WARNING: If you aren’t sure you can handle a large bucket of boiling oil DON’T TRY THIS – PLEASE! It’s a DANGEROUS procedure – especially if you are exceptionally clumsy or stupid! Below are a few reminders about NOT putting in too much oil, cooking indoors, etc…
ITEMS YOU’LL NEED:
- A large turkey fryer with rack and hanger with burner
- A FULL tank of propane (if using gas cooker)
- One THAWED turkey
- Italian dressing
- White wine
- Tony Chachere’s Original Creole Seasoning (recipe below or buy it in stores)
- Cooking oil (Peanut or Canola oil) (to fill approx. 1/2 to 1/3 of pot. Some estimate between 2 to 4 1/2 gallons)
- Seasoning injector
- A long shank thermometer
- A timer
- Butcher’s Twine
- Two large bowls
- A strainer
- A funnel and filter to strain the grease
PREP:
- Wash the turkey, remove the giblets and pop-up timers, and cut the extra skin from around the neck and the tail.
- Remove the neck as well, but save it for Bob’s Famous Turkey Neck Trick.
- Next, run the Italian dressing through the strainer into one bowl. Then add equal portions of the strained Italian dressing and the white wine. The rule of thumb is 1 oz of marinade for each pound of turkey.
- Mix the mixture with the seasoning, stirring constantly so the dressing and wine don’t separate.
- Inject the turkey with the marinade.
- Rub more cajun seasoning into the turkey so that all surfaces of the bird are well-seasoned.
- Place the bird in a turkey-sized oven bag. Then refrigerate at least overnight. A longer marination time equals a more flavorful bird. (To prevent fridge contamination, place the bag in a plastic bowl or tub.)
FRYING:
- Remove the bird for 30 minutes prior to cooking.
- Rub turkey down again with Tony’s seasoning and tie turkey’s legs together (yes, together) so you can easily remove the turkey from the pot.
- Set up fryer and pour in oil. Tie thermometer inside pot with string so you can easily monitor the cooking temperature of the oil. Heat oil to 350 degrees F.
- Lower turkey slowly into oil carefully careful not to allow oil to spill over.
- Keep the oil temperature as close to 350 degrees F. as possible while cooking.
- Set timer (4 minutes per pound – turkey breasts: only 5 minutes). Calculate the cooking time from the weight sticker. (A 12 lb. turkey takes approx. one hour).
- When the timer goes off, remove turkey from pot.
- The internal temperature should be 150 to 155 degrees (with the bird reaching the safe and desired internal temperature of 160 degrees as it rests due to carry-over cooking.)
- Let cool for 30 minutes before carving.
MORE TIPS:
- Use only turkeys smaller than 18 pounds. Anything more will not get done in the middle before the outside becomes burnt.
- Before frying it, put the turkey in the pot and add cold water till it comes just over the top of the turkey. Remove the turkey and mark the inside of the pot. Then add the oil to that mark. A good rule of thumb is the oil should barely cover the top of the turkey, and should 4 to 5 inches below the top of the pot. DRY THE POT before putting in your oil and starting the burners!
- NEVER leave the fryer alone and keep animals and children out of the cooking area.
- NEVER fry a frozen turkey. Water and hot oil react to each other very violently.
- NEVER let the oil go above 350 degrees! The oil can itself ignite at 400 to 425 degrees.
- Please keep a dry-chemical fire extinguisher on hand. Remember, do not use water to put out an oil fire.
- NEVER deep fry indoors, in the garage, or on a wooden deck.
- You can fry 4 – 5 turkeys before changing the oil. Let the oil cool completely before discarding or straining and saving.
- Here is a handy thawing chart.
Tony Chachere’s Famous Creole Seasoning:
Mix everything but the salt and then add the salt to taste. When it is salty enough, it’s seasoned to perfection!
- 1 1/2 ounce box ground black pepper
- 2 oz. bottle ground red pepper
- 1 oz. bottle pure garlic powder
- 1 oz. bottle chili powder
- 26 oz. box of salt
