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I intended to dry brine this bird, but even after three days of refrigerator camp, this bird was still mostly frozen. So last night I called an audible, and submerged it in a wet brine so it finished thawing. Once seasoned, I injected w/ garlic butter and stuffed it in the roti cradle. So far so good ...

Howdy KKers! It's finally time to say goodbye to the holidays. The 12 Days of Christmas are about gone and the Holiday Season is over. I figured it was time to move on and I pulled a turkey roast that I cooked for Thanksgiving out of the freezer. Some of you may remember this cook .... here is a picture of a turkey and the turkey roast from that cook. The roast is on the far right of the picture. So I asked SWMBO, my brother the BBQ Mooch, and my neighbors if they would like some smoked turkey enchiladas. The resounding answer: YES! So I'm presenting a dish of the smoked turkey enchies I made this past weekend. Here is a look at the turkey roast in a solo shot. The paring knife is for a size reference. These roasts have elastic netting to keep the preformed turkey roast in its formed shape. Here is a shot of that netting cut off the turkey roast. Here is a shot of the turkey roast right after shredding it. It's really a lot of turkey! For an idea of how much turkey this is, here is a shot with a blue latex glove for a size comparison. The pile of turkey is about 1.5" high.

Hi KKers! Yesterday was the BIG Thanksgiving Feast at my church. I volunteered to help cook some turkeys. In fact, I signed up to do 6, was told to expect to do more, but was only given 2 due to so many others wanting to cook the birds. OK, no big deal. I went out and bought a CyberQ WiFi unit to help with the cook seeing as I thought I had so many birds to cook. Well, the cook ended up being no big deal, but I think I screwed myself. More on that at the end. Early Saturday morning was cold and wet! I'm not a cold weather guy and I"m certainly never going to like being both cold and wet, so I was looking to spend as little time outside as possible. The CyberQ helped me stay dry and roast toasty. This WiFi feature is simply wonderful! Bluetooth has some inherent limitation that are easily overcome by WiFi. Here's a photo of the CyberQ all plugged in and ready to do its work in a hostile environment: Here's the PitViper fan ready to do it's thing in the rain: Neither until is waterproof so I had to figure something out. I Buddy of mine has drilled holes in Tupper Ware that he runs his cords through, but I didn't have that luxury. SOOOOO .... I made do. I had to anchor down the little storage bin covering the Cyber! unit with anything I could find ... these Oklahoma winds were nasty that day. The PitViper fan I covered with aluminum foil wrapped around the neck of the fitting that goes into The Beast. I secured it with a two twist ties tied together. Talk about Red-Neck engineering! But it worked and that's the important thing. Two 20# turkeys fit on the main grate with lots of room to spare: Now normally, I'd truss the legs and wings, but I was given strict instructions not to. The ladies who run this event told me not to put smoke on the bird, not to truss, no dressing, no oil on the skin for crispness, and cook until the pop-up thermometers popped up. I wasn't about to argue, so no smoke (except I did put on a little maple!), and I cooked the bird the bird until the pop-ups popped up. BTW - know what both pop-ups were set to? 175F! How do I know .... because the thermometers showed that temp on the CyberQ! In any event, here's a pic of the birds right after the CyberQ registered 155F, the temp I'd normally pull this cook. You can see the pop-ups on both birds in the back right hand quadrant: We did this cook at 350 and the CyberQ kept it nailed on that temp! Total time in the belly of TheBeast was 2:45: The finished birds ... notice the popped up thermometers ... 175F according to the CyberQ. I was instructed to cook until the pop-ups popped up and that's what this far rat did: Not too bad but could have been soon much better. BUT ... I'm not running that show, I just work here, drive a truck, and sweep the warehouse! Here the birds are foiled right before I took them to the church. Notice on the far right the bird tried to escape --- he didn't get far! To the church he went. The car smelled incredible for the trip! So all in all I'll give this cook a 3.5 Star Rating out of 5. Now for the I'm screwed part. I take those birds into the church kitchen and everyone starts oohing and aahing. How did you get that color on those birds. I said cooked 'em on my Komodo Kamado! The head of the Knights of Columbus perked up and came walking over to me and said, I never knew you had a kamado, like a BGE! I said, I have a kamado, but its MUCH better, IMNSHO, than the BGE. He said, so how come you're not signed up to cook for our brisket feed!? Now I've been a Knight for a LONG time and I never knew we had a brisket feed! The head Knight said, Well now you know and you just signed up! How big is your kamado? I told him it was large enough to fit 4 turkeys like the ones he was looking at. He said --- You're my new head bbq chef and walked away. We cook and sell over 75 briskets. I'm screwed! No good deed goes unpunished! I knew I should have listened to the Nuns!

Good Saturday Morning, KKers! Yesterday I did a turkey for a little get together here at Chez Chef. This was my first time using the CyberQ WiFi controller. I brined the turkey overnight and cooked it to an internal of about 155F. I injected a mixture of butter, garlic, thyme, rosemary, and a tad bit of maple syrup. Here's the guest of honor for the dinner party, Tom. Tom, meet the Gurus! Here are the contents of Tom's giblet pack and various other pieces/parts. From left to right we have the heart (i'm always amazed at how small the heart in any animal is relative to the body!), neck, (now from top to bottom), the plastic thing that keep the legs trussed up, trimmed fat & Pope's nose, and the single most useless invention of the late 20th century, the pop-up thermometer, continuing left to right we have the liver and finally the gizzard. All gone. I HATE giblet gravy and I HATE giblet dressing. Here's Tom joining the Polar Bear Club by taking a swim in some brine I made up especially for him ... salt, sugar, peppercorns, crushed cranberries, citrus peel, thyme, and rosemary. Tom all dried off after his overnight swim and about to be injected with the butter injection mentioned above. Two views of Tom all greased up, trussed up, and ready for his cook. Here's a pic of Tom with his new best plate friends ... roasted rosemary potatoes and roasted brussels sprouts that will be soon swimming in a nice mustard sauce. Here's the money shot! "Pete the Pink Pig" will ALWAYS have a place of honor at my table. Not shown is the Apple Cider based Cole Slaw that people rave about. I'll post that recipe in the recipe section. Finally, a shot of the surviving nit of desert ... a Blackberry Wine Cake. All in all a nice cook and a nice send off for Tom. Not one single tidbit left over for sammies during today's football action. Y'all have a great weekend!