Grilling Your Turkey With Smoking Woods Adds A Unique Twist To Holiday Traditions (NAPSA)—With the holidays quickly approaching, many Americans are looking for new ways to impress their guests. One surefire By se way to succeed is to turn off the oven andfire up the charcoalgrill. “Early in our American history, the one and only way to cook a turkey for the holidays was over a smoky fire,” says Chef Jamie Pur- viance, author of “Weber’s Way to Grill,” a “New York Times” best seller. “An oven-roasted turkey really pales in comparison to the woodsyflavors you can create with a smoked turkey on a charcoal grill.” Chef Purviance offers his top tips to create a grilled turkey with a unique, smoky taste: 1. Season the turkey the day before cooking with a dry brine of kosher salt and pepper. As the turkey sits in the refrigerator for 12 hours, the seasonings will seep deep into the meat and help develop a crispy skin. 2. On the day of cooking,removethe turkey from therefrigerator and allow it to reach room temperature for 1 hour. Brushthelegs, breasts and wings with butter. 3. About 20 minutes before you're readyto grill, fill a chimney starter with charcoal and burn the briquettes until they are lightly covered with ash. When they are good and hot, pour the charcoal carefully onto one side of the char- coal grate, in the shape of a half circle, and place a disposable foil pan in the centerof the grate. 4. Carefully add a few cups of water to the foil pan. The water will help to maintain a steady cooking temperature and add some humidity inside the grill. Replace the grilling grate, close the lid and let the water heat up while the coals burn down to the point when the grill temperature is between 350F and 400F. If your grill does not have a thermometer, stick a probe oven thermometerin thelid’s top vent. 5. To infuse that unique smoky taste, drop a couple of handfuls of presoaked and drained oak or hickory wood chips directly onto the coals. Don’t add too much! Four handfuls over the course of the first two hours should be plenty. 6. Next, put chopped onions, carrots and celery in a separate heavy-duty, disposable foil pan and add 2 cups of chicken broth. Place the turkey, breast side down, on top of the vegetables and inside the foil pan. The pan will protect the breast meat from cooking too quickly, and the vegetables will flavor the broth that you can turn into gravy later. 7. When the wood smolders, set the turkey in the pan on the grate above the water pan. Face the turkey legs toward the coals so the dark meatcooks at a higher temperature than the light meat. 8. After 1 hour of cooking, flip the turkey so that the breast is facing up and add the second batch of wood chips. To maintain the grill temperature between 350F and 400F, you'll probably need to add morecoals. 9. After cooking for 1% hours, if any parts of the turkey aregetting too dark, wrap them withfoil. The turkey is done when a thermometer registers 170F in the thickest part of the thigh. While the turkey rests at room temperature for 20 to 30 minutes, the internal temperature will rise to the ideal doneness for a smoked and succulent turkey. For more turkey tips and recipes, visit www.weber.com. 2008 Weber-Stephen Products Co. Recipe from “Weber’s Way to Grill”,” by Jamie Purviance. Used with permission. wane nn nnn nnn nnn eee eee WONa eee Editor’s Note: For more grill and grilling news, go to www.thewebernewsroom.com.
