Deep Fried Turkey
 

Hey there CA fam!!!

I just bought one of those Masterbuilt Butterball indoor turkey fryers (the X-Large one) so that I can finally have some deep fried turkey for Thanksgiving. Always wanted to try it but never got around to getting an indoor one. Now that has all changed!

I went to Costco today and bought a huge box of Peanut Oil and a couple of turkeys. I want to give it a trial run this weekend so that I know what I'm doing before Thanksgiving rolls around.

Any tips/suggestions/pics of previous efforts you'd care to share with a turkey frying noob? I was thinking of injecting some marinade and doing a dry rub but haven't decided on specifics yet. Feel free to shoot me some ideas.

Thanks everybody!

Re: Deep Fried Turkey
 

Best turkey ever. I honestly got away from it because of the cost of the peanut oil because I only used it once a year. I guess if I used it to do fish fries or make turkeys more often, I could have a greater appreciation to have kept it around. I now use the Char Broiler Big Easy for the "oil less infrared turkey fryer" method.

I've used this brand of marinade and had good results: http://www.cajuninjector.com/cajun-fried-turkey.html I'm pretty sure it was the creole butter I liked.

The way I made it at first was from listening to the local FM guys (now syndicated nationwide) talk about how great it was: http://archive.bobandtom.com/frames/fried_turkey.htm

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Test fill the frier with the turkey with water 1st to get a mark of how much oil u need

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Make DAM sure the turkey is COMPLETELY thawed....ice and hot oil don't play well together.

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Wow. Indoor trukey frying. That scares me thinking of it from a safety perspective. For my outside rig, it is very, very important to put the right amount of oil in there so that it doesn't boil over and that's what causes the fires. They recommend you test the exact turkey in water to get the perfect level to put your oil. Just make sure your turkey is really dry before you drop it in hot oil. I love, love deep fried turkey. It's the best I've ever eaten.

Agree that I've cut back alot because peanut oil is outrageously expensive and I don't re-use mine. Pain in the arse to strain, clean and store. Did that one time and it sat in my basement fridge for a year before I finally threw it out. Good luck. Steve

Re: Deep Fried Turkey
 

Make sure your turkey is completely thawed and dry.
Put the turkey in the empty (cold) fryer.
Pour enough oil to cover the turkey and a bit extra.
Pull the turkey out, set it in a pan.
Now heat your oil up and when hot, add the turkey to fry. This helps to keep you from overflowing the oil and burning your house down.


Best deep fried turkey I had was one where someone took a giant food service size can of jalapenos in escabeche, and used an injector to suck all the vinegar-oil brine up and inject throughout the turkey. This tenderized, flavored and moisturized the meat.

Plus we got to snack on the jalapenos while we were waiting.

I've found that commercial injector marinades tend to be jars of chemical ****, and they taste appropriately. Plus the leftover meat seems to develop a funky texture when it cools.

I think a dry rub would just burn up in the fryer and contaminate the oil.

Re: Deep Fried Turkey
 

Tyr, good advice so far. I will add one thing. I have a rub that is fantastic! It has a little pepper bite to it and it's the perfect balance of flavors. You rub the bird one day, put in the frig over night and that allows it to sit and soak. Once fried, the skin will be crispy and the rub flavor will damn near make you eat the whole bird. The rub sort of soaks in and melds to the skin, so there is never any burning of the spices. We've done dozens of birds and I always come back to this turkey rub. I'll post the recipe once I get home. I use it on chicken, also. :dr

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My favorite injectable marinade is the cajun butter

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I've had turkey a lot of ways, Deep fried is awesome. Not as good as a Salt Dome turkey, but it's a very close second.

And I second want T.G said, always fill the fryer with the turkey in already. Grease fires are no joking matter.

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What rub/marinade/injection have you used that you recommend?

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:tu

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Tyr,

I just looked back at your post and realized you are using an electric fryer, so some additional operational comments:

-If you can, cook it outdoors. I know it's an "indoor fryer", but they still smell and if you have a boil over, it's much easier to clean up (and god forbid, extinguish) if it's outside.
-when you plug it in, you ideally want to put it on a circuit that is completely unloaded (no other equipment or appliances plugged in), these things draw a lot of juice.
-Try to avoid using an extension cord. If you must, use very short, large gauge cord. Like 20+ amp rated, 10-12 gauge, 20' or less. Don't even think about 14-16 GA or long cords.

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This thread interests me, I shall be following extensively. Never had a deep fried turkey, must be amazing -- May take the risk.

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Here's the turkey rub. It's awesome on chicken, too. I sent some to Svillekid as bird rub. You can leave out the crushed red pepper if you'd like.

This recipe makes enough for 4 turkeys! Make and split up in bags.

1 box salt
2 oz chili powder
2 oz black pepper
2 oz crushed red pepper
2 oz garlic powder
2 oz Accent

Rub on thawed turkey 24 hours prior to cooking. Refrigerate.

Cooking outdoors:

Pre-measure the amount of oil to start heating (see postings above). Use a large pot with thermometer clipped on side. Heat oil to 250F. Submerse pat-dried turkey slowly. Keep at 250F. Cook 5 minutes per pound. ENJOY!

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What is the ounces on the "1 box salt"? I can tell you right now, if I put my box of salt in that recipe, I'll be in the hospital.

