# How much wood to use on my first turkey?



## jimpam (Nov 14, 2010)

Will be smoking my first bird.   Using all the great advice on this site, I am ready from a bird / brine/ rub perspective.  My question is, I usually start smoking with lump charcoal then add whatever wood I am smoking with , then i have usually wrapped the meat (for example brisket) in foil after a certain point so that it is not too smokey.  For a turkey I was interested in how everyone else does it - I have a large offset smoker (longhorn) - any advice would be greatly appreciated!


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## redneck69 (Nov 14, 2010)

i did my 1st turkey yesterday.  i used about a 1/4 of a bag of apple wood chips, plus i had access to some apple tree branches which i cut into 6" long chunks and added thru the smoke process. during the 7 hours of cooking i used about 8 chunks plus the wood chips and had a very nice flavor with a nice smoke ring..i did my turkey around 250 degrees the whole time.


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## solaryellow (Nov 14, 2010)

That is a tough question. The correct answer usually depends on the individual. How much smoke do you want? I usually use a handful of chips for my offset and replenish as necessary and that works well for my tastes. My best advice is to play around with it and do a couple of turkeys as practice runs and keep good notes of how much you used. When you find the right balance for your palate, duplicate that effort for Thanksgiving.


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