Orion Turkey
 

So I have had this Orion Cooker a for a while and all I have used it for is ribs a few times and they taste ok but nothing compared to off a pellet grill or a Weber kettle, but it will do 3 slabs of ribs in 90 minutes (in the summer).

Now I have always heard how great a turkey is from an Orion and had to give it a try. Started out by putting the 10 lb. turkey in Mad Hunky Poultry Brine that was planned to be an 8 hour brine but North Dakota weather switched my plans and it ended up being a 32 hour brine.

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Now here is the turkey on the Orion poultry stand rubbed with Simply Marvelous Season All.

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The Orion Cooker is designed to add smoke taste if you choose to add wood chips around the drip pan, instead I thought I would try 2 hand fulls of pecan pellets.

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Here is the turkey loaded in the Orion.

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Here is the Orion with the coals lit.

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Orion cooks by time, not temp; and Orion suggest 7 minutes per pound for turkey. Well, North Dakota winter temps seemed to not work well with Orion's directions cause at 70 minutes this turkey needed more cooking time. Ended up going an hour 45 minutes which still is not that bad to cook a turkey in freezing temps! Here is the turkey when I pulled it.

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Check out the juices!

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Turkey, dressing and mixed veggies!

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I really like this turkey; great taste, the brine and seasoning made it moist and delicious... and most surprising was the smoke flavor, it really had a deep pecan smoke flavor. I like the Orion for cook time and flavor, but I will say with this style of cooking the turkey skin was terrible.

Thanks for looking!

Looks great, sounds like you got pretty close to what you wanted. Certainly looks juicey enough!

Looks good from here!

I find turkey skin is usually terrible so I think you did just fine!

I've always kinda wondered about the Orions seeing them at bass pro.

Looks like it did a great job!!

Looks great!

And here I thought you were saying that your Orion was a turkey. Looks like it does a good job on gobblers.

Looks fantastic! Love the color, and it certainly looks juicy enough. Great job! :thumb:

The Orion is a fun toy for sure ! Great looking turkey, dripping with moistness

I've wondered how those cookers work. Great looking bird Marty, your whole meal looks tasty. Wish I lived closer. lol

Love my Orion!! Looks like you nailed that bird too!!!

I had an Orion, even competed with it a few times as a rib cooker. Got a 2nd at the MD State BBQ Bash tailgate division. Have since sold it and got a WSM 22.5. The WSM gives more of a smoke flavor, but the Orion is awesome for what it is. Kinda wish I still had it.

I thought strongly about buying one a couple of years ago when HD was carrying them. Then I thought about the flame height and my golden retrievers wagging their tails around it.

They still look like they would be fun to try.

Nice looking bird. I actually just bought one of these at an estate sale. I figured if I didn't like the way it cooks the poultry rack/hook was worth what I paid for it.