Moist Smoked Turkey

Don't worry. You don't need to build a smokehouse. All you need is a Smoker/Barbeque Grill. I have a Brinkman Smoker/Barbeque Grill (featured below). It works great. It has 2 bowls, one for the charcoal and one for liquid.

What to get:

• A 13-14 lb. fresh turkey

• At least 10 lbs. of your charcoal

• A 2 lb. bag of hickory chips or mesquite chips

• A gallon bottle of Carlo Rossi white wine

• 2 large sweet apples

• 2 large navel oranges

• Celery

• Sweet onion

• Salt

Remove the giblets and neck from the turkey. Wash the turkey thoroughly with water. Let drain.

Wash the apples, core and cut into 1/2 inch slices. Peel and section the oranges. Cut the onion into small wedges. Wash celery and cut into 3-4 inch lengths. Stuff the turkey with the alternating pieces of the fruits and vegetables and secure the openings to prevent the pieces from falling out. Don't forget to stuff the neck area, too.

Rub the entire surface of the turkey with a generous amount of salt. Fold the wings of the turkey behind the neck area.

The wood chips should be placed in water to soak at least a couple of hours before you plan to start smoking. Setting up the smoker is easy enough. The charcoal bowl goes on the bottom. The second bowl is placed under the rack and filled with the white wine. Start the charcoal and allow flames to go out. Place a generous amount of the wood chips in the charcoal embers and allow a good amount of smoke to develop.

Stand the turkey on its legs and bottom on the grate. Cover the grill. Add charcoal and wood chips as needed. You want to maintain a good "smoke" and the temperature of the smoker to be in the "ideal" area of the temperature guage. It takes about 4-5 hours to smoke a 13-14 lb. turkey. Use a meat thermometer to be sure the inside has reached the ideal temperature for poultry. Remove the turkey as soon as the ideal temperature is met. Don't be alarmed by the dark color of the skin. It will turn a dark brown-black. This is normal, it is not burned.

Let the turkey sit for about 20 minutes before slicing. You don't need to remove the fruit and vegetables from the bird. Slice as you would any other turkey and enjoy the sweetest, most moist turkey you have ever tasted.

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