How to Deep Fry a Turkey (but I Wouldn’t Like to Do It)
Thanksgiving has a reputation for endless pickling techniques, divisive side dishes, and contentious relatives. It’s no surprise that hosting can be stressful. If you don’t have the “Right Stuffing” , that is. This series is all about the Thanksgiving meal, and will help you create dishes that will show up on your table year after year, even if it doesn’t help you cope with the in-laws.
If there’s one consistent takeaway I’ve learned from reading every “How to Deep-Fry a Turkey” recipe, over 47 years of Thanksgiving and 20 years as a Red Cross volunteer, it’s this: Don’t deep-fry the turkey; just put it in the damn oven. For reference, I have a very large gas ceramic kiln in my driveway. I weld; I started blowing glass at age fifteen. I really love fire. But in my experience, when you add up hot oil, large frozen birds, flammable terrain, and drunk people with leather, nothing good will happen. However, the assignment was “how to deep fry a turkey safely” and while I’ll argue that there’s really no good reason or way to do it, the safest way to ignore my advice and do it anyway is in an electric deep fryer, inside a .
Introducing Turk ‘n’ Surf
First, you will need to gather your tools and ingredients. I was fortunate enough to use the services of a local kitchen library who loaned me a Masterbuilt Turk ‘n’ Surf turkey fryer and seafood kettle. You can find plenty of electric turkey fryers on Amazon , and they will cost you only a fraction more than the oil needed to fill that fryer. I bought three gallons of peanut butter for $64 and then a miniature eleven pound turkey. The maximum weight of this fryer is fourteen pounds, but later models can accommodate turkeys up to twenty pounds. You’ll also need whatever brine or dry rub ingredients you want to use, ovenproof oven mitts, and a turkey thermometer. Double check that you know where your fire extinguisher is and that it is still working.
Some Basic Rules for the Physics of Turkey Frying
Before we get into this, we need to lay down a basic understanding of the facts: When water meets oil, it sprays. When ice meets oil, it explodes. Oil at 400 degrees will melt your plastic furniture, children’s toys, play structures and children. It will set your landscaping on fire. The main goal is to keep the oil in the pan without allowing it to leave the pan while it is hot, whether due to displacing or repelling water.
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Oil + water = hospital (and ice = water)
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Oil + plastic = fire truck
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Propane + grass/chips/trees/leaves/patio furniture = insurance claim
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Propane + Hot Tubs/Playgrounds/Play Pools = Insurance Claim Denied.
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Fire + oil + children/pets/wildlife = CPS/vet bill/police
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Drunk people never remember how the displacement method works (Fill the bathtub, it won’t overflow. Get into the bathtub, it will now overflow.)
Flavor the bird
There are different ideas on how to cook turkey (I myself prefer Kenji’s osmosis with salt ). Former Lifehacker Senior Food Editor Claire Lower told me to just ” dry rub it ,” but I was surprised at how many recipes call for brining since it adds liquid to the equation (which is bad because of the aforementioned Rule No. 1). But I’m a curious person, and this was my first time deep frying, so I decided out of curiosity to see if I could actually dry a turkey after brining it, and would brining really add anything to the flavor? I also read that you can determine how much oil you will need by placing the turkey in the fryer, filling the pan with water, and then measuring the water. Why not just do it with brine? So I prepared 2 cups of citrus juice of grapefruit, lemon, lime and orange along with one cup of salt, 3 tablespoons of pepper, a whole head of garlic, onion and 2 cups of celery, along with 1 cup of white wine and a tablespoon of Better Than Broth chicken flavored, boiled it in three gallons of water, then let it cool and poured it straight into the fryer. I cleaned the turkey, which at this point was still slightly frostbitten, by removing the plastic hanger by the legs, the pull-out thermometer, the neck, and the bag of giblets that was hidden under the neck flap. (Always check under the neck flap.)
I left the turkey covered outside in the fryer overnight as the temperature was below 40 degrees, but if you live in a warmer climate or local wildlife has developed opposable thumbs, the inside is fine with a little ice to maintain the temperature below. 40°F. I let the turkey cool for eight hours and then carefully removed the turkey basket and looked at the water level in the fryer.
Deep frying is a real trick
Even if you’re going to completely ignore me and deep fry on propane in a pot, you should still brine that pot, even though that clearly means there’s no established trust between us. However, once you remove the turkey from the brine, you now know exactly how much oil you need to coat the bird, right? It seems reasonable now because you’re not drunk yet. All you really need to do now is pour out the brine and dry the pan. (Why wash it if you’re going to heat the oil in it to 350-400°F?)
Light it up
Consider placing a deep fryer in your kitchen. Ideally, under the hood or near a window. I did both: I aimed the fan at the fryer to blow the smoke out the window and placed it under the exhaust fan. Meanwhile, it’s time to add oil to the dry turkey fryer all the way, all the way to the fill line. Now remember, we also know how much to cover the turkey. If the fill line is larger than you need, don’t go all the way. If the fill line is below the desired level… well, we have a problem. You want the entire bird to be covered in oil, so consider: Did the bird sit well in the brine? Horizontally and in the basket as best as possible? Turkey is under weight limit? You also need to be sure not to overfill your electric fryer. But assuming math is math, you should be fine. So pour out the oil (in my experience, three gallons is fine, but… such a waste) and turn on the fryer. If math is n’t math, it’s time to get out the frying pan and move on to plan B.
