Question on grilling a Turkey

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Steve McMurtry

Senior Cook
Joined
Mar 13, 2005
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400
Location
Ontario
Merry Christmas!

I am grilling a turkey tomorrow for a friend to enjoy with his son.
The turkey has to be foiled and put in a cooler for transportation.
What should the internal breast temp. be? before It's put in the cooler?
It will probably be 1 to 2 hours before eating, and I don't want to dry it out.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers
Steve
 
You are grilling a turkey breast only? I have never heard of grilling a whole turkey. What equipment are you using? Grill name? I've grilled chicken breasts before.
 
SS, I do a whole Turkey it's about 15lbs. done up to 30lbs. I use a mixture of oak and hickory. With a drip pan under the grill full of water(gravy)
The unit I use is a 18 year old Weber gasser. (I wish it would die)
Cheers
S
 
As Uncle Wheel would say...I"m just thinking out loud here...but I would take it your normal finshed temp and then put it in the cooler...you probably won't get to much more of a carry over temp then if you let it rest normal...the cooler will maintain (hold) the temp it shouldn't go much higher....thats my .02 for whats its worth...taking into acount thremal loss and such...
 
Well if your doing a whole turkey forget the breastes temp stuff. Concentrate on the thigh temp which should be 175. If you gonna try to do this puppy on a gas grill your going to run into some logistics issues less you can figger out some way to get a water pan under it and cook it face down the whole time. Ideal way to cook it would be to twirl on a Rotess. Anyway you could do that?

bigwheel
 
wittdog said:
As Uncle Wheel would say...I"m just thinking out loud here...but I would take it your normal finshed temp and then put it in the cooler...you probably won't get to much more of a carry over temp then if you let it rest normal...the cooler will maintain (hold) the temp it shouldn't go much higher....thats my .02 for whats its worth...taking into acount thremal loss and such...

I agree. Just make sure you don't put the turkey in a cooler that has been sitting outside if the temperature is COLD! No need to preheat the cooler either, just put it inside your house, that will be warm enough.

I like to pull my turkeys when the breast hits 163º, at that point the thighs are always 170º+.
 
Well as you know my theory is cook the thighs and let the breastes fend for itself..cuz when the thighs is done the breastes is way over done even under the best of circumstances. Now aint saying there aint ways to protect the breastes..keep it basted from the inside by cooking breast down..build a little tinfoild shield for it like Alton does etc. All kinds of tricks a person can pull on a dumb turkey to make it act right. Unfortunantly 170 in the thighs aint a good plan. It will eventually end a person up with some bloody thighs and that go over like a lead ballon here in God's Country. I know this cuz I used to do it like that. 175 is the magic number..then throw it in the hot box for an hour or two. Shouldnt be a hint of blood in sight if a person follows that game plan. Just my .02 of course:) Now most likely the best way to cook a turkey is to split it and cook it like chicken halves. I know an old boy from another list who tried it and said it worked great..for the same reason it much mo easier to cook split chickens than whole ones. Matter of fact I think some of the fancy Q joints with the Southern Prides..Ole Hickorys etc load em on the ferris wheel by halves..if they dont they should if they gonna cook any. Meat side down the whole time of course.

bigwheel
 
Most turkeys will cook on a grill in three hours or less. In order for the meat to be safely eaten, the internal temperature of the turkey breast must reach 165 degrees before it's removed from the grill. Use a meat thermometer
to determine the internal temperature. Insert it into the breast at least one inch and make sure it's not touching a bone, which heats faster than the meat. Once your turkey has reached the proper temperature, remove it from the grill and allow it to stand for about fifteen minutes or store inside of a cooler for up to a few hours. This allows the juices to seep back into the meat and makes it much easier to carve.
 
Hey now I was scorching Juajalotes back when you was still thinking about making caca in your Pampers. Think this boy should listen to me:)

bigwheel
 
Thanks for all your anwsers!
I have done turkey on my grill at least 20 times.
I just needed to know, if I should pull it off before 175, since I have to travel with it, then have a few adult bevies when I get there. It will be about 2 hours by the time it comes off the grill and served.

Cheers
I will post pictures on the weekend.
 
Ahh no. Cook it like you want it before sticking it in the hot box. If you depend on the residual heat to finish cooking it for you it will jump up and bite you like a pizzenous adder...on the other hand if you ignore it it will be helpful in clearing the red out of the joints..letting it reabsorb some juice etc. I left mine in the box for 7 hrs. last T-day..wrapped in foil and layered with folded newspapers top and bottom. It was still too hot to handle in the middle. Best of fortunes to you.

bigwheel
 
Well the turkey turn out perfect, I cooked to a internal breast temp of 175
wraped in foil and put in a cooler, I did not get eaten for over 4 hours
Lots of bevies.
When removed from the cooler it was still warm and very moist, and excellent tasting.
Cheers
Sorry no pics, have to go and find a deal on new camera, mine is NFG. :roll:
 
Well glad to hear it turned out edible for ya. Person want to take a breastes up that high on purpose might as well just wait for the little temp thingy to pop up. That gets triggered at 180 or thereabouts. My hero Alton Brown shoots for 161. Since I never check it aint sure how high I like it. I'm a dedicated thigh checker. In an ideal world highly suspect 160 work just fine. Alton is a purty smart feller ya know?

bigwheel


Steve McMurtry said:
Well the turkey turn out perfect, I cooked to a internal breast temp of 175
wraped in foil and put in a cooler, I did not get eaten for over 4 hours
Lots of bevies.
When removed from the cooler it was still warm and very moist, and excellent tasting.
Cheers
Sorry no pics, have to go and find a deal on new camera, mine is NFG. :roll:
 
bigwheel said:
Well glad to hear it turned out edible for ya. Person want to take a breastes up that high on purpose might as well just wait for the little temp thingy to pop up. That gets triggered at 180 or thereabouts. My hero Alton Brown shoots for 161. Since I never check it aint sure how high I like it. I'm a dedicated thigh checker. In an ideal world highly suspect 160 work just fine. Alton is a purty smart feller ya know?

bigwheel

BW, I thought you disspized them Yuppie folk. AB studied in my neck of the woods (at NECI), and that made him what he is. :shock:
 
Well I don't disspize any of God's Creatures. There is just some which is generally smarter mo astute and attractive than others...Texans of course. Not sure how Alton wound up in yankeeland. Maybe kidnapped as a baby and smuggled up there or sumthing like that. Always heard Gypsies is handy at that trick along with various home improvement scams. Now I can testify of the latter from personal expuriences..and was warned about the former many times by those in control as a young skull full of mush.

bigwheel
 

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