Smoked or Charred Turkey?

How do you like your turkey? Because my dad was here we did a faux Thanksgiving, as he didn't get to celebrate with us last year. When I was a kid my dad ALWAYS, like at least monthly, grilling a turkey.  It was always amazing, and I wanted the specifics on how my husband could re-create it. I picked up just the breasts on the bone, with no legs or wings. After all, it was only three of us. Then sometime while the grill cover was on, the bird caught fire. Sadly we missed it, so I have no photos. When we went to check on the bird this is what we found:

I was ready to jump in the car to go get some chicken breasts to grill, when they decided to see if the bird was okay under the skin. Sure enough, once you pulled back the charred skin, we found the most juicy turkey EVER. This was so good that my husband declared he would grill a turkey for Thanksgiving, every year we are at our house, even in the snow.


Ingredients:

• Turkey - defrosted and cleaned out, can have its legs or not.
• Garlic salt
• Garlic powder
• Hungarian paprika
• grill
• charcoal
• hickory wood chips
• fire

Directions:

Soak your wood chips in water for an hour. Prepare your grill. We started with the charcoals getting hot in the middle, before moving them to the side. Then put a metal pan to catch the grease from the turkey in the middle. Put the soaked wood chips in a smoker box, and place on the coals. Put a little water in the bottom of the pan to help dilute the grease that will fall in it. We forgot this step, which is probably what caused our bird to go up in smoke.

Sprinkle the garlic salt on carefully so you don't over salt the bird. Use as much paprika and garlic powder as you like. I love garlic, so I might have used way too much for normal people. Put the bird right over where the metal pan is set. Cover the lid, with the vents all open. Grill for 2 1/2 - 3 1/2 hours depending on the size of your bird. Enjoy!

(More recipes coming soon from our faux Thanksgiving!)