Turkey on the Big Green Egg

I've been wanting to attempt to do a turkey on the egg for a while now.  Here was my method.

Brine for 12-24 hours:
Cleaned out my cooler and filled with brine.  You could use a giant bowl or a brine bag in a similar capacity.  My brine was about 1 cup of salt per gallon and half a cup of sugar.  I've heard of folks using all kinds of other herbs like thyme and rosemary and I've even heard of people using cranberry or orange juice as a brine.

Removed turkey from packaging, removed neck and giblets, and washed the bird.  Inserted bird into brine and  I added some ice to make sure it stayed chilled, but just a little ice in the Yeti goes a long way.  Let is sit over night.

Let the Turkey "Rest" Out of the Brine
Many people say this is a key step where you simply take the bird out of the brine and let it sit in the fridge for a few hours.  They say it lets the skin tighten back up.  I let it sit in the fridge for about 4 hours.

Prepare Big Green Egg and Stablize 350 F
Set up the Egg for indirect heat.  Used the place setter, legs up, grate on (and will cook turkey in a disposable foil pan).  Added apple and pecan wood blocks using the minion lighting method.

Inject, Add Rub and Sit at Room Temperature for an Hour:
I used a Tony Chachere butter injection and Tony Chachere Rub, but you can literally use anything you want.  Since this wasn't Thanksgiving, I was just wanting to try something a little different so a Cajun turkey sounded good.

I ordered what they a call a Turkey Cannon.  It's basically the same thing as the Beer Can Chicken stand, except it sits sideways.  It has two main purposes that I see.  1) It allows the bird to elevated throughout the cook, and 2) it steams the meat from inside the cavity.  I filled the cannon with beer and apple cider vinegar and a little of the rub.  It was a little tricky getting the bird on the cannon by myself without spilling the liquid inside, but I think there's a little learning curve involved here.

Once the bird is on the cannon, I put it in the foil pan and onto the Egg it goes...

Cook at 350-375 F
I had just cleaned my egg and the fire was rocking so I actually had a little trouble keeping it under 400 degrees.  (Note: cleaning out your BGE periodically keeps it running at tip-top capacity).  This bird reached an internal temperature of 165 degrees in about 1 hour and 45 minutes.  This was much faster than expected and it wasn't any where close to dinner time so I lowered the temp to 225 F and let it smoke for a few hours at this temp.  Not the ideal cook plan I had mapped out but the turkey turned out great.

Notes:  Many people like to smoke their turkeys for long periods of time as if they were cooking a pork shoulder.  I'm of the mind that it doesn't buy you anything to cook a turkey that long.  Lean meats like turkey and chicken don't have the collagen in the meat that breaks down like pork or beef over long periods of time.