DEEP FRIED TURKEY Or DEEP FRYED TURKEY
Deep Fryed Turkey is easy and very tasty. It amazes people how quickly a turkey can be cooked
Heres How:

You need a fresh or frozen turkey about 11 to 14 pounds. You can rub with a spice or use a injected flavoring. I perfer Emril's Essence spice. The turkey MUST BE DEFROSTED TOTALLY! If it is not the oil will really bubble and can spill over the pot and catch fire! After defrosting rinse out the bird and dry with paper towels and apply spice or inject flavoring..See more tips at bottom of page "Defrosting"

The Turkeys are fryed in a turkey fry pot. These are tall about 28-30 quarts and have a basket or support to hold the turkey.Pots over 30 quarts or short big pots will take more oil to fry the turkey as they are bigger around. A 28 qt pot will take about 2 1/4 gallons . A propane burner or stove is needed to heat the oil. See "About stoves -pots- oils"  at the bottom of the page for details. The Turkey is put in the pot at 350-375 F.Lower the turkey SLOWLY until the bubbling stops. Turkey fry pots should not be filled more then half way with oil. Cooking must be done
OUTDOORS .

Cook the turkey at 350-375 F. About 39-42 minutes is good for a 12 pound turkey cooked at 365. Most turkeys I have fryed weighed between 11 to 14 pounds and were cooked from 39-45 minutes at 350-375 and were all good. I like mine well done..Most Fryed Turkey recipies recommend at least 3 minutes per pound. The oil must be at least 350 at the finish of the cooking to keep a crisp skin.

When done pull the turkey and let it drain and cool about 10 minutes before serving

Deep Fried Turkey! Pick it to pieces!

TIPS:

DEFROSTING: Never set a turkey on the counter for extended times to defrost. The outer parts will go bad long before the inner portions are defrosted. Defrost in the refridgerator (about 3 days for a frozen 12 pound turkey) Or put the frozen turkey in a big pot of cool water. Any frozen spots can cause the oil to bubble up too much.

STOVES: There are two basic types of burners. High Pressure (red regulator) and low pressure (blue regulator or plain silver if old) The high pressure burners work best for deep frying as they put out the most heat. If its cold outside it can take more time to bring oil up to 350F. Low pressure burners (they have a ring about 7 inches across with lots of holes in them) will do the job but if its cold may take a long time to heat the oil. Low pressure burners are around 30000 btu. The high pressure burners go from around 60000 btu to 200000 btu (Jet Pipe type). If you examine the regulators on the high pressure burners you will see the psi they operate on. A 60000 btu may be 10 psi and a 165000 btu may be 20psi.
The 60000 btu burner works well with 28 qt. pots. When buying a burner, think if you are going to have other uses for it. The 30000 btu stoves do a better job with low heat like using  frying pans or regular pots on them. The real high btu stoves will burn food up with fry pans.Also the more btu out put the more gas is used.

POTS: The turkey fryer pots seen in most stores these days are about 28-30 quarts. They hold about 2.3-2.5 gallons of oil for frying. These pots have tall sides to keep oil from spilling over. The key is that they are tall. There has to be space above the turkey in the pot to keep the oil from bubbling up and spilling over. The turkeys have to be covered in oil to cook..(a bit of drumstick bone and tail up is ok). A bigger pot like a 40 qt that is low will take a lot of oil and will not have much space above the sides when a turkey is in it . Stay away from these low big pots. Pots should not be filled more then halfway. If you have a old tall pot and are going to make do with a home made lifting rig..put your turkey in the pot then see how much water it takes to cover the turkey. Is there at least 6 inches of space to the top of the pot? You need that much for safety as the oil spurts from the turkey as it fries and can bubble splattering up if there's moisture in the turkey or ice The 28-30 quart pots are recommended for cooking turkeys up to 14 pounds. A bigger turkey will raise the oil level where it can splatter over and catch fire..Thats how people burn their decks down with these rigs (some houses too!) They try to cook too big a turkey and the oil spills over the pot. When that happens the oil spilling over hits the burner lights off and the call to 911 for the fire dept.is made..I have  a big pot for steaming crabs..80 quarts. It takes 4.5 gallons of oil easy and will cook the biggest turkeys (over 20 pounds) over a 200000 btu jet pipe stove (they sound like a F-16 on afterburner on full heat) If you are going to cook turkeys this big get this biggest pot and 165btu + stove to heat the oil.

OILS: I have cooked with peanut and canola oils. Both work well. The peanut oil has a slightly better taste and will take a higher cooking temp. Peanut oil is more expensive. Canola oils are perhaps a more healthy cooking oil with lower fat , After cooking and letting the oil cool I put it in a plastic 6 gallon water jug marked "Used Turkey Oil". If you cook another bird within  about a month it will keep longer then that.. it will go rancid. My pot uses 2.3 gallons and I buy my oil at Costco (a shoppers club) in 4.5 gallon jugs (35 lbs) for 49 dollars. Now say you bought a 3 gallon jug of peanut oil like a lot of sports stores sell. You use 2.5 gallons to fry a couple of turkeys for Christmas and have a half gallon left. Should you put the cooked oil back in the jug? Well it depends on if your frying another turkey soon. If you are then put all the oil back in the jug. You can cook a good 6 turkeys till the oil level gets low off that 3 gallon jug. Now if you dont plan to cook another turkey for a while save the 1/2 gallon of peanut oil. Its great also for frying chicken in skillets, seafood in the small electric deep fryers. It will keep a good year and you will have to pitch the used oil in the jug after about a month
 

WHAT ELSE TO COOK?: Deep fryed whole chickens! Deep fryed hams, Chicken Kiev, Deep fryed Twinkies, fryed fish, oysters, shrimp, french frys, onion rings, funnel cakes, you name it! All can be fryed in your turkey pot with lesser amounts of oil too. Of course anything other then chickens, hams or seafood will need fresh oil after you have fryed a turkey.

The best outdoor deep fryers in the world are made in Louisiana at the RV Works Cajun Fryer company Cajun FryersToll Free: (800) 908-3037