Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and speaking of gobble gobble, I don't know how many of you have ever had fried turkey but if you haven't YOU ARE MISSING OUT. To quote my uncle it's, "the best damn turkey you ever ate." So when I learned that my uncle was not going to be coming to thanksgiving this year and thus was not frying a turkey I was really disappointed. I was so disappointed that I asked my step mom if my sister and I could fry a turkey ourselves if we bought the ingredients (mainly peanut oil and seasoning). She and my grammy reluctantly agreed. $30 & about 4 gallons of LouAnn's peanut oil + 2 partial cans of Tony Chachere's seasoning later we were ready to go! To the right is a picture of our turkey, post Tony's rub. My uncle usually uses a whole can. We didn't quite have that much, but I think it turned out alright in the end.
Now, there are about 6 steps to frying a turkey. 1) Make sure the turkey is FULLY thawed. This means you should start defrosting it the night before. 2) Do not over fill the pot with oil. To make sure of this we put the turkey in the pot, filled the pot with water so that it just covered the turkey, removed the turkey (making sure all of the water drained out), then marked the waterline by scratching the pot with a pocket knife. 3) Bring the oil to 375-400 degrees then keep the temperature steady at 350 degrees. 4) Slowly lower the turkey into the pot to avoid splashing. The picture to the right is my sister, and boyfriend putting the turkey into the pot. If you do not follow rules 1, 2 and 4 that's when things get dangerous and you run the risk of injury and/or house fire. 5) Cook the turkey for about 3-4 minutes per pound, or until an internal temperature of 160 degrees is reached. We had a 13lb turkey and cooked it for 39 minutes, at which point its internal temperature was around 175. 6) Let the turkey sit for about 5 minutes before you remove the turkey from the base and skewer, or begin carving. After 5 minutes carve, serve, and enjoy!
Above is a picture of the finished turkey pre- and post-carving. Look at that crisp brown skin! mmm, mmm good!
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