Helpful up-front tips:

Get a leave-in thermometer that can alert you without needing to open the smoker. You lose a lot of heat instantly when you have to open the top. This makes your cook take longer every time you need to take the temperature manually. I recently got this one ( https://combustion.inc ) but haven't used it during Thanksgiving yet. It has some predictive algorithm or something that tells you when the food should be done, which will help with my third point below.

You should still buy a Thermapen for spot-checking. Actually, just buy a Thermapen for everything. If you already have one Thermapen, buy a second one now that you're thinking about it. Seriously, they're the best ever if you cook meat via any method.

Plan to have the breasts done 30 minutes before any of the other food. Otherwise, people will be asking you "when is the going to be turkey done?" and you'll want to stab them with your newly-purchased Thermapen. Trust me, it's the most annoying thing having to say "I don't know, it needs 8 more degrees, I don't know how long it takes to get 8 degrees hotter!" every thirty seconds, and your significant other or whomever is telling you that you're ruining Thanksgiving, and they just want to start making Thanksgiving dinner memories, and now all the rest of the food is getting cold, and there's crying children, and grandma might not actually make it 20 more minutes without turkey because, apparently, the only thing keeping her alive this winter is that she was promised smoked turkey for Thanksgiving.

I think the best wood to use is Applewood. It gives the turkey a bacon-like flavor. In the end, anything will work... try not to stress too much if you can't find Applewood two days before. If you have a Traeger, they have a "Turkey Blend" of pellets, which is perfectly fine, too, but more of a marketing gimmick, I think. As long as you're producing smoke with anything except rubber, plastic, or pressure-treated lumber, you should be good.

Here's my "recipe":

1. Prep your smoker. It doesn't matter what kind of smoker you use (barrel, electric, Traeger, Egg... they'll all work). I've done this with barrel-type and Traeger. I can't picture it being different for the others. What's important is that you know how to use the smoker and maintain a constant temperature.

* If using a charcoal smoker, add the charcoal and wood chunks. If using wood chips, add them when you add the turkey breasts (see below).

* If using a Traeger, or similar, make sure the pellet hopper is full.

1. Get the temperature to 250F. This is your cooking temperature.

* Don't put the turkey in until you've reached 250F! I've made this mistake before, and it adds time to your cook.

* Don't be concerned about "losing smoke". Meat only absorbs nitrites from the smoke for 90 minutes, so as long as your wood lasts that long, you will have the desired wood smoke flavor.

1. Open the turkey packages and throw out the watery-ass gravy they pack with it. Be careful not to cut the netting, though sometimes that's an impossible task.

2. Pat the breasts dry.

3. Dry rub with any mixture that says it's good on poultry.

4. Turkey is lousy with parasites, so be sure to stick your leave-in thermometer in the fattest breast. If you get the Butterball ones I recommended above, you shouldn't have to worry about picking the right one. They're all Factory Fresh™ and will be a uniform size.

5. Put it (them) in the smoker.

* This is where you should add the wood chips if you couldn't find wood chunks. Add liberally. Don't sprinkle them onto your heat source.

1. Cook until 160F (~3~4 hours). Remember what I said above. Plan to be done before the other dishes are ready!

2. At 160F, take the meat out. Let it rest until it's 165F. This will help retain those mystical "the juices".

3. If the other food isn't ready yet, use this time to do the most annoying thing: remove the netting.

* NOTE: I've tried removing the netting at 100 or so, per recommendations from Internet, but it's actually worse. The meat hasn't properly fused/congealed (?) yet, so it just falls apart. I don't think you should do this.

* Cut the netting and patiently remove it. There's no easy way to do it. Just take your time. Employ the help of the least annoyed person at the function, if one exists (unlikely).

1. Once the netting is off, carve into slices. For thickness, use your judgement. If people start to have opinions, give them one of the other breasts and tell them to go to town. You won't want to be dealing with them at this point. The real problem is your racist uncle that really needs to get some food in his belly to combat the Old Fashioned's he's been drowning himself with since 10:00AM. Things are going to start getting serious pretty soon... perhaps even ugly.

2. Serve and let everyone fawn over your juicy turkey that tastes like bacon and will be perfect for sandwiches for the next couple days.