Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: BlueJ1 on December 22, 2007, 03:35:39 PM
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Bought a turkey fryer for my step dad for xmas from Bass Pro. I gave it to him early so we could fry a turkey up. This will be my first fried turkey. After reading about yall cooking them over the past few years I have a basic understanding of frying a turkey. Just looking for a few tips from yall.
Blue
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Don't burn the house down. (That should cover all you need to know :D)
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1. Do it on level ground far from the house or any overhang.
2. Put the turkey in and fill it with water until the turkey is barely submerged, then take the the bird out and mark the water line. This is where you'll fill the oil to. This helps avoid having too much oil (wasteful, occasionally explosive) or too little oil (tragic, as the bird doesn't cook right).
3. Light the burner and heat the oil w/ the oil thermometer in. Your target temperature is 350, plan on this taking 30+ minutes, depending on your burner and the weather. It's amazing how much a light wind can increase this time.
4. When the temperature is within 10 degrees of your target, get the turkey (which you've patted dry inside and out, a nice dry rub here makes the skin yummy, your mileage may vary with injection, etc) ready. This is an UNSTUFFED turkey.
5. Have two people hang the turkey from a brookstick or something and carry it between them, this makes it easy to stay out of spitting range from the fryer when putting it in.
6. Immediately before putting the turkey in, turn OFF the burner. This removes an ignition source.
7. Slowly lower the turkey in. It'll spit and growl at you, taking a minute to put it in is perfectly reasonable.
8. Re-light the burner, figure about 3.5 minutes per lb. The oil temp will drop a lot because of the thermal mass of the turkey, so keep that flame on max. The hotter the oil, the less greasy the turkey.
9. Turn off the burner before extraction, use an oven mitt or something while hooking the turkey.
10. Once in the kitchen, LET IT SIT uncut for at least 15 minutes. This is called 'resting' and is the difference between a dry and stringy turkey or a juicy, delicious super bird.
11. Never bother baking a turkey again, because this will taste so dang great that you'll want to fry every time.
BONUS: If so inspired, this is a great time to make onion rings, blooming onions, deep fried mushrooms, etc if you're so inclined.
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Chairboy, those were some pretty good instructions. Even I understood them.
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Never had a bird done in one of those contraptions, whats the big selling point, do they cook a lot faster than an oven bird?
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40-45 minute cooking time (works best with a bird that's about 12lbs, in my experience), and the meat is moister and tastier than baked. The downside, not as many leftovers, but that's because everyone comes back for 2nds and 3rds. :D
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Remember to use lots and lots of gasoline to speed up the cooking process. :D
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Goodlord BlueJ!
Have you called the local F.D. and put them on standby?
:D
RTR
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up the house insurance
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Shhesh....all it takes is planning.
BEFORE filling the fryer with oil....
1) Place the turkey in the fryer and fill with water until the water is slightly (1/2") over the turkey.
2) Using a grease marker, make a short line at the level the water is.
3) Take the turkey OUT and make another short line as to where the water is.
Remove water and dry the fryer completely.
ONLY fill oil (peanut) to the LOWER no turkey in the fryer line!
The top line should jive with the previous water high line.
This way, when you have your oil fired up and ready....when you carefully put your turkey in the fryer it cannot overflow.
That is the cause of 99.9% of turkey deep fryer fires.
I also recommend melted butter injections in both breasts and both legs prior to frying, and a good old fashioned dry rub inside & out as well.
ALWAYS have a fire extinguisher on stand by and do not overcook!
68ROX