Green Egg Gobble Gobble

Are you sick of your parents' traditional overcooked turkey? Do you want to give your turkey day a little boost? Something your relatives will go home talking about?  Do you want to do it without the risk of burning down your house as could happen when you fry your turkey in peanut oil? Your solution is Green Egg Gobble Gobble otherwise known as a Smoked Turkey on the Big Green Egg.

This was my third year smoking a turkey on the Green Egg and every year gets better. The key is managing your temperature, proper use of foil, and damn hot bloody marys.

For a little background, every year my in-laws have an awesome Thanksgiving potluck feast. Relatives from all over the mid-south and even a few from Louisiana descend on their house for turkey, gravy, dressing (my wife tells me I am not allowed to call it stuffing, it must be a southern thing), mashed potatoes, sweet potato pie, her Aunt's famous potato pumpkin casserole, my wife's turnip greens, somebody's deviled eggs (which are always the first to go), and my personal favorite—my Mother-in-law's macaroni and cheese. I am a bit of a connoisseur of mac and cheese and hers can't be beat. It really is the cheesiest. 

Now that I have joined the family, we have added a few Yankees into the mix. My parents, who recently moved from Wisconsin to California, have been coming for the last couple years and this year my brother drove in from Columbia, South Carolina. My mom has added her famous spinach soufflé into the mix, which is basically a spinach and cheese casserole. Have I ever mentioned how much I love cheese? Anyway, it is a tremendous day.

Plus, this year there are also three more new faces in the family: Izzy, Willa, and Riley. All born within the last year and excited for their first Thanksgiving. Surely, they can at least get to eat the sweet potatoes.

Okay, now for the turkey. I am not sure if this is a North vs. South thing, or just family differences, but the main difference between the Thanksgivings I remember growing up and the Abernathys' Thanksgiving is the timing. Up North, we had ours at about 4 p.m. We spent the day watching football, while my mom slaved away in the kitchen and then ate in the early evening. Here in Memphis, everybody shows up at about 11 and we eat shortly after noon. Then we take a nice afternoon nap in front of the TV watching football, while my wife and mother-in-law slave away cleaning.

So how does this affect the turkey—it means I have to get up at 4:30 a.m. to start cooking. The night before cooking, I brined the turkey, which helps keep the turkey moist through the cooking process. Brining technically is soaking meat in salt water. However, I made my brine with 1/2 gallon of apple cider, salt, cinnamon sticks, cloves, anise, brown sugar, and soy sauce. The recipe was slightly adjusted from a recent issue of Bon Appetit. I basically brought all those ingredients to a boil and then let them cool. I then added enough water to completely submerge the turkey in a brining bag (about 1.5 gallons). I let all this sit in a cooler over night.


With my brother in town, I didn't really get to bed until 1 a.m. So, the 4:30 a.m. wake-up call didn't come easy. In fact, I really don't think I got out of bed until closer to 5.  I then had a lot to do in order to get the turkey off at 10 a.m. and be at my in-laws by 11:30.

First, I got the grill going. My goal was to maintain the grill at 325 degrees. Getting the grill going was quite easy this year,  since there were still warm coals from the pork loin I had grilled the night before. The issue is that I hadn't cleaned out the grill from the night before. That meant there was a lot of ash left in the grill and it  would be difficult to get the temperature to the right heat.



After I got the grill going, I took the turkey out of the brine and dried it off with paper towels. I then put a Ziplock full of ice over the breast. According to Mad Max on the website Naked Whiz, this will lower the temperature of the breasts and allow them to cook more evenly with the thighs. I kept the ice on while I prepared the rest of the ingredients for the turkey.

First, I cut some carrots, celery, and onions in half and put them in the bottom of the doubled aluminum roasting pan. I then put a v-rack on over the vegetables in the pan. I rubbed the inside of the turkey, which was just over 15 pounds, with salt and pepper and stuffed it with apples and fresh sage and thyme. I rubbed the outside of the turkey with some olive oil and salt and pepper. It was now ready to go on.

