Introduction: AWESOME Fried Turkey
I was looking on here today and saw a ton of instructables on how to deep fry your turkey. What I did not see was a ton on how to prepare your turkey for the fryer. This is my personal recipe for deep fried turkey. Again there will be disclaimers. Since there are only 2 ingredients, I will keep this one short but will still explain how and why they work. I googled an image that most closely resembles my finished product as I am not doing the bird this year.
Step 1: The BAG
Go to the store and get all your ingredients first. Here is the shopping list.
1 Turkey of your desired size and weight.
1 Pack of roasting bags large enough to hold said bird with room to spare.
1/2 Gallon of buttermilk. Brand not important.
1 medium sized bottle of your favorite LOUISIANA STYLE hot sauce.
The sauce should be LOUISIANA STYLE. Not Tobasco or Cholula. Not that those are not awesome sauces but they are not appropriate for my recipe.
Prepare your bird. Thaw it!
This is a critical step. I made a mistake my first year and forgot to pull out the gut bag from the turkey cavity.
REMOVE THE TURKEY GIBLET BAG FROM THE INSIDE OF THE TURKEY!
This will make the gravy gods happy as it is difficult to make giblet gravy without giblets.
There is also a plastic bracket that holds the legs together. REMOVE THAT!
Place your prepared bird inside your roasting bag.
Make sure at this point that you have inserted the bird so that the legs are pointed out of the bag.
Add the entire half gallon of buttermilk to the INSIDE if the bag. Where the turkey is. I know it sounds silly but I can imagine someone reading this and pouring the buttermilk on the bag. Try to fill the turkey cavity also. It will run out but it is nice to get it coated with buttermilk as well.
Add the entire bottle of hot sauce. For those of you who are in the know on this bear with me. For the hot sauce novices, there is a plastic circle on the top of the bottle that you would normally shake the sauce out through. Use a knife or another flat object to pop off this plastic sauce flow inhibitor. KNIVES ARE SHARP!!! BE CAREFUL!!!
Once the turkey, buttermilk, and hot sauce are inside your roasting bag, attempt to release most of the trapped air from the bag and tie it off. Mix all ingredients together well inside the bag. This can be a clumsy process. Try not to drop the whole thing.
Put the bird-bag combo pack into something large enough to hold it securely without leaking. Put in in the fridge and wait. Before going to bed that night flip the bird over in the container. Flip it bag and all. Do not try to simply rotate the turkey inside the bag.
When you wake up on Thanksgiving morning flip it again.
There are plenty of options for learning how to fry your bird so I will not elaborate on them. I will say that you must drain the buttermilk from the inside of the bird before it goes into the hot oil.
1 Turkey of your desired size and weight.
1 Pack of roasting bags large enough to hold said bird with room to spare.
1/2 Gallon of buttermilk. Brand not important.
1 medium sized bottle of your favorite LOUISIANA STYLE hot sauce.
The sauce should be LOUISIANA STYLE. Not Tobasco or Cholula. Not that those are not awesome sauces but they are not appropriate for my recipe.
Prepare your bird. Thaw it!
This is a critical step. I made a mistake my first year and forgot to pull out the gut bag from the turkey cavity.
REMOVE THE TURKEY GIBLET BAG FROM THE INSIDE OF THE TURKEY!
This will make the gravy gods happy as it is difficult to make giblet gravy without giblets.
There is also a plastic bracket that holds the legs together. REMOVE THAT!
Place your prepared bird inside your roasting bag.
Make sure at this point that you have inserted the bird so that the legs are pointed out of the bag.
Add the entire half gallon of buttermilk to the INSIDE if the bag. Where the turkey is. I know it sounds silly but I can imagine someone reading this and pouring the buttermilk on the bag. Try to fill the turkey cavity also. It will run out but it is nice to get it coated with buttermilk as well.
Add the entire bottle of hot sauce. For those of you who are in the know on this bear with me. For the hot sauce novices, there is a plastic circle on the top of the bottle that you would normally shake the sauce out through. Use a knife or another flat object to pop off this plastic sauce flow inhibitor. KNIVES ARE SHARP!!! BE CAREFUL!!!
Once the turkey, buttermilk, and hot sauce are inside your roasting bag, attempt to release most of the trapped air from the bag and tie it off. Mix all ingredients together well inside the bag. This can be a clumsy process. Try not to drop the whole thing.
Put the bird-bag combo pack into something large enough to hold it securely without leaking. Put in in the fridge and wait. Before going to bed that night flip the bird over in the container. Flip it bag and all. Do not try to simply rotate the turkey inside the bag.
When you wake up on Thanksgiving morning flip it again.
There are plenty of options for learning how to fry your bird so I will not elaborate on them. I will say that you must drain the buttermilk from the inside of the bird before it goes into the hot oil.
Step 2: How It Works
Buttermilk has some magical property that, when deep fried, allows the skin of whatever it is touching to become crisp.
Crisp is delicious.
The hot sauce contains vinegar which penetrates the meat of the bird and breaks it down like meat tenderizer making it super tender.
It also adds a bit of a kick to the bird itself.
Fry per the ibles on here and enjoy!
Crisp is delicious.
The hot sauce contains vinegar which penetrates the meat of the bird and breaks it down like meat tenderizer making it super tender.
It also adds a bit of a kick to the bird itself.
Fry per the ibles on here and enjoy!
Step 3: Chart
There you go.