Deep-Fried Turkey, Part II

In my last post, I described how I got a great deal on an outdoor turkey fryer, and shared some of the dangers of improperly frying a turkey. Once the fryer actually arrived, I had to man up and actually do it. While a little nervous, I was very excited to finally attempt one of the biggest conquests in deep frying. This was the first thing I'd tried deep frying that had a reasonable chance of killing me instantly if I did it wrong, as opposed to most of the things I deep fry which are merely killing me slowly through potential heart disease.

Since my roommates and I couldn't polish off a turkey on our own, I invited a lot of friends from around town to an early Thanksgiving potluck. I provided the turkey and a pumpkin pie, and I asked anyone coming to bring another Thanksgiving dish. I had a lot of interest, so in anticipation of a big crowd, I set out to find the largest turkey that the fryer could safely hold. The instructions said up to 20lbs, so I played it safe with a 19.99lb. turkey.

I bought it six days before the potluck, so it would have time to completely thaw. The thing was solid as a rock when I got it. I read that you should give 24 hours of time for every five pounds of turkey. This built a couple extra days into the schedule, because, as everyone says, it's VERY IMPORTANT TO FULLY THAW A TURKEY BEFORE DEEP FRYING IT! Even with this extra time, there was still some ice inside the turkey on the morning of the potluck. I finished off thawing it by putting the turkey in a watertight bag and submerging that in cold water for an hour. This is a faster way to thaw a turkey, but you want to keep the actual turkey dry, because if not the bird can end up tasting watery.

To prep the turkey, I took out the bag of organs and the neck from the inside. Then I trimmed off excess fat and skin around some openings. I also had to make incisions around the thigh joints so oil can drain out well. And, of course, I had to remove the pop-up timer. After that, I prepared a Cajun rub to put all over the turkey. I found this recipe online, which had nearly unanimous good reviews and was very easy to make. Even though this recipe said it was for a 12-14 pound turkey, I think I used a small fraction of the full amount, and it was plenty for my much larger turkey. I would definitely cut this recipe in half next time and still expect to have a lot left over. When it was done and put on the rack (the instructions stress: legs facing up!), I had a magnificent looking bird. When the big day finally arrived, I had a good crowd on hand to watch the whole thing. About 25 people showed up. Ahead of time, I put the turkey in the pot and added water until it was completely submerged, to see how much oil I would need. I ended up using about 3.5 gallons of peanut oil. In the research I did, peanut oil was recommended not only for taste, but also because it has a higher smoke point and flash point. So, it could get hotter than canola or vegetable oil and be less of a fire risk.

Once the oil got up to temperature (350F), I had two guys steady the pot (with oven mitts on), then we turned off the flame in case any oil did bubble over. Then I slowly started lowering the turkey into the pot. The oil bubbled wildly, and the guys holding the pot said they could feel the whole pot shaking from all the bubbling oil. It took around a minute to fully submerge the turkey, going slowly so the oil didn't bubble over. One of the coolest parts was watching the oil flow into the center cavity of the turkey and start spewing out the top opening like a fountain. It looked amazing. I was told by some in the crowd that they thought actually putting the turkey in would be anticlimactic, but they were thoroughly engrossed with the whole spectacle. I stood a full arm's length away while lowering the turkey, and a little oil splashed onto me, but it didn't do any damage other than stain my hoodie.Once the turkey was fully in and had settled down, we re-lit the flame to get the oil back to temperature. In the picture above you can see that we 1) kept the propane tank and anything else as far away as possible from the oil, 2) did not use a lid, as that increases the chances of the oil boiling over, and 3) covered the hose from the tank to the fryer with aluminum foil. I got a lot of tips from everyone when they found out I was frying a turkey, and this was suggested because fryer spits oil almost the entire time it's cooking, and covering that hose with something like foil will protect it and make my investment last longer. While the turkey was cooking, we made sure someone was watching it the whole time, and other groups went back inside to start deep frying some of the side dishes.

I knew this would be a tough thing to coordinate. By this point a ton of other dishes had shown up, and the reality set in that as much as I might want to, we simply weren't going to be able to deep fry everything. Among the things we didn't get to deep fry that I'll have to revisit some other time are baked beans, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, apple pie, pumpkin pie, and pecan pie. We enjoyed all the dishes, even those that didn't get deep fried, however, and that probably helped balance out all the deep-fried stuff we did eat.

First we tried to deep fry a sweet potato and carrot puree. It was very soft, so it was tough to clump into any sort of shape that could be easily deep fried. Through a lot of trial and error, we found something that worked though. We'd put a mini marshmallow on a bamboo skewer, and dip that in the puree. Then, we'd carefully dip that into a tempura batter. If done correctly, it created a nice bite-sized ball with three distinct layers to it. The tempura batter was really delicious. It was very light and cooked to a nice golden brown very quickly. Even once we'd found this technique, it was still somewhat difficult to make it work consistently. Nonetheless, this is something I really want to try again. The warm, expanding marshmallow covered in fried sweet potato was a really cool variation of candied yams.

While those were cooking, we set up another pot of oil on the stove and cooked tostones (fried plantains). These were shredded and clumped together into small, flat fritters and then twice fried. They were really good. I didn't have one served with guacamole on top, but that got great reviews from the crowd as well.

Unfortunately, I didn't get pictures of a lot of the things that I wanted to. It turns out when three different parts of your house are in danger of bursting into flames at any moment, you are a bit more on edge than normal. I ended up doing a lot more supervising than photographing. Luckily, others in attendance have passed along some photos in addition to the few I took.

