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" Things you don&amp;#039;t want on Thanksgiving: cheap scotch, an argument with your father-in-law, a bland bird. I can&amp;#039;t buy your scotch or help with the in-laws. But I can solve your turkey problem: Smoke the damn thing. Poultry, generally, likes fire and smoke. (Think grilled chicken.) Big birds, like turkey, languish on the grate, their flesh massaged for hours by the wood smoke. They get golden-brown. You: relax. That last part, the relaxing, is essential. Because, you know that dry, chewy texture you sometimes get from an oven-roasted bird? The moisture in the smoke will prevent that. Instead, you get meat that&amp;#039;s both flavorful and juicy. I first tasted a smoked turkey in Austin in the mid-1970s. A pitmaster by the name of Mitchell Mays, who ran a ramshackle joint called 3-M BBQ &amp;amp;amp; Catering, on Austin&amp;#039;s east side, cooked it, using a beat-up barrel smoker. To this day, I remember the smoky fragrance, the woodsy flavor, the incredibly juicy meat. Even the white meat. Mitchell passed away some years ago. But since that first taste, I&amp;#039;ve flattered his memory with imitation. The key, of course, is wood. You can use pretty much any type of wood you want, but I like a combination, half and half, of the sweet mildness of applewood and the nuttiness of pecan wood. I recommend chips over chunks to reduce the chances of over-smoking. Soak two cups of the wood chips in water or Chardonnay. I doubt Mitchell brined his turkey, and you don&amp;#039;t have to, either. But if you want to help assure a moist bird, keep the turkey for 12-24 hours inside a sealed bag of salty-and-sweet flavored water. The amount of brine will depend on the size of your turkey. For a 15-lb. bird, use 14 cups of water, 4 cups of apple juice, 1 1/2 cup of light brown sugar, 1 1/4 cup of salt, a few bay leaves, a handful of whole peppercorns, several chopped garlic cloves, and a chopped onion. To fancy it up, add a cup of bourbon (cheap is fine). If using a brine, or not, rinse it and dry it before rubbing it with spices. For a traditional flavor, use sage, rosemary, and thyme, all dried, plus salt, about 3 tablespoons each, plus a tablespoon or so of freshly ground black pepper. Mix them all together. Smear the bird inside and out with butter, lots of butter (like two or more sticks). Sprinkle the spice mixture on. (If you want a little spiciness, add about a half-tablespoon of cayenne to the spice mixture.) Inside the cavity, add a quartered onion, a cored and quartered tart apple, and a quartered fennel bulb. Prepare a charcoal grill for indirect heat. Place a drip pan beneath the grate on the indirect side of the grill. Light the charcoal. When the coals are ashen, drain the wood chips. Scatter one cup of them on the coals. When they light, put the turkey breast-side up on the indirect side of the grill, over the drip pan, and close the grill lid. Cook at a temperature of about 325 degrees F. (On a gas grill, pre-heat, then set to 325 degrees F. Put all 2 cups of wood chips in a smoke box or a foil pouch with fork holes punched on top to release smoke. Place the box or pouch on the flavorizer bars. As with the charcoal grill, cook indirect.) After an hour, add about a dozen briquettes to the fire and the remaining cup of drained wood chips. Baste the turkey with drippings from the drip pan about every half hour. A turkey will cook fairly quickly, surprisingly enough. At the two-hour mark, insert a meat thermometer into the thickest part of the meat without touching the bone. The bird is done when the temperature reads 165 degrees F (between 2 and 3 hours). Remove the bird to a cutting board. Let it rest for 10-15 minutes to return the juices to it. Carve. Then sit down to eat something you&amp;#039;ll find thanks for serving. --Jim Shahin writes about barbecue for the Washington Post and Eat Like a Man Have a question for him? Leave it in the comments or e-mail him. You can also follow him on Twitter. THANKSGIVING 2012: Hacks, Recipes, and Wisdom on Eat Like a Man &amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;gt; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/food-drink/food/a16715/smoked-turkey-recipe-14731264/>