I have been smoking a couple turkeys every Nov to compete with my wifes traditional stuffed oven roast turkey for our 3 different Thanksgiving dinners every year, for quite a few now... 2 years ago I started brining my turkeys overnight in couple cups of kosher salt, couple cups of white sugar, couple gallons of water in a brew bucket. I keep my sugar/salt ratio at 1:1 and add water to cover the bird... anyway, these last 2 years I have DESTROYED her Turkey on people raving, coming back for more, commenting and generally cheesing her off about it. I never did brine before, I would put butter and herbs down the skin and what not... but brining made such a world of difference. Also, choosing a 'less' processed bird, or fresh if you can... huge difference in quality and taste when you brine a fresh bird.
I just spin my salt/sugar into cold water with my wine whip until pretty well dissolved... concentration gradient and all that. I don't mess with herbs or boiling or anything in my brine...then fridge it overnight...