GB
Chief Eating Officer
My brother brought a turkey frying rig the other day so that we could finally do fried turkey for Thanksgiving. Since none of us has ever done this before we decided a dry run was in order.
Saturday he brought the rig over to my house. I had picked up a 7ish pound chicken which was to be our test subject. I dry rubbed the chicken and then we went outside to set up the rig. It was very easy to do. We decided to set it up on my lawn (level spot and a decent distance from the house or anything else).
We had previously measured how much oil we needed using the water displacement method so once the rig was set up we filled it with peanut oil to the spot that we marked. We lit the burner and placed the pot on top. The oil temp started to climb right away. Within 15 minutes we were at 350 degrees so the chicken went in (slowly). The sound it made was like Pavlovs bell. We all started drooling immediately. It sounds and smells were amazing. We learned that we had to monitor the temp very closely so that it stayed between 325 and 350. It was not a lot of work, but it did require constant attention.
I had read that chickens actually take longer to cook this way than turkeys 9because of the size of the cavity) so the one website I saw talk talked about that suggested 9 minutes per pound. That would have been about 60 minutes for our chicken which seemed like a long time to all of us. We decided to check it after 45ish minutes. I am glad we did because it was already overcooked. We took two temp readings. the first read 180ish and the second about 3 seconds later read 190ish. Well this is exactly why we did this dry run. We don't want to make this mistake with the Thanksgiving day turkey. Of course we will go with the 3.5 minutes per pound for the turkey, but we will check it before the time is up.
The chicken was definitely overcooked and dry, but not horrible. I had some gravy in the freezer so we used that and the dryness was not too bad. The flavor was great. We considered this dry run a huge success even though the bird was overcooked. I can't wait to do this again on Thursday.
It also just so happens that 6 weeks before I had done my first canning experience. I had made pickled green tomatoes from my garden. They needed to sit for 6 weeks before we could open them and the 6 week point just happened to be on Saturday. They were delicious and went great with the fried chicken.
Saturday he brought the rig over to my house. I had picked up a 7ish pound chicken which was to be our test subject. I dry rubbed the chicken and then we went outside to set up the rig. It was very easy to do. We decided to set it up on my lawn (level spot and a decent distance from the house or anything else).
We had previously measured how much oil we needed using the water displacement method so once the rig was set up we filled it with peanut oil to the spot that we marked. We lit the burner and placed the pot on top. The oil temp started to climb right away. Within 15 minutes we were at 350 degrees so the chicken went in (slowly). The sound it made was like Pavlovs bell. We all started drooling immediately. It sounds and smells were amazing. We learned that we had to monitor the temp very closely so that it stayed between 325 and 350. It was not a lot of work, but it did require constant attention.
I had read that chickens actually take longer to cook this way than turkeys 9because of the size of the cavity) so the one website I saw talk talked about that suggested 9 minutes per pound. That would have been about 60 minutes for our chicken which seemed like a long time to all of us. We decided to check it after 45ish minutes. I am glad we did because it was already overcooked. We took two temp readings. the first read 180ish and the second about 3 seconds later read 190ish. Well this is exactly why we did this dry run. We don't want to make this mistake with the Thanksgiving day turkey. Of course we will go with the 3.5 minutes per pound for the turkey, but we will check it before the time is up.
The chicken was definitely overcooked and dry, but not horrible. I had some gravy in the freezer so we used that and the dryness was not too bad. The flavor was great. We considered this dry run a huge success even though the bird was overcooked. I can't wait to do this again on Thursday.
It also just so happens that 6 weeks before I had done my first canning experience. I had made pickled green tomatoes from my garden. They needed to sit for 6 weeks before we could open them and the 6 week point just happened to be on Saturday. They were delicious and went great with the fried chicken.
While I have never deep fried a turkey, I bought one of those burners to fire my 15 quart pressure fryer. In addition to heating the oil quickly, it makes a really cool sound while doing it. 
