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I’m trying to talk Country-Fried Daddy into a midnight run to Toys ‘R Us. He’s not going for it, shockingly, so I might have to ease my disappointment with one more little plate of the fabulous fried turkey we had for dinner.
As I have mentioned before, Country-Fried Daddy first took me home to his parents’ place for Thanksgiving dinner 13 years ago, before we were even dating. CFD’s parents served a feast that day: fried turkey, cornbread dressing, sweet potato casserole, and lots of other dishes that were unfamiliar to me then, but oh-so-delicious.
As my father-in-law got ready to fry our turkey today, I thought it was time to share a bit of that experience with those of you who have never had the pleasure of eating Thanksgiving dinner quite like this.
The bird: 18 pounds of goodness
If you want to fry a turkey, first you need to put some oil in a pot.
Make sure you buy a lot of oil.
I swear this is not a Wesson ad.
When Grandpa pulled out the syringe, Miss D. got nervous…
…but the shot was for the bird.
Phew!
CFD and I got a turkey fryer as a wedding gift, but we’ve never used it. This photo should explain why. This much oil + propane + fire = scary.
This sucker cooked at about 400 degrees for ONE HOUR. That’s 18 pounds of turkey cooked and ready to eat in an hour. That is NOT the way we do it back home, but we should.
It takes two to put the turkey in the pot, as well as a two-by-four. (CFD says this is not a two-by-four, but I never let a little thing like factual inaccuracy get in the way of a joke, so let’s just go with it, shall we?)
If you lower the bird too fast, the oil will bubble over and you’ll never grow grass in that spot again.
This already smelled good at this point. For real.
Oh, yeah.
Fried turkey tastes better when you serve it with at least three starches: macaroni and cheese, sweet potato casserole, and cornbread dressing are ideal.
The verdict: Yum!
(Note: Belly is not in this final shot because she ate half a roll and went to bed. It was all just a little too exciting for her. Good thing we saved some leftovers for tomorrow!)
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Yum, yum and yum. I’m afraid to mention this post to my husband…he’ll be all over it not just for Thanksgiving but every day. Hope you had a great Thanksgiving.
yum yum yum! Very jealous. the turkey is a beauty, but Miss D is the star.
I heard that once you try fried turkey, you never go back.
I’ve never had fried turkey but I’d love to try it. I asked for snuck in a deep fryer on our wedding registry but was later told we didn’t get it because, “It was stupid.”
I desperately wanted to make a deep fried taco. We all have dreams
Now, your pictures have made me hungry.
Fried turkey is amazing and definitely the new tradition in my family. We’ve had it for maybe the last 5 or 6 Thanksgiving dinners.
Only difference is that we use peanut oil.
Oh my goodness that looks good! I made a sweet potato casserole this year and it was so yummy. The turkey picture also reminds me of the first time I had fried turkey. We were trying to conceive and I thought, “I must be pregnant because I am standing here eating this turkey out of the pan with my bare hands!” Maybe it was just really good fried turkey!
I have never had fried turkey but boy! That sure looks delicious! I wanna come to your house next year!