I finally got around to testing a turkey rotisserie cook and thought I'd post my results. TL;DR: I cooked a 12-pound bird that came out tender and juicy, with a light, smokey flavor. Rotisserie cooking also forced me to buy a new wireless thermometer. I chose the ThermoPro TempSpike XR, which performed well for me. A rotisserie-cooked bird will be on the menu here for Thanksgiving!
I used my Weber Genesis 310, left the middle burner off and removed the three middle flavorizer bars as suggested by
chopsaw
. I placed bricks on both sides of the middle burner to support a 9X12 drip pan and covered the middle burner with foil. I used Meathead's recipe for gravy, placing onions, carrots, and celery in the pan with liquid from the bird, some white wine, giblets, and various seasonings.
I placed foil loaf pans with holes poked in them containing post oak chips on the flavorizer bars covering the two active burners. These had a tendency to wobble around and one of them wobbled enough so that the chips in it didn't smolder much. I need to devise a platform to hold the chip pans in place next time I do this. I think I'll place a metal strap across the left and right flavorizer bars to serve as a platform next time.
I managed to truss and mount the bird on my OneGrill setup and balance it pretty easily. The motor spun the bird effortlessly.
The one problem I had was with the gravy pan. When filled with the ingredients, it took up almost 2 inches of space below the spit, and the bird's wings and legs had a tendency to drag very slightly through the gravy on each rotation. This wasn't a big deal, but I want to think about ways to avoid it. I'd like to cook a bigger bird for Thanksgiving, say 14 or 15 pounds, and a bigger bird would have more of a tendency to drag through the gravy pan.
Thanks to everyone for the helpful thoughts and ideas. I have a couple things to work out before Thanksgiving, but I think the rotisserie bird is a go!
I used my Weber Genesis 310, left the middle burner off and removed the three middle flavorizer bars as suggested by
chopsaw
. I placed bricks on both sides of the middle burner to support a 9X12 drip pan and covered the middle burner with foil. I used Meathead's recipe for gravy, placing onions, carrots, and celery in the pan with liquid from the bird, some white wine, giblets, and various seasonings.I placed foil loaf pans with holes poked in them containing post oak chips on the flavorizer bars covering the two active burners. These had a tendency to wobble around and one of them wobbled enough so that the chips in it didn't smolder much. I need to devise a platform to hold the chip pans in place next time I do this. I think I'll place a metal strap across the left and right flavorizer bars to serve as a platform next time.
I managed to truss and mount the bird on my OneGrill setup and balance it pretty easily. The motor spun the bird effortlessly.
The one problem I had was with the gravy pan. When filled with the ingredients, it took up almost 2 inches of space below the spit, and the bird's wings and legs had a tendency to drag very slightly through the gravy on each rotation. This wasn't a big deal, but I want to think about ways to avoid it. I'd like to cook a bigger bird for Thanksgiving, say 14 or 15 pounds, and a bigger bird would have more of a tendency to drag through the gravy pan.
Thanks to everyone for the helpful thoughts and ideas. I have a couple things to work out before Thanksgiving, but I think the rotisserie bird is a go!