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None. Just turkey deep fried. A marinade is never required for anything, turkey is a great meat just by itself. Especially when fired. :D

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+1 :tpd:

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I use creole butter in the injector and Tony Cacheres as a rub on the outside of the bird.

Re: Deep Fried Turkey
 

Creole butter sounds delicious.

Recipe?

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Oh mylanta! So many great tips and recipes. Thank you everyone!!!! I had heard about the issues surrounding the oil/water in the bird thing but thank you for the overflow testing method guys. That will be invaluable. I'll be preparing the rub today and will post pictures as well when I cook the turkey. I'm damned excited you guys. I even want to try deep frying a pork butt and see how that turns out :)

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Standard 3lb box of kosher salt?

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Sorry, grew up with "round" boxes of salt. It's all different now. And yes the rub as a lot of salt, but it is just right on the bird.

http://mail.colonial.net/~hkaiter/as...ser-_nickd.jpg

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Okay, I'll do it -- but as previously mentioned, my hospital visit will be on your conscious.

Re: Deep Fried Turkey
 

You couldn't promise me a new house to fry a turkey indoors. Absolutely a bad idea.....to me anyway.
Be careful and good luck.

Re: Deep Fried Turkey
 

Thanks Jamie. 75+% salt with a 24 hour rest and possibly a paper towel pat down of the bird before frying, I can see how that rub would work out well.

The dry rubs I typically make and use would not work, since they have very little salt in them and lots of dried herbs that would burn in the hot oil.

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Been through several batches of this recipe - you'll be perfectly fine, Jarrett. Remember to only use 1/4 of the total batch per turkey. The recipe make a chitload and using it all on one bird would be scary.

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250 seems way too low-everywhere else I've seen and done in the past myself has been in the 350 range.

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WAIT, yes you COULD promise me a new house to fry a turkey indoors...but I'd need it.

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250F is dead nuts for a great bird. We've done dozens and 250F makes the most tender, crispiest-skinned bird. The pot has to be big enough to comfortably hold a big bird and oil. The level of oil when frying needs to be 2/3 or less of the pot's height. Don't want splash-over but want enough hot oil to keep it consistently at 250F. There will be some thermal shock when the room temp bird is immersed, but the oil should come back up. You can throttle it up for 5-10 minutes or so to try to maintain that 250F temp initially. The 350F frying guide is about 3 min/lb. The 250F guide is 5 min/lb. You want a 150F inner breast temp either way. The high frying temp dries it out more to me. The lower, longer fry gives a moister meat but not greasy as you would think. I'm just relating personal experience and how we've done it in the past.

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DAH-rOOOOOool....:dr

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Thanks for the extra info Jamie. I'm going to try it both ways to see what appeals to me the most. :wo

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Here you go
http://shop.tonychachere.com/injecta...es-c-8027.html

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Everyone's tips are really good. The best tip i can give is, make sure the oil has been used a couple times. Clean oil deep fried turkey is never taste's as good as a turkey fried in used oil.

I usually fry a couple of chickens, sliced up pork butt, shoulder, or tenderloin. a week before I do the turkeys. We call deep fried pork "carnitas" in this part of the country. Great for tacos with salsa.

Anyway, my .02

Re: Deep Fried Turkey
 

remember to take the plastic thermometer popper thing out ;)
i know, sounds stupid, but i've seen a fried one.
:D


as good as fried turkey is, my wife found an amazing brining / roasting recipe that comes out even better.

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Its always good if you can get a couple neighbors involved and share the costs of the oil.

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Alton Brown?

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:drI can't read this thread without my mouth starting to water... Bastids... :dr

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Have a large capacity CO2 or (preferably) Dry Chemical fire extinguisher on hand, if something goes wrong and you throw water on it then it will go very wrong.

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Ok...now I wanna see some pics!!!! :)

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:tpd::tpd::tpd::tpd:

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I have a deep fried turkey planned for the big day. If it rains or is too cold out, I am doing it on the smoker instead.

I plan on brining, seasoning, then cold smoking a little before the deep frier.

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This is really good stuff. I am getting up the courage to try one myself.

Thoughts on equipment? How big of a pot do you recommend? I think I could borrow, but I would consider buying a propane cooker and a pot. Would be used as a crawfish boiler, too.

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We do quite a few deep fried turkeys a year, Even take the fryer up to the mountains on snow day and have a piping hot turkey to eat. There great fun and excellent eats. Idiots need not apply though, Use common sense, a few physics (of displacement and combustibles), formulas and viola! yum!:tu

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Sorry guys, forgot to post the picture I took. The turkeys came out great! Not bad for my first try. So tasty and juicy. Beats the hell out of roasting. I was also amazed how quickly it cooked as opposed to traditional methods. I'll post pics of the pork butt I deep fry next weekend ;)

http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o...2847141CD8.jpg

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Love deep fried turkey! Frying 4 next weekend and going to hickory smoke 2 breasts as well for a pre-thanksgiving friends dinner.

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Tyr, did you use a thermometer to tell how well done the turkey was or did you just base it on time and weight?

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Both! I based it on time and weight but also double checked with a thermometer when I pulled it out. Perfection as far as timing goes.

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Always use a thermometer. There's so much temp chasing once the turkey is added that it can vary. The time/pound is just a general guideline to approximate the cooking time.