how do i get drippings for the turkey gravy

I can hardly wait to cook my first turkey on the grill. Should i put the bird in a pan to collect drippings for gravy or let it drip on flavorizor bars to give extra smokey flavor. should i put a water/ applejuce pan near the bird to get it moist or should i not bother??? II plan on uesing woodchips. thanks for any input...

Under the bird, put an empty drip pan - or maybe put some apple juice in it so it won't burn - have your fire on either side of the bird.

If you REALLY want to be sure - either inject or brine the bird before cooking.

Best of luck

When I grill my birds I don't use the pan for the drippins, I go for the flavor. To keep moist I'll spray with the apple cider. For the gravy I take an alternate route. I use the parts that I don't cook. The neck the Giblets, etc. Use them to make your gravy. I find that its a more flavorful gravy this way anyway. The only drawback is that there is not as much...

I'm not a big gravy person myself. It seems that if you want gravy there are many alternatives to achieve this. You could purchase a prepackaged mix which is quite easy to prepare. Maybe you could use chicken or turkey stock from a can. Using the innards is a good suggestion.

The point you should probably consider most is; “How do you want the bird to taste?”. Go for the flavor of the turkey first and you won’t go wrong.

I just fixed a tester turkey the past weekend using a method suggested by Grand Scale - I placed the turkey directly on one side of my grill directly on the grate and then applied heat to the other side with some apple wood chips over the fire. I placed an empty drip pan under the grates below the turkey and made my gravy out of that. However I must say that no one used the gravy since the turkey was incredibly moist and flavorful.

dkirn wrote:

I must say that no one used the gravy since the turkey was incredibly moist and flavorful.

NO NO, the gravy is for the dressing and mashed potatoes!

stl-rich wrote:

dkirn wrote:

NO NO, the gravy is for the dressing and mashed potatoes!

Hehehe, exactly

Point taken - I guess that I still need to make gravy for the other things that do not taste as good as the smoked turkey