Hey anyone doing fried turkey for Thanksgiving?

[Tom]

A timely thread.  Just saw an electric turkey fryer on HSN.  Found this on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Butterball-Indoor-Electric-Turkey-Fryer/dp/B00NZFNPUY/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=14

Looks like a big improvement over the outdoor propane burner type.     Me....I'm just using a broiler bag and air oven.  I thought about buying one of those supermarket packaged dinner deals.  Faster, easier for me to cook my own at home.  Good way to watch the football games too. 

[smdl]

What, you mean next year?

Sorry, Canadian humour!  😜

Shaun

[Arizona Wayne]

I ate turkey boiled in peanut oil once.............it tasted like peanuts. 

[Tom]

What, you mean next year?

Sorry, Canadian humour!  😜

Shaun

For you.  Yeah but you could drive south and celebrate it U.S. style.

[Tom]

I ate turkey boiled in peanut oil once.............it tasted like peanuts. 

Veg. or safflower oil probably would have been better.

[Arizona Wayne]

Veg. or safflower oil probably would have been better.

I was a guest so didn't say anything. Beggers can't be choosers. 

[Tom]

Someone else cooking, does entail some editorial control. 

[LowRyter]

My BIL fries two Turkeys each Thanksgiving.  He purchased an electric fryer last year and says it's much safer and easier.  IIRC the family turkey cookers have always fried turkeys in peanut oil and used flavor injection (usually Cajun spice). 

I think my favorite has always been smoked turkey. 

I am just reporting, since I've never ever cooked a turkey.

[Wayne Orwig]

I ate turkey boiled in peanut oil once.............it tasted like peanuts. 

Synthetic or dino?

Yep, it is the time of year for a bunch of Georgians to burn down the neighborhoods with turkey fries.

[Perazzimx14]

I used to fry turkeys until I watched Alton Brown on Good Eats and his brine method. This will be my 4th or 5th year brining and roasting on the BGE over lump charcoal. I have no plans to return to frying. Former fryers at work have also tried AB brine and will not go back.

[Triple Jim]

Funny Perazzimx14, I was just going to post that brining is the new deep frying.   

[Shorty]

I remember when my brother the prolific hunter (and prez of his local Wild Turkey Federation) deep cooked his first bird. It shrank down to nearly nothing . We had to fall back on black bear and bovine meat to feed all the guests....

[old head]

I was a guest so didn't say anything. Beggers can't be choosers. 

well they did it wrong, been frying for the last 30 years, never had that happen, or at least no one has ever told me that.

However, I will say I have switched to an oil less fryer due the wife developing a peanut allergy.  Maybe its our age, but I like just as much, and not as messy, and no peanut oil to deal with.

Its all in the way you prepare the bird.

Old Head

[smdl]

For you.  Yeah but you could drive south and celebrate it U.S. style.

I like it!   

Hope you folks enjoy your Thanksgiving as much as we enjoyed ours!  Pretty smart to get TWO days off instead of just one, too!

Cheers,
Shaun

[Ncdan]

Yep, I deep fry, in peanut oil, 2-3 for me, friends or kin folk, every thanksgiving morning. We all get together that morning around 8 am and fire up the oil, get to 320deg and put the first bird in. Then we take coat hangers and put on country ham thick slices of country ham for ham biscuits and coffee. Then while waiting the guitars, fiddle, mandolin and bass comes out and the picking begins until time go switch out the birds. Good times, hope all the guys here has a great thanksgiving!!!

[OlDogface]

I'm single. Does a Cornish game hen in the air fryer count?

Yes, it's a thing!

See page 25: 

http://www.usa.philips.com/consumerfiles/pageitems/locales/en_US/CONSUMER/categorypages/Airfryer2013/assets_v3/pdf/Airfryer_Recipe_Book_UnitedStates.pdf

 

[Tom]

Cornish game hen.   

[LowRyter]

I like to half the game hens, brine for 3 hours+, rub with Mediterranean seasoning, and grill with smoke.   

[JeffOlson]

We are, too. We picked up an electric turkey fryer the other day at Cabela's (while buying guns!!!). We plan to fry two turkeys (one Wednesday night, the other on Thursday). We tried peanut oil with a different (propane) fryer some years ago. We will use a different oil this time (though I love peanuts!).

[Lannis]

Just got my new "rotisserie kit" in the mail today that I'm going to install on my old "Aussie"-brand square charcoal grill. 

I've eaten a lot of fried and brined turkeys, but my favorites always turn out to be an old-fashioned rotisseried bird over charcoal ....

Lannis

[Triple Jim]

... for Christmas I'm getting her a kamato type grill.

I'm not sure a new grill is enough of a Christmas present for a wife.  Maybe if you add a set of new tires for her car...

[Nic in Western NYS]

This turkey thread courtesy of 'Tom.'

[Perazzimx14]

Did you have to add more charcoal during the cooking time?

Wife always cooks ours on regular charcoal grill, and its great. But for Christmas I'm getting her a kamato type grill. Just wondering if that will make it easier for her.

