Deep Fried Turkey
From what I understand. (correct me if I am wrong) but I hear deep frying turkey is making its way up from the southern states? Apparently you can now purchase these tubs (big enough to put a whole turkey in) and deep fry them in peanut oil? anyone ever try this? Apparently they are cooked full of flavour and juicy. Tour boi
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For folks who are wondering what it tastes like, head over to a chinese restaurant and try a crispy skin chicken. It's also deep fried. The taste and juiciness is similar, depending on what kind of rub you used.
There are plenty of deep fried turkey kits at Costco, Home Depot, Target, etc... -
larochelle
Dec 11, 2006 06:07 PM
Another way to take advantage of all that (expensive) hot oil is to have a turkey frying party where neighbors or friends get together and take turns frying their turkeys.
I haven't done this here in San Franciso, but it's not uncommon in the South where lots of people know how to fry a turkey but don't because of the expense.
FYI - to be very clear, if you just plunk a turkey in hot oil, its not going to be the best thing you ever ate or even particularly better than a well-seasoned brined turkey. You need to do a brine, rub, marinade. Its a lot of work - but a properly made fried turkey is heavenly and WAY BETTER than even the best non-fried turkey.
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Danimal n Hustler
Dec 10, 2006 06:22 AM
There's a Good Eats episode about deep frying turkey... very informative and a lot of advice on how not to burn your or your neighbors house down...
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Rubee
Dec 9, 2006 06:41 PM
I agree with all of the above. We tried a deep fried turkey for the holidays a couple of years ago, and now that's the only way we do it. The only negatives you'll ever hear are from people who have never had it and picture it as some kind of turkey with batter, or that it is greasy. In fact, the opposite is true - the hot oil seals the bird, trapping all the juicy moisture inside, the skin crisps up all over. We bought our first elecric turkey fryer this year, and I love it.
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re: Rubee
Dax
Dec 11, 2006 05:36 PM
I love fried turkeys too, and tend to use the Fat Man brine method, rather than injecting and/or rubbing (which tends to screw up the oil some). The Fat Man brine uses a tablespoon of Dave's Insanity sauce which gives the gobbler a bit of kick.
For leftovers, I prefer baked turkey.
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re: Rubee
Dax
Dec 11, 2006 09:28 PM
It's technically called the Fat Man's Kickin' Chicken Brine but we've used it on turkeys for years (except this year).
http://www.bbqlodge.com/brine/brine.htm
Cooking the brine is the key. As cold as it tends to be in Boston around Thanksgiving, we've always brined the birds over night in 5 gallon buckets left outside (sometimes packed with snow, if available). This is after the bird is thawed of course (we never used fresh organic). An injection might work well too, but I haven't tried it.
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I have made several with an injected marinade and a dry rub. It was either an Emeral L. or Paul P. recipe. They taste great, really yummy and if done properly they are NOT GREASY. Another big advantage is that they are done very quickly compared to conventional roasting because the oil fills the cavity and cooks the bird from the inside as well as the outside. Mine took about 50 min. I'll dig it out if anyone wants it. The only drawback is the high price of the 5 gal. boxes of pure peanut oil; even at Costco, Sam's or Smart & Final. If you are using a typical fresh turkey (non heritage), the peanut oil will cost more than the turkey. You can do more than one turkey per batch of oil though. One after the other or on different days. Once I did one for Thanksgiving, let the oil cool, filtered it in a grease filter from Smart & Final and put it in the referigerator so it would remain fresh. Due to popular demand, I used it again for a Christmas turkey. Then the oil went into the oil/grease dump behind one of my favorite Chinese restaurants!
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I've done this. It's a terrific way to do turkey for a party or a holiday dinner. You do need to be mindful about doing BOTH a dry rub and injecting a marinade of sorts, let the thing sit overnight and make sure it's drydrydry and that the oil - peanut oil, preferably - is really hot. stand aside - watch for spatters and time carefully. It's juicy, flavorful and entirely NOT what you think when you hear "fried turkey." Absolutely delicious. Bon courage et bon appetit!
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