We also deep fried some asparagus, (and maybe other veggies, but I only tried asparagus) which was very good. Again, we used the tempura batter, and it added a nice light crispiness, and the flavor of the asparagus still really shined through. The turkey was getting close to finished at this point. People loved the smell of the turkey cooking. The creole seasoning really gave off a wonderful aroma throughout the back yard. While the oil actually took a long time to get back up to temperature, after about an hour and ten minutes, we tested the turkey with the meat thermometer, and it was done. Here's a nice, triumphant deep frying action shot of me: Though the turkey looks absolutely charred, that blackness was actually due largely to the rub I used. The reviews online even warned me that this would happen, but that both the inside and the skin would still taste excellent. I then got to carve a turkey for the first time in my life. I felt like a Dad. Though the knife I had wasn't actually very sharp, I was able to easily cut slices of white meat. And then the dark meat came off with no trouble. I tried some white meat, dark meat, and skin, and all were fantastic. I still liked the dark meat more than the white, but both were much more tender than any turkey I've had before. The skin also was really good, although tougher than normal and with a strong, spicy flavor from the rub. I could have used more of the rub, and even injected it into the turkey in different places, but I didn't want to overdo it on my first try, and the turkey was delicious without it anyways. My roommate Dan and several others passed around a turkey leg until they'd stripped it totally down to the bone.

One drawback of cooking a turkey this way is that there are no juices available to make gravy with, but I had our local cooking expert, Norman, make a ton of gravy for the meal, and that was great on everything.

Everyone else seemed to enjoy the turkey as much as I did, because we went from this:
To this:
In under half an hour.

With all the oil left in the outdoor fryer, I wanted to get some additional use out of that, so we kept that fryer on and used it to deep fry mashed potatoes and stuffing. This again took some experimenting, but the solution we settled on was packing each tightly into a ball, and then coating it with flour egg, and breadcrumbs. I had actually expected not to use this method, which is my standard (and favorite) coating for deep frying, but it was the best of all the ways we tried.
We used one of the baskets from my indoor deep fryer, and Norman was a great help in watching over people's orders while they cooked and handing them out when they were done.

People generally liked the deep-fried stuffing more than the mashed potatoes, but I was in the minority here. I enjoyed the creaminess of the center of a ball of mashed potatoes, while I thought the stuffing was a little drier once it got deep fried. A little gravy fixed that problem easily though.
The solution to the mashed potatoes vs. stuffing debate turned out to be this: tightly pack some stuffing into a small ball, then pack mashed potatoes around that, then bread it and deep fry it. This was fantastic, and pretty much perfect with gravy poured on top. I wish I had tried to put a reservoir of gravy in the center somehow and then deep fried all three things together.Like my stint at the Orchards Hotel, I was really happy to get to share deep frying with a lot of people. I think both the adventure of frying the turkey and the actual results were a big hit with everyone. We finished up the meal with pie and ice cream, but unfortunately I was out of energy to organize deep frying those. That's OK though, since, as it was, people were nearly comatose from a full thanksgiving dinner.

Since I got this turkey fryer almost totally paid for by http://www.cookware.com/, I need to review it for them here. As you can probably tell from above, I was very happy with it. When I bought it, I chose the least expensive one so I'd barely have to pay anything out of pocket. I was concerned that I might regret this decision, as others cost up to $200, while this one was only $59. I hoped the price difference wouldn't be due to an obvious lack of quality.

Looking back, I'm glad I went with this one, because it did everything I expected it to do. I'm not actually sure what else I would have gotten in buying the expensive ones besides a slightly larger pot and a basket, which would be great for frying or boiling smaller stuff. Mine didn't have the basket, but the rack it came with is all you need for deep frying a turkey. For any of these sets, you do have to have your own propane tank also.

I assembled the fryer in only about 20 minutes while watching NFL Countdown one Sunday morning. The assembly instructions could have been a little clearer, but it really wasn't hard to figure out.

The other instructions were actually great. It described all the important things to keep in mind when deep frying a turkey, and it gave cooking times, marinade ideas, etc. It also gave similar information for deep frying chickens and other stuff.

While cooking the turkey, the deep fryer had everything I needed, and some stuff that I didn't end up using, but will be useful some other time. The thermometer clearly shows what are dangerous temperatures for the oil and what is safe. While a lot of people were nervous, and we even had a fire extinguisher ready, I felt safe the entire time, thanks to all the tips I got from everyone, the detailed instructions, and the preparation I put into it.

Finally, I was quite surprised cleanup went as well as it did. Some of my pots are permanently dirtied from deep frying in them, but this pot and the rack looked basically as good as new after I cleaned them. The pot is huge, so you'll probably want to clean it outside with a hose if you can. I had to fumble around with it in the sink, which was tricky, but that's not a complaint about the fryer.

For future uses, I can imagine using it for plenty of other deep frying, like a turducken, but also for things like boiling shrimp, crabs, lobster, etc.; cooking a lot of corn for a BBQ; making huge batches of boiled peanuts; and cooking giant pots of chili.

So there you have it, a very positive review, pretty much like everything I review on this site. Maybe I'm just very easy to please, maybe my standards are very low, or maybe I'm really happy to get discount merchandise, but I'd say it's a good turkey fryer at a good price, and I had a fun time frying what turned out to be a very tasty turkey. I'd certainly recommend this one to anyone looking to deep fry a turkey this Thanksgiving. Be safe, follow the instuctions, and have a Happy Thanksgiving!