Due to some technical difficulties combined with some family issues the announcement of the winner will be delayed until 12/31/2009.  I’m sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

Do you cook your Thanksgiving Turkey outdoors?  If you do and are willing to share your Thanksgiving experience with the readers of the BBQ Grail you could win a prize.

The contest rules are quite simple.  Cook your Thanksgiving Day Turkey outdoors.  It doesn’t matter how you cook it as long as it’s cooked outdoors.  You can fry it, smoke it, grill it you can even cook it in a dutch oven.  It just has to be cooked outdoors.  When you’re done eating take a few minutes and write a short story on how you did it and send up a couple of pictures.  The pictures need to show you cooking the turkey and a final table picture is also needed.  ( You can send up to five pictures)  If you’d like to include your favorite recipe for outdoor cooked Thanksgiving Day Turkey or a favorite side dish feel free to do so.

One Grand Prize Winner will be selected along with two “Honorable Mention Winners.”

Email your entries to thanksgiving@thebbqgrail.com.  Entries must be received by The BBQ Grail no later than 11:59pm on December 2nd, 2009.   All entries, including pictures, become the property of The BBQ Grail.  All decisions made by the judging team are final and will be based on your submitted pictures and write-up.

The Grand Prize Winner will receive a Char-Broil “Big Easy Oil-Less Infrared Turkey Fryer courtesy of Char-Broil.

Char-Broil’s new infrared oil-less turkey fryer is the safe way to fry your turkey. And because it uses NO oil, it’s healthier, too.  Prepare your turkey with the same injectable marinade you already use, or use seasoned rubs on the outside, which is not an option with traditional fryers. Cooks a turkey from start-to-finish just as quickly as oil-frying without the messy clean-up.

Take The Big Easy Virtual Tour to see how the infrared heat circles the cooker to penetrate the meat evenly and seal in juices. The result is a bird that’s moist inside and crispy outside but without the risk, hassle or added fat and calories of oil. Safely cook a turkey (up to 16 lbs.) or chicken in about 8 to 10 minutes per pound. Roasts and most other large cuts of meat cook for slightly longer.

The Big Easy includes a cooking basket, basket lifting handle, and meat thermometer and features:

• Enclosed burner design with 16,000 BTU’s
• Rotary Ignition
• Cool-touch handles
• Pull-out grease tray
• Stainless steel cooking chamber

Honorable Mention:

One Honorable Mention Winner will receive an autographed copy of "Asian Grill" by Corinne Traing

Another Honorable Mention Winner will receive an autographed copy of "Everybody Grills"

The Judges:

Corinne Trang:

An award-winning cookbook author, expert on Asian cuisines and cultures, beverage and food consultant, lecturer, spokesperson, chef, recipe developer, and lifestyle writer. A frequent radio and television guest, she is the chief east coast correspondent for America’s Dining and Travel Guide (Business Talk Radio).

Her first cookbook, Authentic Vietnamese Cooking (Simon & Schuster, 1999) won Best Asian Cuisine Book in the World and Best Book on Asian Cuisine in English at France’s Salon International du Livre Gourmand (The 2000 World Cookbook Fair). It was also awarded Best of the Best of 1999 by Food & Wine magazine. Her second book, Essentials of Asian Cuisine (Simon & Schuster, Feb. 2003), which covers Chinese cuisine and its influence on the major cuisines of Asia including Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam, has already received much praise from the press including starred reviews from Publisher’s Weekly and Cook’s Illustrated. Since then she’s published The Asian Grill (Chronicle Books, 2006), A Food Lover’s Companion: Vietnamese (Mark & Spencer, 2007), and the recently published Noodles Every Day (Chronicle Books, 2009). In addition to writing her own cookbooks, Trang has contributed to many others including Curry Cuisine (Dorling Kindersley, 2007), Saveur Cooks Authentic American (Chronicle Books, 1998), Saveur Cooks Authentic French (Chronicle Books, 1999), and The Encyclopedia of Food & Culture (Scribners & Sons, 2003).

