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Spice Up Your Thanksgiving Dinner

© Judy Howle

It's Turkey Time again! Here are some tongue-tingling turkey recipes and other recipes for accompaniments. For more ideas, check last year's Thanksgiving article and the links below.

For the Barbecued Turkey recipe, you can make a dry rub or a wet marinade using your favorite fresh or powdered chile and other things like onion and garlic powder, oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper and rub or brush it on the turkey the night before you are going to grill or smoke the turkey. A jerk marinade would be excellent and there is a previous article on jerk recipes. Here is also a smoking sauce marinade with instructions for smoking a turkey:

SMOKING SAUCE

Enough for 16 chickens or 2 turkeys

• 1 lb. corn oil margarine
• 2/3 c. sherry or red wine
• 2 Tbs. Worcestershire sauce
• 2 Tbs. soy sauce
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup chopped parsley
• 1 Tbsp. Cayenne pepper, or to taste (other ground peppers can be used.)
• 2 tsp. salt
• 1 cup water

Combine in heavy saucepan and boil. Lower heat and simmer for 30 min. Paint on meat surfaces before, once during, and at end of smoking. Keeps indefinitely in refrigerator.

To smoke turkey, have 1 10 lb turkey. Rinse and pat dry. Rub with oil. Place 1 onion, 2 bay leaves and 1/2 cup white wine in with 4 qts. water in water pan. Place dome on smoker and do not remove for 3 hrs. Paint turkey with sauce. Smoke another 3 hrs. or until done and paint again with sauce and smoke 15 min. longer. Use 10 lbs. charcoal. Chickens (4) cook 3-4 hrs.

CAJUN SMOKING SALT

Meat or poultry:

• 1 box salt
• 1-1/2 oz. black pepper
• 2 oz. red pepper
• 1 oz. chili powder
• 1 oz. MSG

Seafood: add

• 1 tsp. thyme
• 1 bay leaf, crumbled
• 1 tsp. sweet basil

Combine and sprinkle over meat.

BARBECUED WHOLE TURKEY
Norbest Turkey Recipes

To Prepare Turkey:
Remove thawed Turkey from plastic wrapping. Free legs from tucked position. Remove neck and giblets from neck and body cavities. Rinse turkey and drain well. Turn wings back to hold neck skin in place. Return legs to tucked position. No trussing is necessary. Do not stuff a turkey to be grilled.

To Charcoal Grill:
Prepare grill by removing top grill rack; open all vents. Mound 50 to 60 briquettes in center of lower grill rack or bottom of grill and ignite briquettes. When coals become ash-gray (about 20 to 40 minutes), divide coals into two equal parts and position to outside edges of lower grill rack or bottom of grill. Place a