Thanksgiving is kind of a big deal in my house and it's taken pretty seriously. While the menu remains relatively traditional, there's always an experimental wild card dish on the table. After much speculation as to what that dish would be, I got a call from my Dad, “Katie! I got it! We’re going to deep fry a turkey this year!” “It” in this case was a turkey frying kit (highly, strongly and definitely recommended). This was something that we had talked about doing for a couple of years now and it had been decided that this year would be the year of the two turkeys. One baked traditionally and one deep fried. So, newly purchased deep frying kit in hand, my Dad and I, along with my sister’s boyfriend Matt, deep fried a turkey for Thanksgiving. Turns out, it’s pretty easy to do, but you just have to be really careful because, you know, there’s that whole risk of burning down the house or catching things on fire. I said it once and I'll say it again, I do recommend buying the kit (my Dad got it at Walmart for $45) because it comes with everything you’ll need. All you have to buy is the peanut oil and of course, the turkey. So how do you deep fry a turkey? Let me walk you through it..
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| 1. Read instructions and do your homework (I recommend this article) |
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| 2. Be careful! Fry the turkey outside and away from flammable objects. |
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| 3. Pour oil into the pot (peanut oil is expensive but provides a great flavor) |
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| 4. Carefully start the flame |
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| 5. Let the oil heat to 350 degrees |
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| 6. Carefully and slowly, lower the turkey into the hot oil |
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| 7. Submerge the turkey entirely into the hot oil |
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| 8. Cover and let it fry for about 2.5 minutes per pound (ex: 8lb turkey = 20 mins) |
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| 9. Remove the turkey from the oil and check the temperature |
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| 10. The temperature should read 145 degrees |
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| 11. After the turkey has rested, slice the turkey |
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| 12. Enjoy! |
Cautions aside, it was pretty easy to deep fry a turkey and the flavor wasn't wildly different from a traditionally baked turkey but the moisture yielded from the deep frying process was totally worth it. The turkey was incredibly rich and had a roasted nutty flavor courtesy of the peanut oil. The skin was also crackling and incredibly addictive. I would definitely do this again and would recommend it for those adventurous foodies looking to change up a traditional meal.
7 comments:
wow, only $45!? for the kit? That's great. Like I mentioned in the car, my friend's father used to deep fry turkeys in the summer for barbecues as well. Hmm - what else could you fry in the same kit???
you Dad sounds like fun. what a great idea. will the family tradition be to deep fry a turkey every year going forward?!
I wonder how I can deep-fry a turkey in the city? :-) We do the same thing every year by having one wild card dish. This year my mom made Ruth's Chris' sweet potato casserole and it was AWESOME!
I have to admit I was truly "Debbie Downer" when I heard the plans for the deep-fried turkey. But, I was very impressed with how moist the turkey was. Excellent!!
Fried turkey is so good. We have done it hear a bunch of times and even I cook another turkey the fried one is always demolished.
Jason
I'm so impressed!
Awesome! Thank you so much for sharing the process and for the hot tip (um, yeah, pun intended) about the frying kit. Love this!
p.s. also loving the cranberry-hazelnut dip recipe - so doing that this weekend!
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