We cooked our turkey in the oven using the convection feature for the first time, and it turned out very well. The breast was very moist and tender.
A few years ago I did my first grilled turkey outdoors. My wife was instantly spoiled to having the use of her oven freed up for all the other goodies she likes to make.
No concession, really.
... and I feel MANLY doing this!
How do you grill it for such a long time? Do you put the fire on the other side of the grill from the turkey?
First of all, I have a very large grille. If I fill it full of coals it will burn for about six hours, by controlling the airflow. For a turkey, I fill the coals to about half capacity and I renew the smoking wood a couple of times.
I place bricks on the fire base (the kind with holes in them) laid on their sides to make a rectangle, two high and start a big fire and reduce it all to coals inside the brick box. I add unburned wood (no bark, only heart wood) for smoke and close down the air vents to just a whisper. On the bricks, I put a large flat pan which I keep some water in at first. Then on the top grille, where the food normally goes I place one of those large heavy duty disposable foil pans (BTW, spring for one of those fancy ones with the handles and the wire support underneath - worth the money!) with the turkey inside. I cover the turkey for the first hour or so.
After about two hours the unburned wood is mostly turned to coals and stopped smoking, so I remove the turkey, add more unburned wood, empty the water out of the heat deflection pan, open the air vents a little to bring up the temperature and replace the turkey. It takes about three and a half hours and plenty of basting, but it is worth the effort.