The air fryer should be set to 400°F, although we are going to fry at about 350°F. Your air fryer may not reach 400 degrees and you can always adjust it, so let’s start by trying to get it hot.
The only time you want the words “dry” and “turkey” together.
Rule No. 1 is Rule No. 1 for a reason: No matter how you flavor that bird, you want it to be as dry as possible before it hits the oil. It’s inside and outside. Use paper towels to give you an advantage, but then place the bird in front of a fan and let it dry, turning it every 15 minutes while the oil heats up. At some point you need to make sure that you are blowing air into the cavity to dry it out too. I cannot stress this enough: any ice on a bird is inherently dangerous, and inside the bird is the last place ice will melt. Double check. Some people store the bird uncovered in the refrigerator overnight to really dry it out, but I don’t have the refrigerator space or inclination to do that.
You dry it for the second reason – crispy skin. It can’t get crispy if the skin is raw.
The oil should heat up for about an hour, after which you should check it with a thermometer. Of course, I don’t need to mention that this is boiling hot oil and you are not made of metal. Wear heat-resistant gloves. Use a thermometer long enough to stay away from the oil. If you reach 400°F, congratulations; now reduce the temperature to 350°F. If it’s at level 350, then you’re good to go.
Read these instructions at least four times.
At this point I felt sorry for the bird, so naked, so I took some dry garlic and chilli and smeared it on it. Place a very dry turkey in the basket horizontally, breast side up, and position it as low as possible. Remove the lid from the fryer and use the hanger that came with your fryer to hold the basket and slowly lower it into the pan. Remember that you will probably have to line up the basket with a notch or something else in the air fryer, so think ahead. When I say lower slowly, keep in mind that it will take 20-30 seconds to lower it all the way down. The oil will react immediately, so you should slowly let it fill the cavity of the turkey, then submerge it in water and finally release the handle from the hanger.
At this point you have two options. Cover the pan or leave it uncovered. I read that covering the pan meant you were trapping steam, which would result in a less crispy turkey, but that didn’t make sense to me since the turkey is in the oil (not in the air) the whole time. Although condensation may form on the lid of the pot, causing those drops to fall back into the oil (resulting in less crispiness), I chose not to risk the safety of my home, dog, and pride, so I put the lid on the pot. The basic calculation is that it should take 3-1/2 minutes per pound, which gives me about 40 minutes. However, many recipes suggest removing the turkey when the breast temperature reaches 145°F rather than the FDA recommended temperature of 165°F, since it will continue to rise once removed. It made sense to me.
I was kind of glad that about halfway through cooking I noticed a slight whiff of citrus and pepper, which made me think the bird would be fine.
After about thirty minutes, my chest temperature was 145°F and it was time to go out. I was not happy with this process. You’ll need to think about where you’ll put the turkey basket, and remember, you don’t want oil getting into your sink. So I stuck some paper towels in the sink and, using gloves and a hook, removed the basket very slowly, allowing the oil to drain as I lifted it. I tilted the basket so it was completely empty of the turkey, then moved it three feet toward the sink.
After that, I let the turkey rest for fifteen minutes and thought about moving it to a cutting board. I tried several times to carefully remove it, but decided that the best thing to do was throw it away. It immediately burst into my legs and chest, which I took as a good sign that the job was done. The skin was not crispy despite best efforts. Research shows that this is a common problem and is addressed by the previously suggested solutions: dry the bird well and leave the lid open. I took the letter “L”.
The finished result
I shaved off some of the white and dark meat and gave it a try. Guys, here’s the thing: I don’t love turkey as much as some people. But if done correctly, within the first hour after the turkey comes out of the oven, it will be moist, silky and delicious. Except when you deep fry it. It was tasteless, tough and dry. So much so that I took my temperature again, still only 160°F in my chest. It did not retain the taste of either the brine or the dry rub. I’d rather have Colonel Sanders, and you don’t have to figure out how to get rid of three gallons of oil if you’re using KFC. It wasn’t the worst turkey: my almost-mother-in-law believed that unseasoned turkeys should be thrown in the oven and sprayed with Pam every few hours. But my bar, as you now understand, is low.
Call me a snob, but I demand more from my bird.
How to clean after frying
Instead, I’d like to think of all the possible things I could deep fry while the oil is hot to take advantage of it. Broccoli! Potato! Garlic! Twinkies! Anything to use this oil that I bought for this one occasion. Instead I just let it cool like a complete fool; then, using a funnel, I carefully and slowly poured it back into the bottle it came in and then dropped that bottle off at a vegetable oil recycler in my area.
Wipe the inside of the fryer until it is squeaky dry with paper towels and store in a box if possible. Then take that box to the edge of the cliff, dump it, and make an oven-roasted bird next year.