REVIEW – Mmmmmmm smoked chicken! I love to make smoked meats on my pellet grill. A whole chicken was one of the first things I ever made on it. It is a cheaper piece of meat compared to brisket, so I figured if I messed it up, it would not cost me as much. The chicken turned out great, but I hated trying to find some twine or something to truss it before I smoked it. Holding the legs together with one hand and trying to wrap twine around them was a huge pain. The Turbo Trusser is supposed to make using twine a thing of the past and is reusable. From the picture above, you can get a good idea how it works. Read on to see how much I liked it.
What is it?
The Turbo Trusser is a stainless steel back plate and two hooks you use to truss up a turkey or chicken. It is reusable. You wash it afterward and put it away until your next chicken or turkey cooking adventure.
What’s in the box?
- One stainless steel back plate with funky chicken etching
- two stainless steel hooks
Setup
The setup was very simple. I slid the two hooks through the holes at the top of the back plate and was ready to truss my chicken. In the picture below, you can see my untrusted and ready-to-smoke chicken.
I slid the ends of the drumsticks through the sides of the ‘chicken wings’ on the back plate and put the hooks around the front of the wings. You can see that the chicken compacted nicely. This will help keep the chicken from drying out as it smokes.
I took a picture from the side to see how the hooks go around the wings.
The chicken is now trussed up. It took me less than a minute to do the trussing.
Performance
The picture below says it all!
I smoked the chicken for almost four hours over low heat on my pellet grill. The trusser never moved an inch. It did a great job of holding the chicken together. I found the meat to be tender and juicy, and my husband rated it a ten. When you work from home, it is nice to be able to do things like this. It was easy to pull the trusser off, and it cleaned up nicely. It is now sitting in the drawer, waiting for the next chicken. Because it is stainless steel, you can use it in a deep fryer, oven, or grill. I hope it will be big enough to work with a turkey at Thanksgiving. I normally only buy about a 12-pound turkey. If I find it too small, I will get one for the turkey since they sell a separate version. I stuff my turkey, so having it trussed is a must!
What I like
- super easy to use
- easy to clean
- reusable
- inexpensive
What I’d change
- nothing
Final thoughts
If you ever cook whole chicken or turkey, I recommend you get yourself a Turbo Trusser. It is inexpensive, and I find it much easier to store and work with than a ball of cooking twine!
Price: $15.99
Where to buy: turkey version – Amazon, chicken version – Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided by Turbo Trusser.
