I have cooked turkey every way you can over the years for our Thanksgiving dinners. Crockpot turkey is excellent and browns and gets crispy if you don't add too much water and broth, oven is fine, spatchcocked is great BUT nothing competes with a deep-fried turkey...NOTHING!

Here is what I do. Try it and you won't go back.

BE SURE TO COMPLETELY THAW THE TURKEY

Get a turkey under 20 lbs. If you have a big family gathering planned and need more meat, then get 2 turkeys but don't buy one of those giant birds. They just don't taste as good as the birds under 20lbs. 16-18 is ideal.

Buy creole butter seasoning and the injector if you don't have an injector. Zatarains makes this seasoning and a couple others do too. Any brand is fine. The seasoning is only about $6 with the injector. Inject the bird in every major area...breast, thigh, leg and wing. don't go crazy putting holes in the bird it will let the marinade run out. Put 3-4 holes in each breast and thigh and move the injector around putting about an ounce in each injection hole. 2 in the legs, 2 in the wings and do the underside too. Then let it sit for about 30 min.

Season the outside skin AND the inside cavity of the bird generously with a dry rub (NOT SUGAR BASED) You can use a garlic herb seasoning or salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, garlic, etc... Rub it evenly all over the bird and let it rest for at least 2 hours in a room temp container.

Get the oil to 350 and lower the bird into oil. It must be fully covered in oil. Let it cook for 3-3.5 min per pound. Remove the bird and let it rest sealing all the flavor in for a least 30 min before cutting into it.

THAT'S IT!

Enjoy and share your thoughts or suggestions

Happy holidays everyone

Kevin

I have never done a fried turkey

I wanted to do it but the wife says she likes them done in the Big Easy oilless fryer. They do turn out great

I used to smoke them but that is a long, pain in the ass process

In as much as I wouldn't mind trying a fried turkey, I will still smoke it on the BGE.
I know frying would taste great, too much work and expense for me.

I also have a Charbroil Big Easy that I have used many times for chicken and turkey. Birds really do come out great in the Big Easy. It's hard to beat. The deep fry is better, but it is more work.

Anyone tried the expensive Popeyes Cajun Turkey? Supposedly it is really good. They cook it and drop it off at your door but at $100 per turkey I'll pass.

My best turkey ever was when I lived in Canada (they celebrate TG 6 weeks earlier).

I went to a butcher and purchased a free range turkey from them. I paid extra and had them spatchcock it (way more work on turkey vs chicken due to heavier bone structure). Essentially they cut out the backbone and score it enough so that it lays flat on the grill with zero cavity. It's faster and juicier than any other method on grill or smoker.

I applied a rub (AmazingRibs' Simon & Garfunkel) and hot smoked it at 325 on my BGE. Most importantly, I cooked it to temperature not time and I used an accurate leave in digital temperature probe not the infernal free pop-up. The skin was golden and crisp, and it was so juicy when I removed the probe the juice shot out over a foot.

I've been injecting/frying turkeys for 30 years and this year will be my last as I just paid $55 for a 4 gallon jug of peanut oil. Ridiculous.

One topic that comes up prior to every Thanksgiving is wet brining a turkey. Sounds great, but I'd like to point out a few things before somebody spends the time and ties up all of that fridge space.

My thoughts on wet brining:

95% of the time, wet brining is a waste of time. The reason is that most turkeys are injection brined prior to freezing and it's ~8% of the weight of the turkey (i.e. 1.6 pounds of a 20-lb turkey is brine). Dunking a turkey in a brine isn't going to add anything to the injection brining it already received. I actually did a test one year and used cranberry juice in the brine to see how deep it went and it only colored the surface.

The other 5% of the time, is where you've purchased (intentionally or accidentally) a turkey that wasn't injection brined before freezing or refrigerating. However, it's not going to go very deep anyway so might as well reduce your time and expenses by dry brining (~1/4 tsp per pound of meat the night before) and applying a salt-free rub right before smoking.

My wife cooks one day a year and that's Thanksgiving. I don't offer advice only help. She does a fine job so no big complaints. She does her turkey in one of those oven bags and they come out great. Now for me I'll make them in the summer. My method is brine for 24 hours in a good brine. I make my own. Next spatchcock that thing. Put on the wood fired smoker and baste with garlic butter.

LMS, do you spatchcock before or after brining? Does it matter one way or the other?

Screw that. Ribs & brisket with the usual bbq sides, along with enchiladas & tamales.

Pumpkin pie of course. There may be banana pudding.
.

I will trade my turkey for a ham and my pumpkin pie for pecan.

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:
LMS, do you spatchcock before or after brining? Does it matter one way or the other?

I've always done it after bringing and rinsing. I suppose you could do it before hand without a problem. And tatortodd you are correct about birds being injected with solution before you buy them. Check the labels and buy the one with the least amount of solution. You can actually draw some of this solution out by just soaking the bird in cold water for awhile. Rinse it and then put it in your own brine solution. I've never done this but have been told it works.

Turkeys get way over thunk once a year!

I fry four simultaneously every year at work, creole butter and all.

quote:

Originally posted by FLKev:
Anyone tried the expensive Popeyes Cajun Turkey? Supposedly it is really good. They cook it and drop it off at your door but at $100 per turkey I'll pass.

After peanut oil, turkey, brine, and seasoning. 100$ is a steal.

Deep-fried turkey is the ONLY way to go! I do mine similarly, but I use a meat thermometer to check doneness, way less guesswork.

quote:

Originally posted by Phelen_Kell:
Deep-fried turkey is the ONLY way to go! I do mine similarly, but I use a meat thermometer to check doneness, way less guesswork.

I also use a meat probe that has continuous monitoring and hang it from the fryer with the probe in the bird during the cooking --the time I listed is to give an idea to those that don;t have these things---I turn it off and pull the bird when the breast is at 165 - I have also tried my infrared temp gun and it seems to be accurate within a few degrees

I will be frying two smaller birds this year. I have a good cajun recipe for one bird and I'm trying to try to find a more standard recipe for the second but pretty much every recipe I see is creole-based.

I will just brine them the same and then maybe use a Lawry's-based rub and leave some of the cajun influences out of my injection for the second bird.

quote:

Originally posted by YellowJacket:
I will be frying two smaller birds this year. I have a good cajun recipe for one bird and I'm trying to try to find a more standard recipe for the second but pretty much every recipe I see is creole-based.

I will just brine them the same and then maybe use a Lawry's-based rub and leave some of the cajun influences out of my injection for the second bird.

Cajun vs Creole = same seasoning just different marketing audience

I'm going to brine and spatchcock & Brine x2 this year.

A really big spatchcocked bird will just fit in my Masterbuilt Electric smoker. Toss in some probes and let em go.