A turkey is the longest cook most grills get all year. Three or four hours at a low, steady heat, lid down, with a drip pan slowly filling underneath. A clean grill handles that without a second thought. A dirty one starts showing you its problems around hour two, usually while you have guests.
Cooking the bird outside is worth it. It frees the oven for the sides, keeps the heat out of the kitchen, and gives you a turkey with real smoke flavor. Here is how to do it, and how to make sure the grill is ready, from people who take grills apart every day.
The short version. Set up for indirect heat and hold the grill at 225 to 300°F. Do not stuff the turkey. It is done at 165°F in the thickest part of the breast, the inner thigh and the inner wing. Rest it about 20 minutes before carving.
Before you start
- Use a fully thawed turkey. A 12 to 14 pound bird is easier to manage on most home grills than a big one.
- Do not stuff it. The USDA advises that grilled and smoked turkeys should not be stuffed. Bake the stuffing in the oven, which now has room for it.
- Have a meat thermometer. It is the only reliable way to know when the turkey is done.
- Set up a drip pan, ideally two disposable roasting pans stacked together. It catches the fat, spares your good pan from warping, and turns cleanup into throwing it away.
How to BBQ the turkey on a gas grill
- Set the grill up for indirect heat. Light the outer burners and leave the burner under the turkey off, so the bird sits over the drip pan, not over the flame.
- Close the lid and bring the grill to a steady 225 to 300°F. Keep it in that range for the whole cook.
- Pat the turkey dry, rub it with butter or oil and your seasoning (thyme, rosemary, salt and pepper all work), and tuck the wing tips under.
- Set the turkey breast side up over the drip pan and close the lid. Open it as little as you can; every look costs heat.
- Plan on about 15 to 18 minutes per pound on a covered grill. Use that to plan your day, not to decide when it is done.
- Check the temperature in three places: the thickest part of the breast, the innermost part of the thigh and the innermost part of the wing. It is done when all three read 165°F.
- Let it rest about 20 minutes before carving.
On a smoker or pellet grill
Same idea: indirect, low and slow over a drip pan, lid closed, and 165°F in the breast, thigh and wing. Smoking takes longer, anywhere from 4 to 8 hours depending on the bird and your smoker, so start early. Fruit woods like apple or cherry give a milder smoke that suits turkey.
The grill check, a week before
Do this the weekend before Thanksgiving, not the morning of. If something is wrong, there is still time to get it fixed.
- Every burner lights, first click. If the igniter clicks without lighting, it is usually a dead battery, a cracked electrode, or a spider web in the tube.
- The flame is even. Run each burner on low for a few minutes. Blue and even along its length is right. Gaps, yellow tips or cold spots mean clogged or rusted burner ports, and an uneven grill cooks one side of the turkey before the other.
- It holds low heat. Close the lid with your indirect setup and watch the thermometer for 20 minutes. If it will not settle between 225 and 300°F, find out now.
- No grease build-up. Pull the drip pan and look under the heat plates. Old grease is fuel. A long cook warms it until it flares, and a flare-up under a turkey is the last thing you want. Why the grease has to come out.
- The gas is right. Check you have a full tank, and smell around the fittings. If you smell gas, shut it off at the supply and call us.
If the grill fails any of these, a professional grill cleaning fixes most of them in one visit. We take it apart to its components, degrease and polish every part, and finish with a 10-point tune-up: igniter electrodes adjusted, burner holes drilled out for even heat, orifices cleared, gas fittings inspected. On site it takes about 3 hours for a standard grill, 3.5 to 4 for a large and 5 to 6 for a jumbo: one visit, not the holiday weekend.
When to book
The turkey is on a deadline. Your grill should be too. Get the cleaning done before the holiday, not the morning of, so you have time for a test cook before a three-hour turkey.
Booking takes a couple of minutes: pick your grill size and a day, and we confirm by email with the price for your grill. You do not need to be home, as long as we can reach the grill, power and water.
Book your cleaning before Thanksgiving
Or call (858) 605-5777 and talk to the people who will do the work.
