Recipe for Fried Turkey

I was given this recipe for fried turkey from my former pastor. Until I had tried a slice of fried turkey I didn’t know what I was missing. It is just fantastic. To bake a turkey it takes hours, compared to frying which only takes less than an hour for most turkeys. If you haven’t had a fried turkey for your Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner, you will want to try this recipe. This is one of the best fried turkey recipes I have ever used.

Here is what you need to fry a turkey:

Turkey fryer

Turkey large enough for your dinner

Peanut oil

Propane fuel

Meat thermometer

Note: For safety reasons you will want to fry your turkey outside on a deck, patio, or other firm surface.

Here is what you do to fry a turkey:

It is important that you do not overfill your turkey fryer with oil. You will only fill your fryer a little over half-full. You need to have enough room in your fryer to displace the volume of the turkey. If you overfill the fryer you will end up with hot grease spilling out of the fryer and a grease fire would be very likely. Frying a turkey is very easy, but you just have to watch what you are doing.

Here is a little trick that I learned to know just how much oil to put into your fryer. Your fryer will have a level marked on the inside to indicate where the oil should not go higher than when the turkey is in place; therefore, before you ever fire up the fryer, place your turkey in the basket and lower it into the fryer. Then fill up the fryer with water until it reaches the optimum level. Now remove the turkey and see where the water level is on the graduated markings on the inside of the fryer. Write down where the water level is so you don’t forget it. If your fryer doesn’t have graduated markings, fill the fryer with water until it comes to about 1 inch above the turkey. Once you remove the turkey mark the water line with a magic marker or tape on the outside of the fryer. Now pour out the water and dry the fryer thoroughly. You must take care to make sure the fryer is completely dry before pouring the oil in because it will splatter.

Once you have dried the fryer add the oil to the mark that you had written down when you measured the water. This oil will be displaced by the turkey to the optimum level for frying.

Prepare the turkey:

You can prepare the turkey any way you want to. I like to use an injection marinade. I like to use the Cajun flavor, but there are other flavors also, such as lemon pepper. Some folks like frying their turkey without adding a marinade, which is perfectly okay to do, while others like to massage a rub into the turkey and let the turkey sit in the refrigerator for several hours to absorb the flavor. I like the injection marinade because it is quick and easy. Inject about two ounces per pound of turkey. If you have an 18 pound turkey, inject a total of 9 ounces of marinade into the turkey muscle. I like to massage the areas that I inject to help seal in the marinade.

Fry the turkey:

To fry the turkey, lower the turkey via the basket very slowly into the hot oil. The oil should be 375 degrees. Fry your turkey 3 minutes per pound. So if you have a 20 pound turkey you will fry it for 60 minutes. If you have a 16 pound turkey you will fry it for 48 minutes. Remember for a perfect turkey fry at 3 minutes per pound.

When the turkey is fully cooked, remove it from the fryer and let it stand to drain for about 10 minutes and then plate it, slice and serve.

Enjoy!