Deep Frying Turkey allows the skin to be cooked to a delectable crispiness, while the inside is still moist and juicy.

Equipment Needed:
Turkey Deep Fryer Pot Set
Turkey Injection and Injector
Meat Thermometer
Peanut/vegetable oil
Oven mitts

Do’s:

  1. The first thing you should do is determine how much oil you need to heat up. To do this, place your turkey in the cold pot. Fill the pot with water to cover the turkey allow for it to cover 2 inch above the turkey. Take the turkey out. Mark where the water level is…..this is how much oil you will need. This is an important step because if you do not determine how much oil you need and just fill the pot with oil, heat the oil then place the bird in…..chances are you have too much oil and it will spill over the pot roll down the sides to the open flame and catch on fire.
  2. Dry your turkey off completely.
  3. Fill pot with oil to the determined level.
  4. Heat your oil outside to 350°-375° F.

Deep Fried Turkey by Matthew, Flickr
Don’ts

  1. Do not set up Deep Fryer indoors, or under an overhang. Never place close to the house, allow to be about 4 feet away from any structures.
  2. Do not leave hot oil unattended.
  3. Do not allow children and pets to be around your hot oil.
  4. Do not Place hot oil on any surface that is not flat.
  5. Do not use olive oil.
  6. Do not brine your turkey. Make sure your turkey is completely dry.
  7. Do not stuff your turkey.
  8. Do not forget to remove giblets in the cavity of your turkey.
  9. Do not try to fry a frozen turkey, the turkey should be completely defrosted.

Use a butter based turkey injection:
Melt 1 cup of whole butter and cool, add your dry seasonings. Suggestions are: cajun seasonings, or poultry seasoning, granulated garlic, salt and pepper. To inject the bird, fill injector with butter & seasonings. Inject each breast 6-8 times and inject each thigh 4-5 times. Pressing down on as you slowly pull injector out.

Use an egg white wash and season:
Smear 2 egg whites all over the outside of the turkey. Egg whites will help the seasonings stick to the outside and make the outside crispier. Season the outside of the turkey with Salt and White Pepper, you can also sprinkle with poultry seasoning, or if you used cajun seasoning in the butter, you can also sprinkle the outside with this seasoning.

Select the right oil:
Peanut is most popular, but you can use canola, or any other vegetable oil. Rice or rice bran oil is also a great oil to use because it has a high temperature before it starts smoking.

Cooking the deep fried turkey:
If your turkey pot comes with a basket, place your prepared turkey in the basket, using your oven mitts; gently and SLOWLY lower the turkey into the hot oil. DO NOT JUST DROP THE TURKEY IN THE OIL, it will boil up and hot oil could fling up at you. Or worse yet, the oil could boil over the pot and go down the outside of the pot, and fall into the open flame which would catch on fire.

Turkey will take 45 minutes to 1 ¼ hours to cook depending on size. Ideally you will use a leave in meat thermometer to measure the internal temperature. Remove the turkey when it reaches and internal temperature of 165° F.

Using your oven mitts, pull the basket out of the hot oil. If you are cooking more than one turkey, you may place the next turkey in the fryer. If not, turn off the hot oil.

Allow the deep fryer to fully cool before discarding the oil.

Allow turkey to rest 15 minutes before carving.