Frying a turkey in the fryer basket?

[grilling24x7]

Ok guys - I got some fantastic tips from the thread I started a few days ago. Tonight I cleaned my turkeys and did the 'water displacement' test to see just how much oil I would need to cover the turkey. I noticed immediately that my pot is HUGE. Much bigger than the pots I see on YouTube videos. It's about 15 inches in diameter! By eye I could see that the volume of oil I would need would greatly exceed 3 gallons if the turkey was standing vertical. I mean this is a big pot with about 4+ inches of free space around each side of a standing turkey.

My fryer set comes with a big frying basket that is almost as big as the pot and has drainage circular holes all over it with a big handle on top. My basket/pot is so big that my 14.5 lb turkey can lay down in the pot! I dusted off my brain and did some math after I covered the turkey (in the basket) with water. After covering the turkey with water, then removing the turkey, the basket and the little additional piece that the basket sits on I calculated that I need 5.375 gallons of oil! (I used the formula for the volume of a cylinder and used diameter of pot and depth of oil). Luckily I beat the grocery store Christmas eve closing by 10 minutes! I was able to get more oil. Wow crisis averted!

Now on to the question: Are there any issues with frying a turkey horizontal in a frying basket? My turkey will be breast side up just like it would sit in an oven, but it will be submerged in oil with at least 1 inch of extra oil on top. I am nowhere near the top of my pot so I do not think this will even come close to spilling over.

Anyone fried a turkey in a frying basket rather than the vertical turkey anchor?

Thanks!

John

 

[sssSmoking]

Basket or not?

John,

Yep, done it many times. In recent years have switched to using a basket only. Just for the reason you stated, laying the bird down uses much less peanut oil. And I normally use turkey breast, I like the 9 pound size, some/ most of the time the turkey breast come split and it is hard to keep them standing on the rod. I have never been able to tell any difference in laying them down and standing them up and have fried over 100, I just love fried turkey and the events that I cater do also.

Just my 2c
Enjoy
Don