Apple Cider Cured Smoked Salmon - cooking recipe

Ingredients

1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup salt
4 cups apple cider (or juice)
2 cinnamon sticks
1 teaspoon fennel seed
1 teaspoon whole allspice
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
6 sprigs thyme (or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme)
1 large salmon fillet, skin and small pin bones removed (about 1 pound each)
1 bunch wood chips (soaked)

Preparation

To make brine:
In a saucepan, combine the brown sugar, salt and apple cider; bring to a boil. Add remaining brine ingredients, remove from the heat and cool. The brine can be made 2 to 3 days in advance and kept in the refrigerator.
Place the salmon fillets in the liquid brine for at least 6 hours up to overnight(making sure it's submerged), refrigerated. Remove the salmon from the brine and place uncovered, on a wire rack set in a shallow baking pan(or a cookie sheet). Refrigerate the fillets for at least 6 hours, or overnight, to dry them out. (A dry fillet will take on smoke quicker than a moist fillet)
To smoke salmon:
In an outdoor grill, make a small fire using mesquite charcoal or briquettes. When the fire has burned down to a hot bed of coals, after about 1 hour, place the soaked wood on the coals. Position the grate 8\" to 12\" above the smoking wood and place the salmon fillets on the grate.
Cover the grill and shut any open-air vents. After 5 minutes, check the heat of the grill; large fillets will be cooked and smoked through in about 30 minutes if the heat is low, about 300* to 350*F., while a hotter fire will cook the fillets in 15 to 20 minutes. Serve the salmon hot off the grill and enjoy!