Turkey: Deep Fried or Smoked?

[deguerre]

Since you can't choose both, I'll go with fried especially after looking at Michael's thread. Gonna hafta get one of them Butterball fryers.

[orangeblood]

Fried, baby, fried.

A fried turkey tastes like turkey meat. Sometimes a smoked turkey tastes liked smoked chicken. If you havent tried it, do it. Its easy, fast and you'll be surprised how moist and tasty the bird comes out. There is no oily taste.

The only draw backs are: 1) you have to be very careful about heating a few gallons of oil to 350 degrees. 2) the clean isnt hard but can be messy if you spill oil, 3) the price of peanut oil is about $10 a gallon - so you have to save/strain the oil and use it another time or 2 in order for the process to be economical - or fry birds for the entire neighborhood.

try it, you'll love it.

just my $0.02

[nolaman]

This year my wife and I were invited to spend Thanksgiving with some friends. He was frying two 12 lb.birds. I e-mailed him the Frank Davis, N'Awlins fried turkey Recipe the night before. He was all for it. He said he injected the birds with Creole Butter Sauce that day so they can marinate all night. The next day we brought a couple of homemade desserts,a pumpkin bread pudding, w/ a bourbon sauce, and a Kentucky walnut pie.
We fried off 2lbs. of bacon till crisp to flavor the oil. When the oil came back up to temp. he lowered the first in. We snacked on bacon while it fried. yumm..When done, he brought the bird in, and imeadiately began to whittle away with the electric knife! No rest! No picture. We did taste it. It was tender, moist, and favorful as usual. The skin had a nice bacon flavor to it, although not as strong as I had expected but still noticeable. Next time maybe 3 lbs.. We lower the 2nd bird into the oil and we snacked on turkey & bacon. I had my camera ready when it came out of the oil. I did get a few pictures. I also got picture of the table setting but no full plates. Please ignore the date on the pictures , I changed batteries last month but forgot to reset the date. So here are my pics of Thanksgiving Day feast.

[FatDaddy]

Everyone was worried about me smoking the turkey this year instead of deep frying like I have done probably the last 4-5 years. I told em not to worry. I followed Dr BBQs idea on the creole butter and creole seasoning. Smoked it in the WSM with apple/cherry chip mix for about 5 hours or so. Basted em with butter/mixed with creole seasoning. Man he came out pretty, and tasted even better. Everyone loved that turkey. Said it was the best yet.

[Danny]

Hey Wayne,
I vote SMO-FRIED. If you guys will go to my old web-page (www.dannysbbq.com), then to "the restaurant" down lower on the page, you'll see pics. of a smoked and smo-fried turkey, plus which one won out for best flavor. If you want to do a smo-fried turkey the right way, put it in the smoker cold, smoke it with good smoke till around 140-150 degrees internally, take it out, let it rest for 15-20 minutes, then fry it to 185 degrees in the thigh. It'll knock your socks off and have a great smoked -fried flavor at the same time. I personally guarantee it.

Danny

[Infamous Dave]

Danny's method sounds awesome but since I have never smoked a turkey but have fried many, I had to choose deep fried.

[Jacked UP BBQ]

Smoked turkey, looks awesome. Something about brining and than frying doesn't seem like it would go together to well. Water and OIL?

[SmokeInDaEye]

Originally Posted by OC PIG ASSASSINS

Smoked turkey, looks awesome. Something about brining and than frying doesn't seem like it would go together to well. Water and OIL?

Yeah, you need to dry it well. I patted it dry then set it up in front of a fan in a cool place for 30 minutes or so.

[RichardF]

i've done them both ways and liked the smoked bird better. also thought that when serving cold as left-overs the fryed turkey wasn't nearly as good as the smoked

[chasmosis]

Fried Turkeys the last couple years. Smoked my 1st Turkey this year. I actually spatchcocked it. I'm not a big turkey fan but this one turned out great, very moist.

I just used my usual rub (Dr. BBQ's big time rub) right before putting it on so I thought the breast was a little bland. Next time for sure gonna brine it or do something to get some more flavor, but couldn't have been happier with the way this one turned out.