Deep Fried Turkey

Yes, I am back from my trip to the USofA. I ate at some very wonderful restaurants, and one or two not very nice ones. Reviews coming soon to a blog near you!

But this post is about the deep-fried turkey that my uncle Bill (a totally great and dinkum bloke!) cooked up on the USofA's Memorial Day.

Wonderful.

Succulent.

Tender.

Juicy.

Crispy-skinned.

Best turkey I've ever had (sorry mom).




One thing to make sure you do whilst deep frying a turkey is to have the frying pot and burner set up well away from the house. Settling the burner and pot on pavers is also a wise idea.



I am also very well aware of reading (and watching on You-Tube) some rather disastrous accounts of turkey deep frying. Those "accidents" are caused by one of three reasons: Having the initial oil temperature too hot, and/or having too much oil in the pot, and/or putting a larger turkey in the pot than you should.

Avoid those 3 things and you will have a GREAT deep-fried turkey!

One of the nice things about deep-frying the bird is that it takes waaaaay less time than baking that dude (or dudette). I do believe that our 12.5 pound (5669.904625 grams, but who's counting?) bird took a whole whopping 46 minutes to cook.

Try to beat that you pesky oven you!

The first thing to do to the turkey is inject it was some sort of yellowish, creamy concoction. No, I did not hazard a glance at the ingredient list (if there was one). All I know is that it made the turkey SOOOOO wonderfully tender and juicy!

Next you rub some sort of spices and seasonings (came with the package, I know not what it is) onto the skin of the bird. Your 12.5 pound turkey should now look something like this:


Please note that the yellowish goop is the injected liquid. Make sure you only inject it to a shallow depth into the meat, otherwise you'll waste it in the interior of the turkey.




BTW, whilst you are injecting and rubbing the seasonings on the turkey, you really should have had the burner lit under the deep-fryer. The temp you want for the oil is only 325F (165C) but remember that it does take a wee bit of time for that amount of oil to get up to temperature.

Once your oil is at 325 (use a thermometer; DO NOT GUESS!) then you get to lower the bird into the oil. Your turkey deep fryer will come with a stand and hook for doing this, no worries.




And DOWN she goes!!!!


Make sure you lower the turkey slowly and carefully into the hot oil as a bit of the oil may bubble over the side of the pot.





One of the reasons why a turkey cooks quicker this way is that there is direct heat from inside the bird (where the stuffing would be on a baked turkey). The hot oil is in the cavity of the turkey (where most of the offal used to be) so the bird cook quickly.

In fact, the instructions even make a point of saying "Note: While cooking, hot oil will SPEW up through the turkey's body like a fountain."

Needless to say, I have proof:



Unfortunately, the "liveliness" of said "hot oil fountain spewing up through the turkey's body" is not nearly as dramatic as you might suppose.




Perhaps a bit of scribbling on the picture may give you a better idea of the flow direction from the fountain of hot oil spewing forth from the turkey's body?


Then again, perhaps not.

Snarkiness aside, the finished turkey looked AWESOMELY great!


It was so tender, juicy and seriously succulent! I know for a fact I have not had a better tasting turkey than the one that my uncle Bill made for us on Memorial Day. Good on ya Bill!

Great taste in turkeys, bad taste in beer.


Don't worry Bill, you're still dinkum mate!