Deep Fried Turkey

Every year I make a deep fried turkey for the annual Friendsgiving event. The turkey always turns out amazing and it’s super simple and saves oven space for all of the other pot luck items which need to be heated.

The system I worked out is:

  1. Buy a frozen turkey. Since the even happens in early November this can actually be a little tricky to find.
  2. Buy the appropriate volume of peanut oil. This seems kind of wasteful, sometimes it costs more than the turkey, but peanut oil is best.
  3. Brine the turkey. The day before I brine the turkey (starting frozen) in the same pot I’m going to fry it in. This gives me a chance to test the oil volume to confirm the turkey will be completely covered.
    • This part is going to depend on the pot, so I can’t say exactly how much oil/brine will be required, but it’s a great idea to do a test. Most people get into trouble with frying a turkey when the pot isn’t big enough.
    • The turkey will defrost in the brine overnight. There’s no need to refrigerate since the brine stays pretty cold from the frozen bird. I usually just leave the pot out in the kitchen.
  4. Deep fry the turkey.
  5. Fry some donuts, churros, or tortillas in cinnamon sugar etc to use the oil to make a dessert.

Brine Recipe

If you’re not brining birds before you cook them you’re doing it wrong! There I said it. Bringing is a great way to prep any bird, in the case of a turkey it’s also a great way to defrost the bird quickly.

The brine can be made up to a week in advance, but for a full turkey it’s quite a lot of volume, so it could be hard to find space to refrigerate. Using only some of the water you can make a concentrated brine then add more water at time of use.

Ingredients

  • 1 gallon water
  • 1/2 cup kosher salt
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup herbes de provence – savory (Tbsp), basil (Tbsp), marjoram (tsp), rosemary (Tbsp), tarragon (Tbsp), thyme (Tbsp), oregano (tsp)
  • 2 heads garlic, halved crosswise but unpeeled
  • 1 onion, sliced

Kosher salt is different from regular salt, so you’ll need less if you use fine salt.

This makes a gallon of brine as I said above the amount of brine you need is about the same as the amount of oil and will depend on your pot and your bird, you can put the bird in the pot measure the amount of water to cover it and then make that much brine by multiplying this recipe.

I used 3 gallons of brine in a large pot for an 18lb bird.

Instructions

  1. So that I don’t have to wait for the brine to cool I use 1/4 of the water (1 quart) initially.
  2. Add all the other ingredients and bring to a boil.
  3. Add the other three quarts of cold water to cool the solution so the bird can be added right away.

Gravy Instructions

Respect to Edna Lewis!

Stock: Earlier in the Day

Because there’s no drippings you need to make a stock. Use the neck and gizzards. I find it useful to buy a couple turkey wings for this part.

Ingredients:

  • Neck and giblets from turkey, chopped to 1/2 inch pieces
  • 1 carrot, peel and dice
  • 1 small onion, peel and dice
  • 1 stalk celery, diced
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 3 whole black peppercorns
  • 3 whole cloves
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 teaspoon fresh thyme
  • 3 parsley stems
  • 1 cup white wine
  • 3 cups water
  • 4 cups chicken stock

Heat the butter in a large saucepan. Chop the turkey neck into 1/2 inch pieces and it it with the giblets to the hot butter. Brown all over. Add the carrots, onion, celery, and salt. Cook 5 minutes stirring regularly until the veggies begin to brown. Add the peppercorns, cloves, bay leaf, thyme, and parsley stems. Cook another 5 minutes. Add the wine, water, and chicken stock and bring to a boil. Simmer for 2 hours. Strain the broth keeping the neck and giblets. Add the broth back to the pot and reduce to 6 cups. Remove the meat from the neck and chop with the giblets.

Roux: 15 Minutes Before Eating

Ingredients:

  • 8 tbsp butter
  • 8 tbsp flour

Melt the butter over medium heat. Add the flour. The consistency should be like honey. Continuously stir with great patience. This is a controlled burning process. Keep going until the roux is a deep even brown like the husk of a dried coconut - about 8-10 minutes.

