Smoke then fry?

[alblancher]

Floating around in the back of my mind is a discussion I overheard about briefly smoking a turkey before deep frying it.  With Thanksgiving only weeks away time to look for unique ways to do the old bird. 

Has anyone ever done this?  If not what do you all think?  Smoke for 3 or 4 hours to 110 or 120 then immerse in the cauldron of grease?    Does anyone see a problem with this method.  Seems like a great idea, kind of the best of both worlds,  nice mild smoke  flavor to the crispy moist fried meat.

Al

 

[mballi3011]

Well the only problem I see in your idea is that I didn't come up with it first. It sounds like a great way for doing a turkey with a twist. This year I'll be up at my cousin's bunglow (in New Jersey) and all the folks up there have never had a fried turkey and  I'm taking my smoke vault. Now I might try your idea up there. My family up there like it when I come up cause I'm always bringing them new things to try and they have never had a fried turkey and a smokried bird would just be another course that they have never ate before.

 

[jbg4208]

Hmm.. Sounds good. Like you said the best of both worlds. Worth a shot.

 

[alblancher]

Mark,What would you do? Inject with butter and seasoning (sage, salt, garlic and onion juice, bit of soy and hot sauce), maybe a little magic dust on the outside. Bring to 120 on the smoker then into the grease to finish temp of 165? That should give at least 4 hrs on the smoker and then you get past the stall with the grease.

 

[squirrel]

I do my wings like that, smoke then deep fry, I love the flavor. I would say go for it!!

 

[alblancher]

Bob, so he colds smokes the bird for 4 hours?  Not so sure I would be comfortable with cold smoke poultry in our part of the country.  I would think that in the offset at least the outside of the bird is subject to 225 - 250 so the little bad guys are slowed down.   Do you see a problem with the transition from hot smoke to deep fry?  One advantage to deep fry is trapping the moisture in the bird.  A hot smoked bird would probably bit a bit drier going into the grease so you wouldn't have the boil up. 

 

[pineywoods]

Al the last couple years I've been selected to cook the Thanksgiving meal for the wife and her coworkers as well as feeding the rest of the family at the house. Thanksgiving before last I started doing some Smo-fried Turkeys and they come out great. I usually inject the ones I fry and the ones I'm gonna smo-fry then I just put the smo fired into the smoker till they hit 140-145 then into the fryer to finish them. The ones I'm only gonna smoke I usually just brine. Some people like the smoked turkey some like the fried but I think the smo-fried always goes first according to the wife. Year before last I took the time to do Qview but it was lost in the great crash. Still putting her off about cooking this year as its opening day of deer season

 

[eman]

Al that was from 2 different sites . I was kinda cautious about the cold smoke also . That's why i looked some more.

 Just googled smoke / fried turkey.

 

[eman]

Mods please remove my 2  post from this thread as they are to close to being unsafe practices.

Thanks

 

[pineywoods]

Thanks Bob I agree that stuff was down right scary from a food safety standpoint. Of course we could have just moved it to a thread titled How Not To Do a Turkey

 

[eman]

I will be doing one for thanksgiving ,But i will be smoking at 220 for 3 hrs (still inside the danger zone) and then going straight to the 350 degree oil.

 

[caveman]

Please don't forget the batteries in your digital cam for pics.  I would love to see this.  Might give me a reason to go out to get a fryer.

 

[chefrob]

i did wings this way and they were great...........a turkey has gotta be great.

 

[pineywoods]

The thread got lost in the crash but here's a little Qview

 

[chefrob]

i like crispy skin.........and that looks crispy!

 

[alblancher]

Seems like the cooking method of choice this year.  From what I just learned I think I'll do one also.  Bob, I'll be in BR more then likely,  why not just do two and save one for me?

 

[dick foster]

Now I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving.

Quote:

The thread got lost in the crash but here's a little Qview

 

[mballi3011]

I'm going to be in New Jeresy/ New York  for thanksgiving this year and my cousin up there have never had a fried turkey. So I'm going to one up them with this smo/fried turkey. I do remember Jerry talking about them last year too.  Now Al I would do just like Jerry said and inject the fried turkeys and brine the one that I'm going to smoke so I would just brine the smo/fried turkey. Man I'm going to be the good guy this year. My cousin didn't know what to think when I had the turkey frier set up mail to the beach bunglow . I used it for a crawfish boil that year but my cousin called me and said that she had never seen a pot so big. Heck I thought she was talking about my pot belly. So I'll make sure and take some Q-view of their faces when I pull this one out of my hat.

 

[eman]

Mark,                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Ya need to play the switch out joke on your kin folk. i pulled this on some friends from mosouri

 Ya really need a helper thats in on the gag to make it easy.

 Get everything ready to fry and oil hot and get the bird readywhile you are doing this you need to expand on how hard it is to fry a really good bird and that you have to keep your eye on it every min.

If someone asks you why ? Just tell em shrinkage. Usually someone will ask what you mean. Tell them if you cook it to long it will shrink.

 A few min b4 you get ready to pull the turkey from the oil you need to get your helper to get evryone to another area.

Pull the bird and put it in an ice chest or pan  to rest. Hide this and then you pull out the  chicken or cornish hen that you have previously fried and put it in the pot. Start yelling and cussing and when they come back ,You tell them that you are really sorry and that you only turned your back for a moment and then take the top off the pot  and show em the lil bird.

 It's a great gag and most folks that don't cook will fall for it. At least for a few min.

 

[alblancher]

Mark,

Jerry is saying to inject the smofruky I believe.  At least that's what I'm going to do.  I fill that darn fowl with so much good stuff that it's hard to screw it up.  A good injection will keep it moist and add great flavor.   I may even inject it again when it comes out of the smoker before it goes to grease, like Bob said to do.  Heat butter, garlic juice, onion juice, soy sauce to where it just comes to a boil, add a bit of cayanne, maybe some salt and into the bird it goes. 

Are you going to tell them what you are going to do or just surprise them? 

Al