Bob Devine:

Since the explosion of BBQ restaurants in New York a few years ago,I have worked as a Pit Master in the NYC and surrounding area, and have been around BBQ since the early 1980′s.. I started of on a 22 1/2 Weber, smoking a turkey the day I opened the boxed, and havn’t looked back since. Turkey is still, to this day, one of my favorite meats to smoke
I’ve graduated somewhat to commercial smokers, as well as mobile smokers.. Some of the equipment I’ve used in the past, and up to this present day ares Southern Pride: SPK500, SPK700, various mobile units, as well as other electric and gas models. Old Hickory: CTO’s, SSJ, various mobile units. Cook Shack: 300 series, 250 series. J&R Oylers: 700 series, 1000 series, and the 250 RFS  Alto Sham “cook and hold” models. Various wood burning, “mobile” units, used for festivals, street fairs, catering and competitions; to include: Lang, Meadow Creek, Stumps, Spicewines, Traeger, Fast Eddies, and many custom made models

I’ve worked at the Big Apple BBQ, on a couple of teams, and, as recently as the 2009 Big Apple BBQ, was hired by a new team to the event, to organize, set up, and cook, for their initial time at the Big Apple BBQ. I also engage in Competitive BBQ as a team member for various teams, as well as being a Certified Barbecue Judge at those events.   Am also well versed in “on-site” BBQ catering for all types of affairs, to include whole hog, surf and turf, and various smoked meats to include ribs, briskets, pork butts, chicken, and other meats.

Barry “CB” Martin:

It’s been my pleasure and honor to write the Sizzle on the Grill newsletter for more than 5 years and I have enjoyed every minute! Recently I was honored to be asked to create  recipes and write the informational pages of the new cookbook from Char-Broil called Everybody Grills.

I am not a professionally trained chef, although I have worked in a variety of restaurants and cultivated an appreciation for fine cuisine as a head waiter and wine steward at both French and American restaurants. The bottom line is I’m just a guy who really enjoys cooking and serving food to his friends and family. When I write about recipes for grilling, smoking or Q’ing…it’s because these are recipes I prepare. Now I expect there are many folks who are better cooks than me…and certainly you may be one of them. I just try to share some of my experiences to (hopefully) encourage you to take on the challenges of grilling, or Q’ing or smoking food that pleases you and delights your friends and family. I cook what I enjoy eating and I’m always interested in expanding my understanding and appreciation of food!

Dr. Gonzo:

What led this inventor of the (seen on TV) “Jiffy Home Lobotomy Kit”: just insert the stainless steel icepick behind your ear and stir in a circular motion until all your problems and worries dissapear…, proud founder of Spruce Up Yours Landscaping International LLC, this high powered Washington lobbyis, tirelessly fighting for our rights to carry concealed Kazoos, this former lead accordion player of a Maraca Rock and Roll Revue (until he was exiled from Columbia after an alleged affair with Juan Valdez’s burro), to dabble in the world of spicy comestibles? Maybe we’ll never know the reason for his shift in focus. All we can hope for is that he will continue to weave delicate textures, tastes and heat profiles in an effort to liberate us all from a world burdened by Bland.

Now, contrary to popular opinion, this iteration of Dr. GONZO is not (and never has been) a 300lb Samoan attorney. He is (and will continue to be) the traveling professor of Advanced Mixology and Arcane Aviation Physics at Hardknock University. Home of the Fighting Black and Blue Humping Lumper Marching Band; that not only carries the instruments in tight formation across the rugby pitch, they also carry the people that play the instruments in tight formation across the rugby pitch, and the (oh, so hard to get on) Intramural Cross Country Pruning Shear Relay Team, where we take running with scissors to the next level…

Stay tuned to YouTube’s DrGonzosCondiments <http://www.youtube.com/user/DrGonzosCondiments> channel for behind the scenes footage of Dr. GONZO’s ‘Secret’ Underground lab, Xtreme Grilling Team and early failed  high volume production experiments of our “World Famous” Peppermash. Yes, sometimes the best humor involves the failings of another so, have a giggle at our expense.