If black specs appear you stopped stirring or the fire was too hot. A burned roux is a total loss. Have extra butter. Use cast iron or other heavy bottom pan for best results.

Combine: 5 Minutes Before Eating

Slowly whisk (this is important!) the hot, reduced broth into the roux and simmer stirring occasionally until the gravy thickens - about 5 minutes. Add the chopped neck and giblet meat and salt and pepper to taste. If you had drippings this is where you would add them.

Frying Instructions

The internet is rife with hilarious videos of people doing dumb shit like dropping a frozen turkey into a pot which already filled to the brim with boiling oil in the middle of their carpeted living room. Don’t die.

Tips not to die:

  1. Make sure the bird is thawed and patted dry. Water and hot oil react violently. Everything you read will say to rinse after brining, but I don’t. I think it makes the wings and skin a little sweeter which I like.
  2. Measure the volume of oil needed to cover the bird during the brining process so you know that when you add the bird you’ll have plenty of room (at least 6 inches) above the oil so that it doesn’t pour over and light on fire on the burner below.
  3. Have a way to slowly lower the bird into the oil. You want the oil to be hot when you add the bird so there will always be some violent bubbling that happens during this step. Make sure you can lower it slowly if necessary to prevent boiling over.
  4. Don’t fry under an eve or tree or near a wall. Have plenty of space around the fryer.

Frying the Bird

Equipment:

  1. BBQ thermometer
  2. Metal coat hanger. A purpose built turkey fryer will have a basket or other way to pull the bird out. I’m using my homebrew pot so I had to improvise.
  3. Tongs (backup for getting the bird out if it falls apart)
  4. Big tray to put the bird on after frying.
  5. Oil. Peanut oil is best, but it’s expensive. I used 3 gallons of oil with an 18lb bird and it never got back up above 300 with a pretty high BTU home brew burner on full blast the whole time. I think 4 gallons would have been better, but the bird turned out great anyway.

Procedure:

  1. Take out the giblets and neck
  2. Pre-heat the oil to over high heat 400F. You want to cook around 375, but there’s a big temperature drop when the bird goes in, so it’s best to start a little hot to help the temperature recover as fast as possible. You want the burner full blast with the oil heating up a this point.
  3. Using a metal coat hanger make a loop into the neck cavity through the bird and back up then bend around itself to make a secure way to lower the bird into the oil.
  4. Cook for a little over 3 minutes per pound. Use a dual probe BBQ thermometer to monitor oil temp and meat temp. You’re going for ~150-155F in the breast. Anything you read online is going to say you have to get the breast to 165F, that’s liability bullshit. The breast will be dry at that point. Cooking a turkey in parts is the only sane way to do it in the oven, but deep fryer is more forgiving especially with a good brining. Just don’t overcook it!

Bonus Doughnuts

Some 30 years ago in Scouts I remembered making donuts on a camp out using Pillsbury biscuits. This simple recipe is a great way to contribute a desert, have fun with kids, and get a little more mileage out of the oil.

I used Pillsbury Grands, but any canned biscuit should work.

Ingredients

  • 3 Cans Pillsbury biscuits (~24 biscuits)
  • Oil from turkey fry
  • 1 Tbsp Cinnamon
  • 1 cup Sugar

Instructions

  1. Mix the sugar and cinnamon and put the mixture on a plate or tray with a decent height rim.
  2. Prepare a tray with a rack and paper towels under.
  3. Starting with a biscuit break the biscuit in two equal thickness pieces by following the fold grains from the edge. The biscuits are too thick to fry and this gives you more doughnuts.
  4. Poke a finger through the middle of each piece to make a doughnut hole, stretch the hole to about an inch in diameter, try not to compact the dough too much in the process.
  5. Drop the dough into the hot oil and fry on one side for about 2 minutes then flip over with a slotted spoon or spatula and fry 2 minutes on the other side until both sides are browned.
  6. Remove the doughnut from the oil and place it on the waiting rack. Let cool for a minute.
  7. Drop the doughnut into the cinnamon sugar mixture and roll around to cover completely.
  8. Enjoy!