By Steven Biggs
BBQ a Turkey
Our kitchen is a busy place around Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. There’s family, guests, and lots of food prep underway.
But we cook our turkey outdoors, roasting it on our charcoal BBQ.
We barbecue a whole turkey outdoors for our Thanksgiving and Christmas meals. It frees up space in the oven. It’s also a social thing – Dad and me outside, tending the BBQ. And, most importantly, it makes for a very delicious turkey.
If you’re new to roasting a whole turkey – or new to charcoal cooking, it might seem daunting. But it’s not difficult.
I show you the steps of our outdoor turkey-roasting process below.
Rinse the Turkey?
Mom taught me to put the turkey in the sink and rinse it, both inside and out. This is a step some people swear by – while others recommend skipping it.
The rationale for not rinsing is that rinsing can spread around microbes from the raw poultry – increasing the chance of contaminating other food. (That’s also what the Turkey Farmers of Canada recommends.)
So I skip rinsing. Sorry Mom!
Prepare the Cavity
We cook our Thanksgiving turkey outdoors, roasting it on a charcoal BBQ.
Some turkeys come with the giblets placed inside the cavity. (Giblets are the liver, heart, gizzard, and neck.)
Put your hand in and feel around for the giblets. Sometimes they’re wrapped in plastic…and you definitely don’t want that roasting away inside your turkey. I’ve sometimes found the neck in the cavity, and the liver under the flap of skin where the neck used to be…so check both these places.
After I’ve retrieved the giblets, I rub salt around the inside of the cavity.
Make a Rich Gravy with the Giblets
My father-in-law loves fried giblets. It’s a treat for him while the turkey is cooking. Nobody in my house likes to eat the giblets – but that doesn’t mean I let them go to waste. I put the giblets into a saucepan with water, and simmer them to make a flavourful stock. I usually simmer the giblets with bay leaves, an onion, garlic, celery, and parsley. After it’s reduced by about half, I discard the giblets, and use the stock to make gravy.
Whether to Stuff Your Charcoal BBQ Rotisserie Turkey
I put bay leaves, rosemary, parsley, thyme, an onion, garlic cloves, and celery into the cavity.
I don’t stuff rotisserie turkey. It’s easier to cook stuffing separately, in the oven. I’ve had too many episodes of escaping stuffing.
While I don’t cook my bread stuffing in the bird, I do put things inside the turkey to give a nice flavour as it cooks. Here are things that I put in the cavity while it cooks:
Bay leaves (or, lemon leaves)
The squeezed out lemon halves (from the lemon I use for basting, see below)
Parsley
Sprig of thyme
Sprig of rosemary
Onion, halved
Garlic cloves
Stalk of celery
Flavour the Skin
I make up a rub that I put on the skin before cooking. As the bird turns, it bastes itself.
I make up a rub that I put on the skin before cooking. As the bird turns, it bastes itself.
I mix together:
Lemon zest
Soft butter
Generous amount of salt
Copious amount of crushed garlic
Black pepper
Thyme
I know a lot of people like sage. I have overdone it with the sage too many times – and it’s a strong flavour. I skip the sage.
Mount the Turkey on the Spit
Mount the turkey on the spit so that the weight is balanced. Try turning the spit with your hands; it should rotate a couple of times, not just flop down because one side is more heavy than the other.
It doesn’t have to be perfect – but balanced enough so that the motor isn’t strained from turning a lopsided roast. You don’t want that motor to burn out while you’re cooking!
Truss the bird. Tie in the wings tightly. Sometimes there’s a strong flap of skin you can tuck the legs under to hold them in place. If not, tie the legs too. You don’t want your roast flapping its wings as it goes around. I truss with wire – no worries about it breaking in the heat as butcher twine sometimes does.
There are “spit forks” that slide over the spit, and press against and into the turkey. Get these nice and snug so that the turkey doesn’t move around as it turns on the spit.
Preparing the Charcoal BBQ
Briquette charcoal placed around a drip tray in the centre of the BBQ.
I use briquette charcoal, which lasts for a long time. I pile the charcoal over an electric starter on an old cookie sheet. Then I place the charcoal around the drip tray, which is in the centre of the BBQ.
