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smoking Deep Fried Turkey

peter pepper

peter pepper

for thanksgiving my cousin's husband made a deep fried turkey. i don't know what he rubbed it with or injected it with, but it was great. Juicy, tender and had some spice to it. Anyone else have this? it's a must try now that I've had it. probably one of the best turkeys i've ever had.
 
We did a deep fried turkey as well, makes dry turkey a thing of the past. Used a homemade brine of 1 cup of kosher salt, 1/2 cup brown sugar to one gallon of water. Mix well until salt and sugar is dissolved. Put turkey in container large enough to hold it and the brine. The turkey should be under the brine completely. It was cold enough here that we sat the turkey outside overnight as no room in the refrigerator, was still covered with ice cubes in the morning....I put ice on top to be sure it would stay cold. In the morning remove turkey from the brine, pat dry with a towel. We used a creole butter sauce injected under the skin of the bird in several places. Sounds spicy? No it just gives great flavor to the turkey. To judge how much oil your turkey fryer needs put the turkey in the frying container, cover with plain water. Mark the line at top of the water. Remove the turkey. Empty the fryer and dry it out. Fill with peanut oil to the mark. Heat the oil to 375 degrees. Our fowl needed 45 minutes to cook at that temp. Be sure turkey is patted dry again prior to cooking as oil and water is not a good combination.

Our turkey fryer was a Christmas gift a few years back and it gets a lot of use. The average 10-12 pound bird requires about 4-5 gallons of peanut oil. It can be strained after it cools and returned to the oil bottle, reused a few times but if it gets too crusty in bottom or you cook fish discard the oil and buy new. The 375 degree temp causes the skin to be seared right away sealing in the juices which is what makes the bird so moist.
 
I will never bake a turkey again!

I inject a garlic and herb marinade and coat the bird liberally with my Voodoo Ash. I also rub a lil under the skin. Juicy, tasty, & SPICY! Just PERFECT!
 
Yup, it's the only way to do turkeys at our house any more. Hell, we even fry a couple of them up for our annual Superbowl party now (along with wings, of course).
 
I have an outdoor fryer out in my shed. It's been sitting there since propane got so expensive and I refused to buy another cylinder.....or about 3 years.

I bet it still has oil in it! LOL!!!
 
Never done this - i own a turkey fryer i use for home brewing it just seems like you would need to spend a lot of cash on oil to cook the turkey.
 
pepperfever said:
To judge how much oil your turkey fryer needs put the turkey in the frying container, cover with plain water. Mark the line at top of the water. Remove the turkey. Empty the fryer and dry it out. Fill with peanut oil to the mark. Heat the oil to 375 degrees. Our fowl needed 45 minutes to cook at that temp. Be sure turkey is patted dry again prior to cooking as oil and water is not a good combination.
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Whoa gonna cause a fire! I think you mean remove, then mark ;)
 
thehotpepper.com said:
Whoa gonna cause a fire! I think you mean remove, then mark ;)
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Must not have made it clear..once you see the level of the water in the fryer, remove the turkey, empty water. Dry the container before filling it with oil to the level you determined before. Ours was just below the longest mark...our fryer came with one side of the cooker marked in white so you can easily see the level the oil needs to be.

Hope that clears things up a bit.
 
I think what THP was referring to was you stated to "put the turkey in, fill with water and put a mark". It should be "put the turkey in, fill with water, REMOVE TURKEY and then mark". As first stated you will overflow your cooker.
 
A lot of the newer pots have markings on the inside of the pot for various size turkeys. My pot, which is 3 yrs old has such markings.

Oh...I paid $27 for my oil this year and you can reuse it. At least I do for chicken wings until the end of football season.
 
pepperfever said:
Must not have made it clear..once you see the level of the water in the fryer, remove the turkey, empty water. Dry the container before filling it with oil to the level you determined before. Ours was just below the longest mark...our fryer came with one side of the cooker marked in white so you can easily see the level the oil needs to be.

Hope that clears things up a bit.
Click to expand...

peter pepper said:
I think what THP was referring to was you stated to "put the turkey in, fill with water and put a mark". It should be "put the turkey in, fill with water, REMOVE TURKEY and then mark". As first stated you will overflow your cooker.
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Exactly. The water line needs to be marked after removal, otherwise you'll be filling it up all the way with oil before the turkey's in it! :)
 
DEFCON Creator said:
Yup, it's the only way to do turkeys at our house any more. Hell, we even fry a couple of them up for our annual Superbowl party now (along with wings, of course).
Click to expand...

Now that sounds like a party :party: I wanna come!
 
It really is. I have done these four or five times. Once you make one that way you'll always want them that way. Of course, I didn't do it that way this year since the bird was too big.
 
I've never had deep fried turkey but the thoughts sounds good......I've only ever really had turkey meat at christmas.....
 
Well that's because you are no pilgrim! We HAVE to eat it every year for our Thanksgiving holiday.
 
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