Deep frying a turkey!

I deep fried the Turkey for Christmas, it tasted amazing! But there are a few things I can improve on.

I heated the oil to 375 before I dropped the turkey in. When you drop the bird the oil temperature will fall a lot. Leave the heat on as high as it will go to get the temperature back to 375 as quickly as possible. Once it hits 375 you want to reduce the heat to keep it there steady by adjusting the propane, this is tricky.

I had tried to estimate how much oil would cover the bird, but erred on the high side and had a moment with oil boiling over and catching on fire. This is MUCH scarier than the video portrays, that’s 15L of 375 degree oil on fire next to a propane tank. I was getting ready to shut everything down but the flames died quickly enough and things went back to being calm.

Last year I cooked the bird for 51 minutes, it was a little on the well done side. This year, I pulled it at 45 minutes and stuck my thermometer in the breast meat. One side was over 160 and the other was just shy. I’d rather it be a little tough than give everyone food poisoning, so another 5 minutes bringing the total to 50. The second time I pulled it everything was above 160 degrees.

Brought the bird back inside to let it rest before cutting it apart. It was incredibly juicy and tender. But this year was a little saltier than I would like. I had brined it in salt water for 3 days instead of 2 like I had done previously. I’m going back to 2 full days instead for the brine, or I might cut down on the salt and try a different recipe.

The lessons I learned were: use less oil for the initial drop. Last year I didn’t have enough and adding more once the temperature was stable was a lot less scary than what I did this time. Next time I’ll brine for 2 days instead of 3. The end product was still incredibly good, but a little salty. I had read somewhere online about people brining for 5 days so I gave mine an extra day. I won’t do that again, just a little over 48 hours would probably be the sweet spot.

Here was the timeline for this year: December 18 take the Turkey out of the freezer and transfer to refrigerator. December 20 put the bird in brine. Dec 23 pull the bird out of brine, rinse, inject with butter, chicken stock and lemon juice. Coat with creole dry rub. Dec 24 1 extra day to dry and leak in the fridge. Dec 25 deep fry it.

On my next try I will brine 1 day less, and I will pull the turkey at 48 minutes for my first temperature check…or maybe get one of those fancy remote thermometers so I’ll know exactly when it hits 160 degrees.

Anyways, great turkey, will be doing it again. Merry Christmas!