Making your Christmas Turkey different - roast it on the BBQ

Barbecuing the turkey on Christmas Day is a cracker of an idea

Cooking time

Cook the turkey, with the lid of the barbecue down, until the thermometer registers 185 F/100C.

 For charcoal units, apart from the weather conditions mentioned above, this will vary according to the quality and burning characteristics of the fuel you are using. For example, replenishing the fire-bed part way through cooking, with fresh briquettes, will result in a marked drop in temperature. The resulting extension of the cooking period should therefor be factored in. Fortunately there are charcoal briquettes on the market with a burn duration that hopefully will enable you to tackle a large bird or joint without recourse to mid-flight refueling.

As a rough guide to cooking times (cooking at medium heat), somewhere in the region of 2 ½ hours for a 11 – 13 lb turkey whereas a 20 - 22 lb bird will cook faster per lb thus only requiring about 3 ½ - 4 hours to be fully cooked. Allow 20 – 30 minutes additional cooking time if the bird is fully stuffed* at the neck. *To make extra stuffing (there never seems to be enough!) bake some separately in a small oven-proof dish. Place the dish, or dishes, fore and/or aft of the bird (not directly over the fire bed) during the final 30-40 minutes of cooking. Leave the dishes on the covered barbecue (on low heat) whilst the turkey is settling down before being carved.

Tip: Roughly halfway through roasting the bird, turn it 180 o to help avoid uneven cooking.

The finale: Immediately after removing the magnificent bird from the barbecue, flaunt it (this should get the digestive juices up and running big time) before letting it rest for 20 minutes or so prior to carving.

Hickory-smoked turkey with a rich Irish glaze

A sure fire way to make your Christmas turkey look even more stunning, even more tasty is to smoke-cook it. Simply add 2 – 3 chunks, or 2 – 3 handfuls of small chips of hickory wood* to the barbecue's fire-bed (be it charcoal or gas) roughly halfway through the prescribed cooking period. Add the wood earlier if you wish to deepen the bird's color and increase its piquancy.

During the final 15 minutes or so of cooking brush the bird all over with a glaze made by beforehand by mixing roughly 2 oz of softened butter with 2-3 tablespoons of Irish Malt Whiskey. Alternatively you could use your favourite liquer...Drambuie perhaps.

Soaking the wood in water or beer before hand, will prolong its use. However 'un-wetted chunks (not chips) normally have sufficient life in them, after they have done their job, to carry out further smoking.

Happy Christmas everyone.

For more tips from Jim check out his book “The Barbecue Book" and "Tips for Your Barbecue" with Ebury Publishing.

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