Brining and Smoking a Turkey

This brine is simple, but flavorful. The resulting turkey is very moist, as all brined turkeys are, but using apple cider gives a wonderful, mellow apple flavor to the turkey that is very pleasing. This recipe is light on spices and herbs to make it usable for a wide range of turkey recipes. For added flavor, add additional herbs, spices, fruit, or vegetables to the brine that you will be using in other dishes or when roasting the turkey. Some excellent additions are sage, rosemary, thyme, cloves, allspice, ginger, garlic, cranberries, fennel, oranges, and lemons.
Personally, I like to add 1 tsp. of whole cloves and 3 minced garlic cloves to the brine mixture.

Ingredients:
Apple Cider Brine
8 cups apple cider
2/3 cups kosher salt
2/3 cup sugar
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped carrots
2 bay leaves
1 tsp. black peppercorns
4 cups cold water

Directions:
Brining the turkey
Combine the cider, salt, sugar, onion, carrots, bay leaves, and peppercorns in a large stockpot. Bring to a boil over medium high heat and cook for about five minutes, stirring occasionally, or until the sugar and salt dissolve. Remove from the heat, add the cold water, and cool to room temperature.
Wash the turkey inside and out and remove the giblets and neck and reserve for gravy or stuffing if desired.
Place the turkey in a pot large enough to hold the turkey and the brine or else in a large food-safe plastic bag resting in a pot or roasting pan to collect any possible leaks and to make moving the turkey easier.
Cover with the brine, making sure both cavities of the turkey are filled as well. Cover pan or tightly close the bag and refrigerate for 12 to 24 hours. If you are using a bag, rotate the turkey a few times to make sure all of the turkey gets brined.
Before roasting or smoking, remove the turkey from the brine and rinse with cold water. Pat dry with paper towels and proceed to smoke the turkey. If you are smoking the turkey, reserve the brine for use in the smoker's water pan, if the turkey is to be oven roasted, discard the brine mixture.

Smoking the turkey
Lower the fire pan or dish to the lowest point of your grill.
(I have a wooden deck, so my smoker stands on a pair of concrete blocks, the fire pan is placed on top of the concrete blocks and the rest of the smoker is positioned above it.)
Place the water pan, filled with the brine solution, on the lowest cooking rack in the smoker. Add extra water if necessary to fill the water pan to within ½ inch of the top of the water pan.
Fill the fire pan with charcoal and light, allow to burn until briquettes are well covered with ash. While the charcoal is coming to the proper cooking point (about 20 minutes), soak wood chips of desired flavor (mesquite, apple, hickory or a combination of chips).
Put wood chips on the charcoal and then put the turkey on the uppermost rack in your grill or smoker. Cover and let alone as long as the wood is smoking. When wood has ceased smoking, add more moistened chips.
Do this for about 4 to 6 hours. At the halfway point (either 2 or 3 hours), check the water pan and add more water to the brine solution if necessary.
Now let turkey remain in smoker/grill, covered, overnight. You may need to add some more charcoal at this point.
The next morning, remove the turkey from the smoker/grill and place in a paper bag which has been well greased with butter or margarine on the inside.
Tuck the bag's opening under the turkey.
Place bag with the turkey inside in a roaster pan and place in the oven at 275 to 300 degrees for about 2½ hours, or until meat thermometer inserted in thickest part of the thigh registers 180 degrees.
Remove turkey from bag and let rest 15 minutes before carving and serving.
The juices that collect in the bottom of the greased paper bag can be used to make an excellent smooth gravy for mashed potatoes or the turkey itself.

Note:

Paper bags are still available at most grocery chains, but you have to ask for them.