It's all over but the burping :-D

Well... After all of the planning, shopping, prepping and cooking Thanksgiving dinner is history. Everyone is sitting around in food coma, moaning. I think it was a success :becky:

We only had 6 people this year, so I kept it simple and only made turkey for the protein plus a few sides. I bought a 14 lb. fresh turkey and put it into a brine yesterday afternoon. At about 9:00 this morning I took it out of the brine, rinsed it and dried it and then covered it with foil and put it into the walk in cooler (AKA, the back porch at 34 degrees) to dry and rest.



I fired up the Egg at 10:30 and got it stabilized at 325. Then I took some garlic-herb butter that I made the night before and use a zip bag as a big piping bag and forced the butter under the skin on the breast and then rubbed the legs, thighs and breast on the outside with the butter. I also stuffed the cavity with onions, carrots, celery, orange, lemon and a bunch of fresh herbs. The same mix of veggies and herbs went into the bottom of the pan along with half a bottle of wine and some chicken stock. Then the bird got a nice rubbing of Yardbird.



Then I remembered that I wanted to ice the breast...



When i removed the ice I just touched up the rub where some stuck to the plastic bag. It went into the Egg at around noon.

Here it is about two hours later...



The skin pulled back on the breast where I loosened it and the skin was getting a little dark so I tented the beast with some foil.

After about 4 1/2 hours it was done so I brought it in to rest...



After about 30 minutes rest under a foil tent I carved it...



We served it with our traditional sides...


Green Bean Casserole


Dressing


Twice Baked potato.

We also had Casserole, cranberry sauce, crescent rolls and home made gravy made with turkey stock I made with the neck, innards and extra fat from the bird mixed with the pan juices (after defatting).

Here's my plate...




We also did a toast before eating. We had a bottle of Sweet Lucy's liquer that we were given at a BBQ competition. It was a small bottle :-D but we each got a little.




I'm stuffed!

Huh? What's that? Punkin pie? Gotta go! :becky:

Happy Thanksgiving Brothers and Sisters!

Buster Dog BBQ said:

Nice spread Ron. Really wanted to use my egg but a little too windy. Fec worked fine.

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It was pretty windy here, too, but the yard was sheltered so I had no issues with temp control on the Egg. The FEC is still in the trailer from it's trip to the Plowboy/Butcher BBQ class and I didn't feel like dragging it out :-D

Black Dog BBQ said:

Ron, tell me about icing the breast. Please school this ignorant new guy!

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Icing the breast keeps it colder than the rest of the turkey. the theory is that since the breast cooks faster, if it starts out colder it will be done at about the same time as the dark meat. It works well.

MushCreek said:

When I put butter under the breast skin, I stick a small skewer through the skin and the meat to prevent the skin from pulling back like that. Looks like a great dinner was had by all!

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I thought about that, but then the thought got lost somewhere in the prepping and planning :-D