Smoking is easy to do....it's actually probably the easiest way to cook anything, but easy doesn't mean it's less time consuming.... Too many people overthink it. The basics though are to know how much smoke to use (varies by cut/type of meat and type of wood) and to know how long to smoke it. I typically will hit a pork roast with smoke in the first 1-2 hours and then maybe again 4 hours into cooking in my smoker/slow cooker. I try not to oversmoke pork, but it's even more important with poultry. Turkey can stand up to smoke better than chicken and you can end up with a acidic-tasting bird if you're not careful that would be more foul than fowl.
The toughest thing about smoking meat is to make sure you cook the meat long enough without overcooking it. What does that mean? The correct internal temperature range for the cut you're working with. Then the challenge is to decide if the cut or type of meat is prone to drying out if it takes more than a few hours to cook it. That's where you can brine your roasts and even cook smaller cuts of meat (5-7 lbs max) above 350 degrees. I've actually had my father misunderstand me in my charcoal smoker and flash-smoke 24lbs of meat in 3-4 hours to perfection....I have no idea how the smoker didn't combust with the amount of heat it probably had in the firebox. Luckily, the roasts were prepped and weren't cold when they started or they wouldn't have been done on the inside.
The real control is when you slow the cooking down by dropping the temperature. It makes the process much more relaxed to get to the same internal temps without overcooking the outside. Like I said, the whole thing is easy if you don't overthink it and just realize the goals of the cooking method.
I recently had smoked duck under glass as part of a 10 course in a fancy sit-down restaurant (I won't tell you how much I paid for that meal). The chef told me before he unveiled the duck that it had only been smoked seconds before they brought it to the table. The smoke, in that short time, was so very potent that it was all the duck needed to almost overpower the dish. Just saying, smoke is effective and hickory, especially should be used in proper quantities so it doesn't ruin the natural flavors of the meat. My best bbq ratings have been from the times I went lighter on the smoke.
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