A Man and His Deep-Fried Turkey

So the best way to stick with some healthy new year choices is to give your husband a turkey fryer for Christmas. Or did you already know that?

It took us a few days to get mentally prepared for such edible joy. Hubby bought some peanut oil (highly recommended), and I defrosted a turkey breast (that I got on clearance after Thanksgiving) from the freezer. We were ready for this.

Luckily, we were both impressed and happy with the quality of the fryer. Certain pieces come off for easy cleaning and can even be placed in the dishwasher. We did everything by hand afterwards, because that’s how paranoid we are we roll.

The black liner on top is the vent, and the window below allows you to see inside during cooking. We couldn’t see much because of all the hard work that the grease was accomplishing inside.

   

We Hubby first washed the turkey breast and even removed some excess skin that was only going to hurt our cooking process. Then, Hubby patted the turkey dry, inside and out. This prevented the water from splattering as it hit the hot oil in the fryer.

The turkey breast next went into the fryer basket, where it would live for the next seven-minutes-per-pound, or about an hour. The breast needs a little longer to cook than just a plain ol’ turkey, which only needs four minutes per pound.

Yep. Turkey dinner in under an hour. Sign me up, please!

This little guy is ready to meet his maker the oil. Let’s get this into some grease, Hubby!

The instructions say to lower it very slowly…again, to prevent splattering. Hot oil, hanging out at a temperature of 375 degrees, wouldn’t be very fun all over us. He went nice and slow as he lowered this dry turkey into heaven below.

Then he removed the handles, closed the lid, and let this baby burn, burn, burn! You have no idea how delicious the house started to smell after a little while!

And lots of steam vented through the top so the temperature remained constant for the turkey. We are still impressed with this little machine! So far, so good!

We knew when to put the turkey inside the oil when this green light came on. After reading the instruction manual and knowing how to start, this fryer did all of the dirty work!

Soon, but not nearly soon enough, the timer went off. It was time to bring this deliciousness out for dinner!

Oh my oh my. I think that we have a successful first attempt at turkey frying! I’ve been told that once you go fried turkey, you never go back. And now I feel like I know what they’re talking about! (And agree).

We let it cool for about ten minutes inside the basket. This also allowed any residual grease to fall back into the oil below. We are healthy.

While we waited for the cooling, I prepared some salads to enjoy with dinner. You know, because a small dinner salad totally cancels out any deep-fried aspect to our meat portion tonight…

Once it was cool enough to work with, Hubby carved this sucker up. And we all tried a few small pieces as they came away from the knife. Because normal people can’t wait!

My goodness. Where do I even begin to describe this incredible treat. It was so juicy! And (for Charloe) so moist! This turkey was loaded with all sorts of flavor, without us even using any spices or rubs (you can do that, by the way). The outside had a nice, crispy texture while the inside just melted.

I approve. Whole-heartedly.

It only felt right to invite our best friends over to celebrate our first deep-frying turkey experience. Ted and Ann joined us for dinner and can vouch for how yummy this beast was!

Man, now I’m hungry!

How about you? Have you ever had deep-fried turkey? Do you ever fry in your house? Do tell! We are on the look-out for ideas of things that will be better after cooking in hot oil!