Hello all,
For the last few weeks I've been checking out turkey recipes here on the forum. I have learned quite a bit from all of the posts and I thought that I would share my thanksgiving recipe. This year I decided to smoke then deep fry my turkey. I think that I'll be doing this every year from now on as it was a HIT!
I started by buying an 11 lb. fresh not frozen turkey(probably does not matter). However I got my turkey only 4 days before thanksgiving and I didn't have time to thaw it for days in the fridge. I bought a small turkey because we were guests at my sisters house and she bought a huge 24 pounder. Also I wasnt sure how it was going to turn out and didnt want to face an angry mob should the turkey not work out.
I decided to brine my turkey in a plastic 5 gallon bucket for 2 days. Here is how I did it.
Brine Recipe
2 gallons water
1 3/4 cups canning salt
2 handfulls of brown sugar
1 handfull of garlic powder
half a palm full of thyme and rosemary
pinch or two of Red pepper flakes
Big Onion sliced
Put all of the above in 5 gallon pail and stir.
Place turkey in brine and then into the fridge for 2 days. Stir twice a day. If you dont have an extra fridge use a cooler with ice.
After 2 days remove the turkey and let it drain. Ive seen where people let it drain for a day. I didnt. I pulled mine out and sat it big hole down in the sink for about 15 minutes. Dry skin with towel.
1. Rub with olive oil and dust whole bird with favorite seasoning.
2. Preheat Bradley to 150F
3. Place bird in smoker and start smoke (I used Alder and Hickory) Although I've read to use apple or pecan
4. Smoke for 2 hours
5. Flip bird over and smoke for another 2 hours
Here is where things get a little tricky. Proper planning will really help here. While your bird is smoking preheat your oil in the deep fryer to 350 degrees. 350 degrees is the proper temp. Also make sure that you have planned for the correct amount of oil. You want the turkey completely submerged in the oil. But too much oil and it will spill out of the top when the bird goes in.
6. Remove the bird form the smoker
7. Place a temp probe in the inner thigh (I use a long one as I dont want it to end up in the hot oil)
8. Very slowly submerge the bird into the fryer. My fryer has a cage that holds the bird vertically and makes this easy. if yours doesnt, just have good plan on getting the bird in and out of the fryer. The bird must go in slowly as the oil will tend to splatter if you go too fast.
9. Fry until the internal temp is 165 degrees. Keep a very close eye on the internal temp as it fries. (Since the bird has already been cooking in the smoker this will go fast.) When I took my bird out of the smoker it had an internal temp of 145 degrees. I only had to fry it for 11 minutes (1 minute a pound).
10. As soon as the IT hits 165, remove the bird and let it drain in a metal pan.
11. allow the bird to cool for a bit before slicing and eating.
This is how I did it and it worked out great. Everyone said it was the best that they ever had and I had fun doing it. Everyone is still talking about it.
Good luck!
That sounds great, but I'm not sure I would bother flipping the bird over at the two hour mark.
My only thought with flippng the bird over was evenness. That said this was my first turkey and really one of those things that may not even make a difference.
Sounds like a great plan and a great meal. Congrats
That was a good plan DZ.
I have one of those beer can turkey holder and with that you dont need to flip the bird during smoking. I would recomend to check it out.
HR