Help with a beer can turkey

[Qpit]

I don't think my bird is going to fit in my Okie Joe. Does anyone see any problem with me removing the smoker grates and resting the bird on the baffle plate? I have the modded baffle plate from bbqsmokermods.com if that helps.
I bought a beer can stand from Amazon that catches drippings and my bird is 12.75 lbs. I don't think I have the headroom to stand it up.
I appreciate any help or opinion I can get on this.
I have a butt on the smoker right now but if pictures would help I'm willing to pop her open.
Thanks again

 

[Stingerhook]

Do you have enough room for spatchcock?

 

[Qpit]

I do and I was looking at spatchcock videos but I had smoked a beer can chicken last week and it turned out so juicy that the family was raving about it. They all have their heart set on a beer can turkey lol
Worse case I'm just going to throw the bird on there but hoping we can use the beer can route to not disappoint. Maybe this will give you an idea with how much headroom I have. This is what I'm working on at the moment.

 

[Stingerhook]

Spatching will give you a lot more even cook than the other methods.

 

[Nuco59]

IMO, Thanksgiving is not really the time to try something new and trying to make a cooker setup work. Spatchcock - and THEN separate the leg quarters so you can cook it all to the perfect temperature would be my play. The beer can thing has always been sort of shady and iffy to me. Has lots of fans - and lots of detractors. Good luck.

 

[Twangzer Mike]

If you have the bird already, set it on the baffle just to see then approximate the beer van device.

 

[4ever3]

Beer can poultry of any kind is a myth.

Beer-can Chicken: A Thermal Exploration

Do you realize it’s been over 25 years since beer-can chicken entered the American culinary lexicon? For more than two decades, people have been cooking this intriguing dish for parties and cookouts and even competitions. It is an undeniably fun way to cook a chicken, but we wondered: is it a...

blog.thermoworks.com

Spatchcock and cook it to perfection!