The drip tray is important. It catches fat to prevent flare ups. (And some of that fat goes into the gravy.)
Basting Your Rotisserie Turkey
The great thing about cooking on a rotisserie is that the roast bastes itself as it turns.
But I baste it even more as it cooks. The reason is that turkey tends to be a dry meat. Barbecued turkey skin can be leathery, but if you baste it as cooks, you get crispy, golden, flavourful skin.
Here’s what I baste with:
The pot with liquid for basting staying warm on top of the BBQ. It’s a mix of lemon juice, butter, thyme, and salt.
Juice of a lemon
Butter
Thyme
Salt (don’t be stingy)
Enhancing the Smoke Flavour
By cooking your turkey on a charcoal barbecue you already have a smoky flavour. But you can make a nicer smoky flavour with wood from fruit trees. Fruit woods such as apple, cherry, pear, and plum improve smoke flavour.
The trick is to add a bit of fruit wood to the charcoal, without causing a flare-up. To avoid flare-ups, I cut up branches into small pieces, and soak them in water. Then, as the roast cooks, I add a few now and then.
(In my opinion cherry wood gives a delicious flavour, and I save branches I prune from my Nanking cherry bush for when I cook turkey. Find out more about Nanking cherry, a perfect cherry bush for home gardens.)
Check Your Turkey as it Roasts
Starting briquette charcoal with an electric lighter on an old cookie sheet. When it’s ready, I use tongs to place it around the drip tray.
Sometimes I re-balance the turkey and tighten the forks if I see the turkey is wiggling a bit as it turns.
Along with making sure that roast is balanced, make sure there is still enough heat from the charcoal. I replenish the charcoal at least once while roasting a turkey. I start a new batch on the cookie sheet and transfer the briquettes (using tongs) around the drip pan.
My BBQ doesn’t not have a temperature gauge. So I touch it to see if it’s hot enough.
If I touch the top of my barbecue and it’s too hot to hold my hand there, I’m happy with the heat.
If I can hold my hand there for a moment, it’s time for more charcoal. It’s not an exact science.
One year, Dad and a friend were responsible for the Thanksgiving turkey. They got distracted (wine tasting, maybe!) and forgot to add more charcoal. That year we had our roast at about 10 p.m.!
Knowing when Your Charcoal Rotisserie Turkey is Ready
At risk of offending food safety experts, I go with what Mom taught me. She didn’t use a meat thermometer. She explained to me that when you pull back a leg and poke a fork into that area where the let attaches to the bird, you want the juice that comes out to be clear. If the juice is still reddish, cook more. That’s my rule of thumb.
If you new to roasting, you might feel more comfortable with a meat thermometer. That’s probably a good idea. And while you don’t want to undercook turkey, you don’t want to overcook it because turkey is dry to begin with.
Once your roast is fully cooked, let it sit, tented with foil, for a few minutes. And during this time you can work on your gravy.
What Kind of Charcoal BBQ?
Our “new” charcoal BBQ that we use to roast turkey.
For years Dad used an old charcoal barbecue given to him by a friend. It was pretty wobbly by the time he moved from his house, but I brought the BBQ here and rehabilitated it a bit – a prosthetic leg to replace the once that had completely rotted out, a new tray inside, and a paint job.
That old barbecue did the trick for another decade. I’m sure it was 50+ years old when it finally rusted right through.
I couldn’t’ find anything like it for sale – something with a flip-open door. I like a flip-open door design as it holds in more heat when you’re checking the roast. Many new models have a lid that lifts off completely.
But when an old house down the street from me sold, somebody put the exact same barbecue to the curb on garbage day. It looked unused – so it must have sat in a garage for decades.
With this “new” barbecue, I’m set to keep our family tradition going – and hope that one of my kids will take over this barbecue in time.
Gas Barbecue
I’ve never done my roast turkey on a gas barbecue, but I’ve seen posts about people doing it. It’s the same idea, with a drip pan below your rotisserie turkey to catch the drippings.
A Very Important Note
Don’t get a turkey that’s too big for your BBQ. Dad and I know from experience that the biggest turkey we can cook on the spit in our BBQ is 12 pounds. Any bigger than that and it will rub against the door on every turn.