brother invited a couple of our cousins to go hunting and i can't stand to be around either one of them, so unless i decide to go blast ducks, i might just hang around here and help the women folk.

I Brine overnight:

Ingredients
1 (14 to 16 pound) frozen young turkey

For the brine:
1 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 gallon vegetable stock
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1 1/2 teaspoons allspice berries
1 1/2 teaspoons chopped candied ginger
1 gallon heavily iced water

For the aromatics:
1 red apple, sliced
1/2 onion, sliced
1 cinnamon stick
1 cup water
4 sprigs rosemary
6 leaves sage
Canola oil

Directions


Click here to see how it's done.

2 to 3 days before roasting:

Begin thawing the turkey in the refrigerator or in a cooler kept at 38 degrees F.

Combine the vegetable stock, salt, brown sugar, peppercorns, allspice berries, and candied ginger in a large stockpot over medium-high heat. Stir occasionally to dissolve solids and bring to a boil. Then remove the brine from the heat, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate.

Early on the day or the night before you'd like to eat:

Combine the brine, water and ice in the 5-gallon bucket. Place the thawed turkey (with innards removed) breast side down in brine. If necessary, weigh down the bird to ensure it is fully immersed, cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area for 8 to 16 hours, turning the bird once half way through brining.

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. Remove the bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard the brine.

Place the bird on roasting rack inside a half sheet pan and pat dry with paper towels.

Combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick, and 1 cup of water in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes. Add steeped aromatics to the turkey's cavity along with the rosemary and sage. Tuck the wings underneath the bird and coat the skin liberally with canola oil.

Roast the turkey on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees F for 30 minutes. Insert a probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Set the thermometer alarm (if available) to 161 degrees F. A 14 to 16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours of roasting. Let the turkey rest, loosely covered with foil or a large mixing bowl for 15 minutes before carving

Brined, Then


Deep fry
Smoked
Oven roasted
Depends what we feel like having, usually 2 out of 3

Extend left hand out the drivers window, make a fist, turn it upside down, then extend the central digit.

For my very favorite turkey recipe, start with 20 gallons of high octane unleaded fuel, 2 large cans of "whup ass", and a 6 pack of diet cola on ice. Pour the gas into my truck, drive to my sister's house, open the "whup ass" on my niece and nephew, and my sister will pay me back in the best turkey dinner you can imagine. The 6 pack of diet cola is to keep me awake on the drive home. (The ice is to keep the leftovers cold, of course.)

Tom

Fried in peanut oil, 400� for about 3.5 minutes per pound. I first coat with some Tony Chachere.

First you get Turkey Drunk with a good white wine rub with seasonal, white pepper, liberally pour a glass of white wine into gut cavity place in roasting pan, cover with seran wrap with a tent of aluminum foil place in oven at 350 degrees and cook for about 20 minites per pound or until temp is about 160 degrees. Make gravy with drippings and giblets some kind of eating.

I have done a bunch of different ways - baked (bag and no bag), smoked, fried, etc. Lately we have been buying the smoked turkey breasts from HEB (TX grocery chain, not sure if they are anywhere else) - just easier and they are very good!



I would love to hear more! I have fried a bunch of turkeys - love 'em but tired of the mess and the amount of oil needed. So I've thought about trying one of these "fryers". How does it compare to a true fried turkey?

I don't know if I told you, but I put a small (12 lb) turkey in the Smoke Hollow earlier this week, had it coated pretty heavy with my own rub and it turned out good. I went back and picked up two more of the .27/lb small birds, one for the freezer and one for tomorrow.

I have #2 out on the front porch soaking in a brine/crab boil mix and will put in in the smoker tomorrow morning.

Over the edge weird.

We always have ham instead.

Why? Managed to get out of it on Thursday as the family is eating too late.

We prefer to enjoy the outdoors for a long weekend when that weekend is offered.

Pretty simply just a different take on it.

And FWIW I've not had to feel over stuffed, wanting a nap and to lay around like the family gatherings we used to go to years ago. Feel a lot better with a sandwich or burger or such.
Never really cared for baked or fried turkey anyway, like it much better as smoked sandwich meat or turkey salad.

FWIW we do the routine for Christmas though. Same old thing, Turkey, and eat till you are stuffed and lay around. Though I don't eat much and hate the laying around. Wife can't stand it either, we generally scoot as quick as we can. 3-4 hours of visiting and a meal is more than enough.

