Smoked Turkey

If your family loves the taste of smoked meats, and you don't have an electric smoker, I'm telling you that you just HAVE to get one. Not only are they fairly inexpensive, but they are super easy to use and can turn the most dull cut of meat or poultry (heck shoe leather) into a juicy, absolutely divine meal. We use ours for so many different things. The other day I found a half-turkey on sale at the grocers so we smoked it. You can't make a turkey as juicy as this turns out in a regular oven. The taste is unlike any made from any other process. I served it with mashed potatoes, gravy, and a big salad. DELICIOUS. The best part is the left overs..shredded turkey in gravy over toast.

The smoker has a big tub that sits under the grate that you can fill with different fruits, wine, and basically anything that you'd like the meat to taste like. Then you lay "flavored" wood chips on the coils to give it that smoky taste. The flavor combinations permeate up through the meat creating the deliciously wonderful, fruity smoked result. We started off by filling the tub with fresh apples, and then Rich squeezes some of them to get the pulp out. It looks gross... we also added some red wine and spices:


Next, you'll need to smoke the wood chips in water for a half-hour. The wet wood is what smokes to create the smoked flavor (this is apple wood):


Now for the turkey: In a small bowl mix together:
1/4 c. good olive oil
2 cloves minced garlic
freshly cut herbs


Cut little slits in the skin. With your hands, rub some of the oil mixture both under and over the skin:


With the wood chips and apple-filled tub in position on the smoker, slap the turkey breast, breast-side up, on the grate:

Put the lid on and plug it in, following your smoker directions. This one took about 3 hours. The skin turns an unattractive, dark color, but once you cut into it...yummy: