Turkey Frying

C

C-Man

250+ Posts
I inherited my granddad's turkey fryer last fall and my folks finally brought it up a few weeks ago for my little girl's 2nd birthday party. Anyway, I'm planning to use it to fry some turkeys and have the neighbors and friends over for the Cowboys game on Sunday evening.

I haven't fried a turkey myself in nearly 10 years and that time my best bud from HS did all the heavy lifting while I supervised with a 12-pack or two. Anyway, I need advice (do's and don'ts) ...

How long do I fry these per pound? I've seen a bag of fried turkey mix for injecting at Central Market. I think I'll just try that -- less'n somebody else strongly recommends something else that isn't a major pain in the ***.

Thanks. I'll hang up and listen.
 
Oh, and can I expect to burn through a whole propane canister if I'm doing two or three turkeys?
 
Here are a few hints that I have found.

Brine the turkey overnight. (Disolve 2-3 cups of Kosher salt in hot water in a cooler. 2-3 TBS of peppercorns. 1 cup of brown sugar. plus whatever else you feel like). This ensures that the turkey is fully thawed and locks in a LOT of moisture.

Put turkey in th frying pot and fill with water until it is covered. Make a mark to show you how much oil to put in the pot.
Pat the turkey thoroughly dry.
Bring oil up to 325-340 degrees.
Lower the turkey in carefully (2 people works best).

Fry 3-4 min a pound.
You are looking for a temp of 170 in the thigh and about 180 in the breast.
Make sure to let it rest covered with foil for a bit before you carve it.

Get ready for your friends and family to request it again and again.

I have had great luck with injecting my turkeys with a reduction of a stick of butter, orange juice, and some Tony Chachre's.

Have fun, but be careful. You are working with a lot of HOT oil.
 
Buy a fresh turkey. If you can't get a fresh one, don't bother and fry a pork loin. I've heard the maximum size is up to 12 pounds. I usually fry an 11 pound turkey (fits in my pot just right, always tasty and cooked through).
If you need to figure out how much oil to buy, take your turkey, put it on the rack in the pot, and put measure how much water almost submerges it. Usually about 4 gallons of oil for 111 lb turkey in my pot. So, I skip this step.

The night before, inject your turkey. I use Cajun Injector Creole Butter. Nothing beats it. KEEP THE WRAPPER ON THE TURKEY. It helps hold the juices in. Next morning or in enough advance before frying the next day, take the wrapper off, remove the organ pouch stuff and sometimes there's some ice in there as well. Just clean it out.

With a few hours to go, you can leave it out. It'll sweat a bit going from the fridge to sitting in room temp. Intermittantly pat it with paper towels, especially until right before you are putting it in.

Get that oil up to 275. You want 250. But when you put that chilly bird in the oil, the temp will drop. Leave yourself a little bit of room on your throttle so you can jack up the fire if you have to. If you're maxing out and your not at the right temp...... And get that fire going about 40 - 50 minutes before you want to cook and around 2 hours before eating. All that oil takes a while to heat bub.


SLOWLY lower your bird in. SLOWLY. I mean that part a whole lot. SLOWLY. This eliminates almost all splatter and mess and any danger of oil coming over the side and resultant fire. If you just dunk it in there, have fun at the hospital while others attempt to put out your recreation of Dresden in WWII. If you do this, I hope you die in that fire. But please kill yourself and save humanity the trouble of dealing with you if not. Fry at 4 minutes a pound.

Monitor the temp. Enjoy an adult beverage. Bask in the glow of being a bad *** as everyone asks questions and marvels at your skill. That oil can be as low as 225 and up to 250.

Time's up. Cut the fire. Grab the hook and pull the bird out. Have a pan or serving tray with paper towels on it to catch the run off.

Let that sucker cool off.

Carve it.

Feast. You should've already let everyone know that at least one of the legs is yours. Enjoy it. It's your badge of honor. Carry it around in one hand, drink in the other. Women are now throwing themselves at you, with turkey still in their mouth.

You can do at least 2 on a regular tank. I bet you could get 3 or 4 in a row since the oil is already at temp after the first.

For fun, when the rack is cool, tie a pork loin around it and cook as high as you can get it for 20 minutes. This is better than fried turkey.

I have had people tell me that my turkey is the best turkey they have had. There's many methods. I'm always amazed at how simple and easy this is and I come out looking like a genius.
 
we usually fry ours on the kitchen counter, but then we have a masterbuilt electric turkey (and whatever else your heart desires) fryer.
 
No, no no. This is all wrong. Btw I hate insurance companies.

Brine the turkey the night before.

Locate the fryer in an enclosed area, preferably the garage or a wooden shed. Be sure to fill the fryer completely to the brim with oil. This is essential! Heat to 375 for about an hour.

Get the turkey - no need to pat dry! In fact, I usually dump a cup or so of the brine into the hot oil to enhance the flavor.

Slowly lowering the turkey causes it to cook unevenly. You have to drop it in. I usually toss mine from about 2 feet away. So chuck it in there, and enjoy the show!!!!
 
Everyone probably realizes this, but a lot of these posts are jokes. Be extremely careful while frying your turkey. That **** can be dangerous.
 
As for the oil temp, I can't for certain say. The thermometer I have, I've gotten so used to cooking with it, I just know where the needles supposed to be. I will look at it and follow up.
 
How much for a whole turkey-fryer set-up? I feel like I've seen 'em for $50, but now I'm seeing them listed at around $200, which seems outrageous.

Also, anyone ever try smoke-frying a turkey? I think we're gonna do two turkeys this year, one smoked, one fried, but I might try to smoke-fry one of them (i.e. smoke for a few hours, then finish in the fryer).
 
I usually try and fry up a batch of twinkies and maybe a couple funnel cakes to use as an appetizer before the turkey.

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Check out the Good Eats episode where Alton does this. He goes through all the safety stuff, as well as how to cook it and make it taste good.
 
Just did two this weekend at the LSU/UF tailgate. Yeah, that oil temp is 325. A little higher right before you put the turkey in cause it'll drop a bit. Just have room on the throttle to turn up the heat for a bit.

And for Pete's sake, don't throw the football with your kid by my turkey frier. Are you a ******* idoit?!?!?!?!?! We had to tell this dude two times to stay the hell away. But did that stop em? Nope, just kept throwing out routes into the vicinity of my grill and frier.
 
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