I've tried em a bunch of ways, but prefer to smoke em in the barrel. I watched Alton Brown do a turkey the other night. He spatchcocked it, dry brined it (rub) and put it in the fridge for four days. They cook quicker when cut in half so retain moisture. Looked really great. We always buy an extra bird since they are so cheap.

I like to invite my friends over for deep fried turkey. I like to let them put the frozen bird in the oil and take videos from a safe distance.

hickory in the firepit....

Inject the bird, rub with Pork Pullin' Plowboys' Yardbird rub, smoke at 275-325 degrees with cherry and hickory wood till done, normally about 3-5hrs depending on turkey size and what else is in the pit.

usually brined, and usually BBQ D . Pretty simple stuff. If your bird is always dry I suspect your just a crappy cook in general......

Good luck tomorrow, Rost. I hope you get a biggun, and your wife gets a monster.

I hunt. Wife cooks a feast.

Tomorrow, I hunt, eat TG dinner, watch Cboys kick raiders butts, or hunt more with the transistor and earbuds.

Brined, seasoned with S&P, and covered in a cheese cloth soaked in butter and white wine. Herbs and citrus in the cavity.

Baste with the butter/wine sauce while roasting.

Hard to go wrong.

Brined, roast in oven with lite stuffing.

Popeye's.

I'll be at work tomorrow so we won't be partaking.
I bought one of the Oil-less fryers this summer. We LOVE it. Wife and I rodeo a lot during the summer and usually do one big meal every weekend. The oil-less is so much less of a hassle. (I hated having a boiling vat of oil around with 5 horses, 2 cattle dogs, friends, and random people who "want to see the horses") The birds are every bit as good as oil fried. We have also done pork loins, beef tenderloins, deer hind quarters, burgers, wings, various sausages on the racks my buddy fabbed up for me. Can cook 10 pounds of baked taters darn quick too.

We're doing a Cajin rub this year. Roasted on a bed of mirepoix, stuffed with apples, jalape�os, garlic, etc. tie it up and roast.

We also like Deep Fried, just doing it different this year.

Injected with butter and liberal amounts of Tonys, then covered in a paste of mustard, Tonys, and Louisiana hit sauce. Deep fried.

I've been doing this for about 7 years and have developed a small neighborhood fan club. I'm doing 2 this year for me and 8 contracted out. I enjoy doing it. And all I charge is 2 gallons of oil for each bird so I have enough fresh oil left over to fry my fish throughout the year.

We remove the wings and legs, then bone out the breasts leaving them connected via the skin. Inside of each breast is seasoned with Lawry's seasoned salt, pepper,garlic, and butter pats.

Breasts are made into a roll covered by skin and tied with butcher string.

Breast roll is placed on the grill and cooked for 3-4hours, basting after each turn
with an oil, butter, beer mix. Red oak is the wood used.

Wings, thighs, and drumsticks are put on the grill about an hour before the breasts are done.

Interesting. ..could you share some pictures of this?

Don't have any pics currently but will take some the next time that we do this.

It is easier to do than I described, pictures will be better than more words!

Happy Thanksgiving and God's grace to everyone.

Any day other than Thanksgiving, it's on the grill's rotisserie, indirect fire at 310-320 degrees.

Thanksgiving this year I got to try out the "Perfect Turkey" setting on the Electrolux range. And it did come out as close to perfect as is possible in an oven.. Breast-side down on a large V-rack in a non-stick roasting pan. Stuffed, salt/peppered all around and gravy made from the drippings.

The probe from the oven reads the temp there - once it hits 180 degrees (at the thigh) it shuts the oven down to 'warming' all on it's own.. Pretty sweet..

Brined , roasted in the oven.
This year I added a couple lemon halves between the skin and breast meat .
If I try that again I'll make a foil bikini top to keep the skin from getting over tanned .

The wife and our moms got a good laugh out of it though ....

I prefer my Turkey chilled.

Yesterday. "What time are we supposed to be at your sisters?"
"Ok."

I buy my turkeys in Maine. They are cheaper and come with those little plastic pop-up deals that tell you when it's done. I don't leave them in a moment longer when that thing pops. Leave the bird stand for a couple hrs before carving. They are always perfect.