The ideal size bird will be around 12-14 pounds. I've found that larger birds take too long to cook the breast meat and dry out the other parts of the turkey. Now, as you can see, I didn't follow my own advice mainly because when I got this fresh turkey, they had just sold the last of their smaller birds, and this was the smallest one left. I made it work, but it barely fit in the pot, and we had to keep a close eye on it to make sure we cooked it all the way through. You can Always fry one turkey and smoke another, as my family often does, to make sure we have plenty of leftovers for Turkey Sliders and my personal favorite Turkey Stroganoff Pot Pie