The temperature of the grill seemed pretty good at 400 degrees, since I knew it would cool down once I added the wood and the turkey. I used chunks of apple wood, which had been soaked overnight. I like apple wood, because it is not overpowering like hickory or mesquite.

I used the Green Egg's place setter, which allowed me to cook the turkey with indirect heat.  On the place setter I put a couple foil pie pans. Then I put the turkey pan on top of those. This gave me a little space between the place setter and the pans. In the past, I had had trouble with everything in the roasting pan getting charred.

I was able to manage the temperature with my remote control Green Egg thermometer. It is able to read both the temperature of the meat and the temperature of the grill. Theoretically, I should be able to bring this inside and read the temperature from there. However, the wireless capabilities do not work very well at all. This was too expensive for something that doesn't work right (over $70), so don't buy one. I put the temperature at the height of the foil pan. This allowed me to get the temperature closer to the bird than the built-in one on the grill.

I didn't end up getting the bird on until 6:20, which was 20 minutes later than I had  hoped. Plus, after putting the bird in, I couldn't get the temperature back up to 325 for almost the first hour. I had a feeling, I would be a bit late.

While the bird was cooking, I started to make a stock for the gravy. I put left over onion, carrot, celery, apple, sage, and thyme into a pot and filled it with water. I then added the turkey neck and what I believe was the liver that were inside the bird when I bought it. I let this simmer while smoking the bird.

I checked on the bird every thirty minutes—at which time, I would baste the juices back over the bird. When the wings and legs started getting dark, I wrapped them in foil. I ended up wrapping the whole bird for the last hour. I also poured a cup of cider over the bird at 2 hrs and 4 hrs.

1 hour

2 hours

I had hoped to take the bird off at 10 a.m.. However, at that point the inside of the bird was only 130 degrees. I planned to take the bird off at 165, so I was in a bit of trouble. Thus, I raised the temperature to about 400 for the rest of the cook. I ended up not taking the bird off until 11:30. I immediately put the turkey in another pan and gave it to my parents to take over to my in-laws and start slicing, while I stayed home to finish the gravy.

4 hours

Now for the gravy. The first thing I did was melt a stick of butter in a pan on the stove. I then added a cup of flour to the butter and stirred it until fairly smooth. I then added three cups of the stock I was simmering on the stove. I whisked this until the chunks were out.

I poured all the juices that were in the pan from the bird into a cup. I was honestly hoping for more juices. However, the gravy would recover. I put this in the fridge. I was hoping that the fat would separate and I could skim it off. In reality, since there was so little liquid, there really wasn't much to skim off.

I put the roasting pan on the burner of my stove and deglazed it with 1/2 a cup of bourbon. I used my favorite bourbon,  Eagle Rare. I probably should have used something cheaper, but I didn't have anything else. I added this liquid to the juices from the turkey.  I then strained this into the stock and flour mixture on the stove and whisked it all together.

The final step:  I then took the neck and the liver from the stock and chopped them into tiny pieces. I added this to the gravy, mixed it together, poured it in a jar, and sped over to my in-laws. It was about 12:30 and my step-father had just finished slicing the turkey. Perfect!

I think this was the biggest spread I have ever seen for Thanksgiving.  Since there were about 40 people there, I think we needed it. There was a counter full of dressings and mashed potatoes and the island had about 15 casseroles, turkey, and deviled eggs. Then in another room there was a table full of cakes and pies for dessert.




Everything was delicious, but I have to say my turkey was awesome. It was moist and smoky and everyone seemed to love it. I couldn't ask for a better day.

Oh and the best part . . . the part that I dream about all night long. The leftovers' sammy. First, I toasted some whole wheat bread. Second, I layered on the turkey, dressing, mashed toes, gravy, and cranberry sauce. I then pressed the sandwich together, so it sticks. Then I wrap it in foil and stick it in the toaster oven to warm up. I almost came to tears while eating it.

OUTAKES

Todd (step-father), Tripp (brother), and myself with Molly and her cousin Teddy playing in the background

Tripp and I hanging with our mother.

Molly and Teddy fighting over the firewood.

The Abernathys: my awesome in-laws who somehow put up with me and my family every year. By the way, Willa is on the left and Riley on the right!