I saw an interesting primer on barbecuing a Thanksgiving turkey at ChefTalk today I thought I'd link to, in case anyone is new to the grilled poultry game. The mop idea is a good one, as long as it has enough fat in it to keep the bird from drying out.
BTW, our Survival Spice® barbecue rub is fantastic on turkey, if I do say so myself. And I do. Modestly, of course...
Anyone planning on a grilled bird for Turkey Day this year? I haven't even had a chance to think about it.
Update: Via Glenn Reynolds, a simple technique to butterfly a small turkey for the oven, which would also work well on the grill. Mark Bittman claims this technique on a smallish 8-12 pound bird only takes 45 minutes, which sounds good to me! I've showed this technique a lot, and it works really well.
I have been grilling the turkey for years. I think it turns out better than your home oven. I follow the cooking instructions supplied by Weber. It comes out perfect. Grilling your bird also free's up the oven for other goodies. The only drawback to grilling the bird is the drippings are too smoky for gravy
Have you tried making gravy from the 'smoky' drippings, Chile? I always thought that, too, but I've done it and it's really good. It's best to have some extra stock on hand in case you don't get enough usable unburned bits to work with.
The first year I made an indoor and outdoor bird with separate gravy from each, even people that I thought would never go for the smoky gravy really seemed to like it. Give it a shot, but maybe make some regular gravy too, as a backup.
The "Grilled Poultry Game?" Is that anything like Parcheesi?
You can make it par-cheesy, but I like full-cheesy myself, Julie...
Ugh.