Turkey on the grill is perhaps my favorite route to a juicy, brown bird - it's fast too. But the stuffing must be cooked separately via oven casserole, which I always do anyway, since even a stuffed bird never has enough stuffing to satisfy my family and friends.
Turkey on the Grill
A 12 to 14-pounder is the top weight for this treatment: Otherwise the grill cover won't close. Do some pre-measuring of your grill before selecting your bird to be sure it fits. Two days in advance wash the turkey inside and out in cold running water. Dry it well with a ton of paper towels. Rub it inside and out with the following "dry rub," which is less demanding than a brine.
Dry Marinade "Rub":
1 Tbsp. dried juniper berries
1 Tbsp. coarse salt
1 tsp. allspice berries
2 tsp. whole black peppercorns
6 fresh sage leaves or 3 dried
3 large cloves garlic, peeled and minced
Grind the first five ingredients in a spice mill or combine with the finely minced garlic. Rub your turkey inside with some of the mixture. Lift the skin away from the breast and as much of the thighs as possible and rub them well with more of the dry marinade. Rub the remainder over the inside of the wings, which should be punctured with a small knife so that they can absorb the "rub."
Put the turkey in a plastic bag, tie it closed, and put it in the fridge. Turn the bag over at least once a day - twice is better - for the next two days. Then blot it dry, rub the bird all over with softened butter, duck fat, or oil, fasten down the neck skin in back with a small skewer, snap the wings behind its back, push the legs up toward the body, and tie the bird's ankles together. Cover the wings with foil.
Do not stuff. With this fast-roasting method, the stuffing might never even get hot and you'd be risking salmonella - yes, even turkeys carry it. Never roast a turkey by any method that requires more than three hours to get it to 140 degrees F. - sitting around at low temperatures is an invitation to food poisoning. Those Holly Golightly tales of cooking with a hair dryer or steaming stuff in a dishwasher are faintly cute at best, more often lethal. (Smoking is a "whole 'nother" project, not discussed here - it takes about 10 to 12 hours.)
Remove the cooking grill and open the bottom and top vents. Put two foil pans, one inside the other, in the center of the coals rack and put briquette racks on either side of it. Half fill the foil pans with water. Put about 30 briquettes on either side of the drip pan and light them. When they are covered with a light ash, put the top cooking rack in place and put the turkey, breast side up, on it directly over the the drip pan. Brush well with melted butter or oil.
Cover and roast, adding six or eight coals to either side of the drip pan every hour to maintain approximately 325 degrees inside the grill. With most grills this is impossible to ascertain exactly, so just try to keep it at medium-hot and take care it doesn't brown too fast (tent with foil if this seems to be happening).
A 12-pound turkey will require between two and three hours (much depends on the outside air temp, the wind factor, the heat maintained by your grill, the score of the football game), and the only way to tell if the bird is done is with a meat thermometer. Insert it into the thickest part of the thigh and when it reads 170 degrees remove the turkey to a warm carving board and let rest in a warm (not hot) place for 15 to 20 minutes to let the juices settle.
All grilled turkeys have a thin line of pink just under the skin, which is a reaction of the meat pigment. It is not underdone. The ball joints of the turkey will be a bit pink too, even in hot-smoked turkey that's been on for 12 hours, but it is not underdone.