Meat on a Stick--A Really Big Stick!

Turns out turkey white meat is not the most popular protein at our Thanksgiving table. This year I got a small whole turkey, and 9 turkey thighs to smoke separately. The whole turkey was only 13 lbs, and it's gonna get rotisseried. This works really well with the Weber rotisserie attachment for the 22 inch kettle. The attachment is a 10 inch tall ring that sits between the kettle body and lid. The ring has a bracket to hold the electric motor, and pass thru holes for the spit. I prepared the turkey simply--just trussed it, and put salt and pepper in the cavity, and salt/pepper/baking powder on the outside of the bird. Thanks to J. Kenji Lopez Alt for the tip of adding the baking powder to aid in crisping the skin. Something about Ph levels--I don't know--I'm not a scientist. Let the turkey rest in the fridge after seasoning it to further dry the skin--I just did it for 4 hours, but overnite is better.

The grill setup I use is a slow n sear insert with charcoal lit at one end of the pile, and wood chunks placed on top of the pile. Put a drip pan under where the turkey is going to be to catch the smoked turkey fat and juices for the gravy.

Mount the spitted turkey on the rotisserie ring, cover, and ideally run the grill at 250 degrees til it's done (175 degrees in the thighs, 155 degrees in the breast). Mine takes about 4-5 hours. The slow n sear insert does a good job moderating the coal burning. This cook got away from me, and the grill temp spiked at 350 but I got it down to 280-300. Total cook time was 3.5 hours. So the lesson is PAY ATTENTION to your grill temp.

Pull the turkey when it hits the desired internal temps--they'll rise some while resting the bird for at least 20 to 40 minutes. Carve it up and enjoy. Strain the the smoked drippings for the gravy. Yum! 

Baby Back, Baby Back, Baby Back...Ribs!

A screaming deal at Costco Business made me come home with a 3 packs of Baby Back ribs. 97 cents a lb (works out to about $3 per slab. All the prep is standard--dry the slabs with towel, slash the bottom membrane, and cut in half (6 to 7 ribs per half), then season with your favorite rub. Mine was brown sugar, kosher salt, cumin, old bay, paprika, oregano, and red chili flakes.

This cook was on a weber kettle with the slow n sear insert for indirect cooking, and the weber rib stand to hold the slabs. I piled on some hickory chips and cherry chunks and got the temperature to a steady 250 degrees.

2 and a half hours into the cook, I flipped all the slabs bottom to top and front to back to cook them evenly.

Another hour and a half and the ribs were ready to get wrapped (in this case I just put them all in a tightly sealed pan) and go into a holding oven at 225 degrees for an hour.

Right out of the oven and ready for eating.

Good smoke penetration and the bark was fine. I was a little scared that I overcooked them. Baby backs are loin ribs and definitely run a little drier, but spooning some of the rendered fat/juice from the warming tray over the plated slab gave plenty of juice to dip the next bite-spot into.

All in all, a good cook. Ribs had some tooth, but came off the bone clean. $1.50 for a half slab--I'd take these over the costco hot dog.