First Time Fried Turkey

Daryl and I had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  We've been so busy lately and been working so much that we haven't had much of a chance to see each other so it was nice to have a day off on the same day.  :)  We  stayed home this Thanksgiving because I had worked the day before and had to work the day after, but we missed family a lot.

Apparently up here in Texas, frying your turkey is a big thing.  And ever since Daryl's heard of it he's always wanted to try it.  So, this Thanksgiving we decided to buy all the supplies and actually try our hand at turkey frying.  Even though the turkey cooked in a record 42 minutes there was a lot of planning involved before hand.  Which included having to remove the innards from the turkey.  Ewww gross.  I'll cook it but I won't stick my hand inside pulling out parts.  That's just not me.  So Daryl had to do it.  I told him if you didn't there would be no turkey.  So he put on gloves and did the dirty deed.

We bought all the necessary items and set up our turkey fryer in the backyard a good distance from the house.  I was intent on making this turkey frying experience a safe one.  You always see those videos of the terrible fires and exploding turkeys, well, I was determined to let our turkey safely bathe in the boiling oil without exploding.

So, if you ever decided to try to fry a turkey these are the safety tips I recommend.

Always do a 'displacement test'.  Put your turkey in the fry bucket and measure how much water is needed to just cover the turkey.  That way when you slowly lower the poor little bird into the boiling oil it won't overflow and splash out.

Always had a fire extinguisher on hand.  Even if you are super careful you never know what could happen.  So be prepared.

Wrap the hose connector in foil.  In the case that oil does come out of the fryer and lands on your gas hose it won't 'eat through' and cause an explosion.

Keep all animals inside the house.  This was a very hard one because once Gorgi smelled the satisfying, crispy, juicy smell of the turkey she wanted out, and bad.

And stay outside with the turkey fryer the entire time it is one.  Don't leave it unattended.  Obvious.

With our safety precautions in mind, we pulled out a rather juicy looking turkey 42 minutes later.  Now, I've heard from a lot of people that fried turkey is rather dry especially in the breast area.  This was not my experience at all.  This was the juiciest turkey meat I've every had.  Needless to say the fried turkey has won our appeal.  (we bathed the turkey in salt and brown sugar solution for 8 hours before we fried it, so this might have helped)

We baked the usual Thanksgiving things. . . mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, Daryl's sweet potato pie, and we even made homemade rolls, which were amazing.

So all in all it was a wonderful Thanksgiving day . . .