I know this is a smoking site,but I'm frying a turkey tomorrow for the first time and I was looking for some advice. First of all, do I need to brine the bird overnight? Does injecting it with butter and herbs really enhance the flavor? And my biggest concern is, which is the best oil to use. I was all set on using pure peanut oil,but now a co-worker's husband works with an ex chef and he says to use soybean oil. I know it's all about the smoke point but I was concerned with the flavor. Thanks for the comments kids and Happy Thanksgiving!
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injecting does help make for a tasty juicy turkey, i fried our turkeys for years using peanut oil. the only downside was the cost of the oil. am going to smoke 2 just to change it up. smoking a couple of chuck roasts as backups. -
Brining and injecting will help the flavor and moisture, and it doesn’t have to be butter that you inject with. I just use a vegatable oil for injecting and it works for me. As to the oils, soy is more neutral tasting IMHO but I don’t see much of a difference either with peanut oil. When I fry a turkey I stick with 100% peanut oil, there are blends out there masquerading as peanut oil. I think it holds up better in the long term as I recover and filter the used oil and store it for later use when I deep fry other things. Any oil for frying can be an investment and I don’t want to throw it away after one use, and peanut oil seems to survive storage better.Comment
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I use peanut oil. It’s more expensive but can be recovered and reused. I’m not sure injecting is necessary. The fried turkeys I have done went injected and still quite moist.
Brining is always good. But if you bought one frozen read the label to see if it was already salt injected. If so just defrost and dunk. That’s what I have done.
Now for safety and technique. I get the oil up to 375. Or even closer to the smoke point. Then SHUT OFF THE GAS. Very important. Then lower the turkey slowly using all the parts in the kit. Also wear welding gloves if you have them. Otherwise wear something. And make sure the turkey is 100% defrosted.
Why? Well if you heat oil to only 350, the turkey will cool it down. So by going up to 375 the turkey still cools the oil but it won’t dip much below 350. Makes the skin a bit crispier.
If fhe oil boils over and the gas is on, you have a big fire. If the gas is off it is a safety precaution, if the oil boils over it just makes a mess. But no inferno.
Dropping the turkey in the oil too fast will make a big splash and hot oil flies everywhere, which is never good.
Gloves protect from the flash steam created by the moist turkey hitting very hot oil.
if the turkey has a frozen spot in the middle, for some reason it will still be there when you think the turkey is done. Not sure why, but I had that happen once. It was weird. Ended up redunking and the frozen spot burned. I was baffled by that.
But the end result is great.Comment
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Thanks for the help. I know peanut oil expensive. If I don't plan on recovering and reusing would suggest using a soybean oil. I'm not worried about the cost (I should be!), I'm more concerned about the flavor -
peanut oil is suooosed to have a light flavor. And smokes at 450, safely above the 350 target and safe to push above 350 so the turkey doesn’t cool it too much. Soy apparently has different varieties. Unrefined it smokes at 320 so fire risk at 350. Refined its food till 450. Probably another reason why peanut is recommended. Unless you get the correct soy oil, but if that doesn’t happen...
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I always use peanut oil for frying, mainly because I reuse the oil. When I am doing my birds, I don't inject or anything like that, I let the fryer do all the work. Turkey is not my favorite, so i don't spend a ton of time experimenting. I know what works for me, and I pretty much stick to that.
I find that the most important thing is to make sure you monitor the temp of the oil and the temp of the breast, so you don't burn your house down and so you don't over cook the meat!Comment
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Another vote for peanut oil. Never fried a turkey, but for frying in general it has always been a fool-proof choice for me.Comment
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liquid shortening has always done me well. peanut oil is 2nd choice. unless you have a 5 gallon bucket of tallow or lard. i have my electric deepfryer full of tallow and i could fry a 10lber in it, but it usually gets chicken, fish and frys.Comment
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I hope everyone frying a turkey this Thanksgiving will re-read SmokeyGator ‘s post above. My wife and I were talking this morning about past Thanksgivings and she reminded me of the one Thanksgiving afternoon when I as a volunteer fireman had to respond to three separate deck fires caused by turkey frying, and she had even more calls as a volunteer EMT on the ambulance. I think we ate our Thanksgiving dinner about 10 that night. Everyone be safe!Comment
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It’s as safe as any other method - it you stop to think about what is going on, plan for contencies, and take action to mitigate risk.
Also forgot to mention ONE thing. Before frying place the bird in the pot. Then add enough oil to cover it slightly (an inch under is fine). Then pull the bird out and heat the oil. That way you aren’t overfilling the pot increasing risk of a spill.
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