Pit Barrel Cooker Stainless Steel Turkey Hanger

I'm 65 years old and have been cooking chickens & turkeys for over 40 years in various cookers and grills. Including a rotisserie on my Weber kettle, my pellet cooker, and my reverse flow Lang offset. So far I've only used this turkey/poultry hanger once, with a 5.8 lb. chicken hanging breast side down, on my WSM. With a hanger accessory from Hunsaker, I centered the chicken directly over open coals without any waterbowl or diffuser. I used pre-lit Kingsford pro briquettes and some unlit Jealous Devil lump for continued high heat throughout the cook. My custom installed, barrel side-mounted Tel-Tru thermo was reading around 365F for most of the 1.5 hour cook with all vents wide open. I live at 5000' of elevation and the thinner air runs the WSM cooler than sea level. Adjust accordingly! I must say, that 1st chicken turned out amazingly well, one of the better ones I've cooked in my time. The theory is the juices from the dark meat run down into the breast as it cooks. I was skeptical, thinking the juices would drip right off the breasts. But the results were great. VERY moist white and dark meat with a small puddle of juices on the serving platter. So succulent! The skin was not crispy overall. I do prefer "bacon crispy" skin sometimes, but didn't care here because it was rendered nicely making the skin bite through tender. The front of the breast by the neck area did get darker, crispy skin due to taking on the heat directly. I was thinking a piece of foil pinned to that area for the first 30 minutes of the 1.5 hour cook, will make the finished appearance of the bird look more even. I might try that, but it is unnecessary and only for appearance sake. Also, I used an RFX ThermoWorks probe and pulled the bird at 158F in the breast. With that high cooker heat the carryover temp hit 168.7F before dropping. I leave birds uncovered during resting to avoid steaming the skin soft. Also, no wet or dry brining was used on this cook. Just some Blues Hog Cajun seasoning applied about 3 hours before cooking. I made a paste mixing the seasoning with EVOO. Using a spoon, I applied that paste under the skin. I sprinkled the dry seasoning lightly on the outside skin, using EVOO as a binder, but applied it heavily in the cavity. I highly recommend this turkey/poultry hanger if you have the capability to hang meat. If you don't have that capability, you might want to consider being able to. I bought six turkeys last Thanksgiving (10 to 11 lbs each) and put 5 in the chest freezer. I'm cooking one every other month, which is why I wanted to try this hanger. I like to have BBQ cooking options! I tested with the chicken to see how the breast side down method would work before cooking a turkey. Next up for the hanger will be a turkey. I'm going to pin some foil to the neck area as described above. Since the turkey is almost twice the weight of the chicken, the extended cook time certainly warrants its use, IMO. You can see in the photo how the neck area took the brunt of the heat. The breast meat behind that area was just as moist and tender as the rest. There was no difference that I could tell. As far as manufacturing construction goes, no worries there. Heavy duty, enough for the job, stainless steel. The supplied removable piece is for straddling the 2 rebar supports used in the Pit Barrel brand cookers. I used a meat hook instead due to my particular setup, and that worked great. I wouldn't have taken the time to write this if I didn't like this hanger. If my future birds continue to turn out at least as good as this 1st test chicken, I will love this hanger, lol. Buy it and enjoy!!

Works as it should for smoking a turkey

Cooked Thanksgiving turkey in the slow cooker using this hangar and it worked great. I had no concerns about the sturdiness while cooking and seems durable enough to last years. Glad I bought it.

Turkey was done nicely

Used for the first time this last weekend with a 13 lb turkey. Easy to use, and worked like a charm!!

Way over priced for what you get… but it’s a necessity for the Pitbarrel when smoking a whole chicken/turkey.

Great fit held 12lb Turkey no problem

The pit barrel cooker has a flat lid so it is very unlikely that the space between the grates and the lid will accommodate a turkey.. well.. enter this hanging contraption. Remove the grates and use this hanger to smoke your turkey hanging from those rods. Yum!