I have a large Big Green Egg and a full compliment of charcoal is a little over 7 pounds. That amount of virgin charcoal will last 30+ hours doing 225 degree low and slow sessions and easily last 6 hrs at 350 degrees. To light 1 to 1-1/2 once of denatured alcohol. At $15 per gallon it last a long time and no off flavors from typical charcoal lighter fluid. 90% rubbing or grain alcohol also work as do wax/saw dust blocks, propane torch or electric heating element. There are lots of options for lighting but alcohol in a small squirt bottle is what I have come to rely on.

To go one step further a BBQ Guru is the bee's knees for low and slow cooks. Set the pit temp, set the finished meat temp and a small electronically controlled fan puffs air in to the BGE as need to maintain temperature. Once the meat is done it has an audible beep or you can also set up a "ramp" feature. Ramp for example is if your pit is set to 225* and your target meat temperature 180* once the meat gets to about 170* it will start ramping down the pit temp until the pit and meat meet at 180* and hold it there at that temperature until all the fuel is exhausted.

I am a big proponent of the BGE brand. For the 1st 3 or 4 years that's all i cooked on (I do all the cooking for the kid, wife and I) and used over a 1000 lbs of charcoal per year doing so. I don't use it as much but still use about 500 lbs of charcoal (just ordered 200 lbs today). The BGE is great in the warranty department. Over the years I  have had a couple fire rings crack, one fire box and the a cast iron grate stress crack. Take a picture of the damage send it to your local dealer and in a week or so new parts arrive. In the last few years Lowes/Home Depot and places like that have had ceramic grill offerings. I do not know if or what their warranties are but if the warrant isn't for life stay away. Yes you might save a $100 or so initially but if something breaks (and it will if you use it enough) what you saved up front you will easily spend that and more assuming you can even get parts.

Another selling point of the BGE is the plate setter. It is a ceramic shelf that is used for indirect cooking flipped one way is a pizza/bread stone flipped with the legs up, water pan on it and the grill grate on top of the legs for slow and slow.

The plate setter make the BGE versatile. You can do traditional grilling/smoking of meats but you can also bake, cook, roast &  fry on the BGE. If it can be done in your home oven or range it can be done better on the BGE.   

Probably more than you wanted but I hope it gives you some direction into what manufacturer of komado style cooker you choose.

[Guzzistajohn]

I have a turkey brining to cook tonight in the big green egg. We're having turkey for lunch tomorrow at country home elevator! Never had a fryer, they're good but I like applewood smoke myself.

[Guzzistajohn]

I have a large Big Green Egg and a full compliment of charcoal is a little over 7 pounds. That amount of virgin charcoal will last 30+ hours doing 225 degree low and slow sessions and easily last 6 hrs at 350 degrees. To light 1 to 1-1/2 once of denatured alcohol. At $15 per gallon it last a long time and no off flavors from typical charcoal lighter fluid. 90% rubbing or grain alcohol also work as do wax/saw dust blocks, propane torch or electric heating element. There are lots of options for lighting but alcohol in a small squirt bottle is what I have come to rely on.

To go one step further a BBQ Guru is the bee's knees for low and slow cooks. Set the pit temp, set the finished meat temp and a small electronically controlled fan puffs air in to the BGE as need to maintain temperature. Once the meat is done it has an audible beep or you can also set up a "ramp" feature. Ramp for example is if your pit is set to 225* and your target meat temperature 180* once the meat gets to about 170* it will start ramping down the pit temp until the pit and meat meet at 180* and hold it there at that temperature until all the fuel is exhausted.

I am a big proponent of the BGE brand. For the 1st 3 or 4 years that's all i cooked on (I do all the cooking for the kid, wife and I) and used over a 1000 lbs of charcoal per year doing so. I don't use it as much but still use about 500 lbs of charcoal (just ordered 200 lbs today). The BGE is great in the warranty department. Over the years I  have had a couple fire rings crack, one fire box and the a cast iron grate stress crack. Take a picture of the damage send it to your local dealer and in a week or so new parts arrive. In the last few years Lowes/Home Depot and places like that have had ceramic grill offerings. I do not know if or what their warranties are but if the warrant isn't for life stay away. Yes you might save a $100 or so initially but if something breaks (and it will if you use it enough) what you saved up front you will easily spend that and more assuming you can even get parts.

Another selling point of the BGE is the plate setter. It is a ceramic shelf that is used for indirect cooking flipped one way is a pizza/bread stone flipped with the legs up, water pan on it and the grill grate on top of the legs for slow and slow.

The plate setter make the BGE versatile. You can do traditional grilling/smoking of meats but you can also bake, cook, roast &  fry on the BGE. If it can be done in your home oven or range it can be done better on the BGE.   

Probably more than you wanted but I hope it gives you some direction into what manufacturer of komado style cooker you choose.

I'm in my 15th year of BGE ownership. I use an electric starter.

[OlDogface]

This turkey thread courtesy of 'Tom.'

 

[Guzzistajohn]

Liner notes by, drum roll............... ...........jake

[Green1000S]

We did it once in Texas. I have a good advise for you.

Pour the peanut oil into the aluminum kettle BEFORE you fire the propane.
After one too many beers, we lost the bottom of the kettle in about 30 seconds.

Thanks for Walmart, we got a new one that kept peanut oil in it. Was delicious!

[oldbike54]

 Dunno , I usually eat nachos for thanksgiving 

 Dusty

[Guzzistajohn]

It doesn't take a holiday to eat a bird< shrug>