Description
Instructions for a great fried turkey
Ingredients
- 1 12-14 pound turkey, fully thawed
- Salt and pepper
- Vegetable oil
- Kitchen twine
For the Injection
- 1/2 pound salted butter, melted
- 2 oz. any mixture of fresh sage, rosemary, and thyme
- 1 cinnamon stick
- Dash of ground pepper
Turkey Fryer Setup:
- Fryer kit: pot with lid, turkey stand, hook for lifting, burner, and fuel hose
- Propane tank
- 3–5 gallons peanut oil, depending on the size of your pot and the size of your bird
Equipment
- Multipurpose fire extinguisher
- Dual-channel alarm thermometer, like Smoke X2
- 12-inch Pro®-series probe
- Instant read thermometer, like the Thermapen® ONE
- Heavy-duty, elbow-length gloves
- Safety goggles
- Clean pan to place finished turkey in
- Lawnchair for you to sit and monitor the cook
Instructions
- Prepare the butter by simmering all the ingredients for the injection in the butter for about 5 minutes. Strain the butter and set aside.
- Remove the neck, giblets, pop-up timer (if your turkey has one), and trim away excess fat and skin from the neck cavity so the bubbling oil is able to flow freely through the turkey during the cook.
- Use the water displacement method as described above to properly gauge how far to fill the pot with oil. Take note of that measurement.
- Pat thawed turkey completely dry with paper towels.
- Draw up melted butter into meat injector and inject meat in several places throughout the breasts, legs, and the meaty part of the wings.
- Separate the skin from the breast meat. Rub the outside of the turkey with oil and season with salt and pepper (the oil helps the salt and pepper to stick).
- Turkey stand or basket:
- Turkey Stand: Fit turkey over stand or skewer provided in your kit. Tie wings back and truss legs securely with kitchen twine.
- Fryer Basket: Or, truss the legs and secure the wings with twine, and place the seasoned bird in the fryer basket.
- Place a Pro Series high temp penetration probe into the deepest part of the breast, avoiding bone. Set Smoke’s high alarm for the channel that will be used for monitoring the meat’s internal temperature to the turkey’s pull temp of 157°F (69°C).
- Set up fryer burner outside on a flat surface at least 10 feet away from any buildings. Connect hose to the propane tank.
- Place fryer pot on top of the burner. With the gas and burner OFF, fill the pot with oil to the level as measured from water displacement done earlier.
- Using a pot clip, secure a 12″ probe to the side of the pot. Set the oil channel’s high alarm to 250°F (121°C). Connect the probe to Smoke X2.
- Using the burner’s instructions, turn the gas on and light the burner.
- When the alarm sounds, turn off the gas and very slowly lower the turkey into the fryer (wearing an apron, safety goggles, and gloves). Attach the meat’s probe to Smoke.
- Set Smoke’s oil channel high alarm to 350°F (177°C), and the low alarm to 320°F (160°C). Turn on the gas and ignite the burner. Adjust the gas level to maintain the oil’s temperature in this range.
- Kick back in your lawn chair and watch your turkey cook. Most 12-14 pound turkeys will cook in 30-45 minutes. Turkeys larger than 14 pounds will take longer to cook, and the outer area of the meat will be overcooked by the time the internal pull temperature is reached. We used a TimeStick® and counted up the time to keep an eye on the length of our cook. It took our turkey 35 minutes to reach its final pull temperature of 157°F (69°C).
- Don’t Walk Away! Even though Smoke has a very handy wireless receiver, stay right by your fryer’s side through the entire cook. Grab a magazine or a good book and wait for your turkey’s high alarm to go off.
- When the meat’s high alarm sounds, turn the gas off completely. Very slowly and carefully lift the turkey out of the oil and set into a clean roasting pan. Spot-check the internal temperature with an instant-read thermometer like a Thermapen to verify that the tracked temperature is the lowest found.
- If a lower temperature is found, replace the probe into the lowest temperature area in the meat, and return the turkey to the oil. Turn the burner back on and allow to cook until the pull temperature of 157°F (69°C) is reached.
- Allow the turkey to rest for about 15-20 minutes.
- While wearing gloves, remove the turkey from the fryer basket or turkey stand and place onto a carving board. Carve your turkey and serve!
- Allow the oil to cool entirely before pouring it out of the pot and either straining and storing for later use, or disposing of appropriately.