[Hatterasgal]

Hi everybody,

With the holidays underway I thought I would share with you a recipe that we tried yesterday that was REALLY good for turkey (or chicken!)
We had our traditional oven-roasted turkey on Thanksgiving but I have to say I think this is my new favorite way to make turkey (it was soooooo tender and the flavor was amazing!)

what's nice is you can do this right on your grill--you don't need any fancy smoking equipment.

only thing we did a bit differently is we used cherry hardwood sawdust instead of the hickory wood chips (GOOD!!) so you can change up what type of wood chips that you use to change the flavor (or use the sawdust like we did--you just have to replace it a few more times as the sawdust burns quicker). We had our turkey in the brine for 7 hours and that worked out well (put it in the brine in the morning and it was ready to smoke later in the evening).

enjoy

*******************************

Honey Brined Smoked Turkey
(courtesy of Alton Brown)

Ingredients
• 1 gallon hot water
• 1 pound kosher salt
• 2 quarts vegetable broth (or chicken broth is fine too)
• 1 pound honey
• 1 (7-pound) bag of ice
• 1 (15 to 20-pound) turkey, with giblets removed
• Vegetable oil, for rubbing turkey

Directions:
Combine the hot water and the salt in a 54-quart cooler. Stir until the salt dissolves. Stir in the vegetable broth and the honey. Add the ice and stir. Place the turkey in the brine, breast side up, and cover with cooler lid.. Brine overnight, up to 12 hours.
Remove the turkey from the brine and dry thoroughly. Rub the bird thoroughly with the vegetable oil.

Heat the grill to 400 degrees F.

Using a double thickness of heavy-duty aluminum foil, build a smoke bomb. Place a cup of hickory wood chips (or sawdust) in the center of the foil and gather up the edges, making a small pouch. Leave the pouch open at the top. Set this directly on the charcoal or on the metal bar over the gas flame. Set the turkey over indirect heat (putting it on a cookie sheet works well), insert a probe thermometer into the thickest part of the breast meat, and set the alarm for 160 degrees F. Close the lid and cook for 1 hour.

After 1 hour check the bird; if the skin is golden brown, cover with aluminum foil and continue cooking. Also, after 1 hour, replace wood chips with second cup.

Once the bird reaches 160 degrees F, remove from grill, cover with aluminum foil, and allow to rest for 1 hour. Carve and serve.

*******************************

if you don't have a probe thermometer I recommend this one:
Polder thermometer

we get our cherry or apple wood sawdust (and other smoking supplies) here:
Butcher-Packer

let me know if you try it!

-K