# Smoke then fry?



## alblancher (Oct 19, 2010)

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


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## mballi3011 (Oct 19, 2010)

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.


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## jbg4208 (Oct 19, 2010)

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


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## alblancher (Oct 19, 2010)

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.


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## squirrel (Oct 19, 2010)

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


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## alblancher (Oct 19, 2010)

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.


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## pineywoods (Oct 19, 2010)

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


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## eman (Oct 19, 2010)

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.


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## eman (Oct 19, 2010)

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

Thanks


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## pineywoods (Oct 19, 2010)

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


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## eman (Oct 19, 2010)

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.


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## caveman (Oct 19, 2010)

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.


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## chefrob (Oct 19, 2010)

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


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## pineywoods (Oct 20, 2010)

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


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## chefrob (Oct 20, 2010)

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


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## alblancher (Oct 20, 2010)

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?


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## dick foster (Oct 20, 2010)

Now I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving.

Quote:


Pineywoods said:


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


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## mballi3011 (Oct 20, 2010)

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.


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## eman (Oct 20, 2010)

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.


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## alblancher (Oct 20, 2010)

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


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## alblancher (Oct 20, 2010)

Bob,

Or you could just let me at it for a few minutes and pull out a fried skeleton!


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## pineywoods (Oct 20, 2010)

Yea Al I inject all the birds I'm going to fry. One other thing even tho we are used to frying turkeys when you go to put it into the oil go slower than normal. I don't know why but they seem to come up even higher in the fryer than ones that we just fry once in the oil is like normal.


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## otter (Oct 20, 2010)

Sounds like I'll have to try this , this year ,sounds great


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## rbranstner (Oct 20, 2010)

I will also be doing this method. We usually smoke one or fry one why not combine the best of both worlds.


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## billm75 (Nov 12, 2010)

I do this all the time with wings.  I'll marinate my wings, hickory smoke them and then drop in the hot oil just for crisping them up.  AWESOME results every time.


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## cuervoacres (Nov 15, 2010)

I did this last year and will be doing it again this year...took pics but can't find them now. Last year I injected the meat and rubbed spices under the skin but the skin started coming off in the fryer.I think it is because I loosened the skin during the under skin rub.This year I will probably inject,smoke at approx. 250 to 140ish internal,then fry to 160.When you put the turkey in the oil after smoking the turkey temp will come up quickly, and the internal temp will continue to climb some after you pull it.

Just got done frying 45 turkeys in one day at work this week,but I guarantee my smofried turkey will be better!!!!

BA


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## DanMcG (Nov 15, 2010)

eman said:


> 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.
> 
> ...


That's to funny Bob....I wish i still fried birds for peoples.


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## tjoff (Nov 15, 2010)

My brother and I did it one time by accident.  We were camping at the ocean and turned out to be to windy and cold to maintain any type of temp in smker to get turkey done.  After about 4 hrs we gave up and putin in the fryer.  I must say for an accident it was the BEST turkey I have ever eaten.  Moist, very juicy, crunch skin and a great smoke flavor also.


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## dieselrealtor (Nov 21, 2010)

I have 2 new toys,

a new MES & a new propane deep fryer.

Wanted to try this for a long time, I am going to inject just butter salt & pepper (wife doesn't like marinades or cajun spices)

& see how it turns out, I am getting kind of hungry thinking about it.


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## mudduck (Nov 22, 2010)

ok how long do you fry the turkey after you put it in the hot oil


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## erain (Nov 22, 2010)

Somebody needs to post some pics of this with some slice shots... i remember Piney and i talkin about this in chat a long time ago but i have never tried it yet. i have a deep fryer but have never deep fried a turkey yet. but if i was going to i would like to try this out. i always brine my turkeys before smoking, any issues with this and then frying???  another twist could be to cure the bird and then give it some smoke and then to the fryer to crisp up the skin...


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## pineywoods (Nov 22, 2010)

mudduck said:


> ok how long do you fry the turkey after you put it in the hot oil


I will vary to much to even venture a guess depending on the bird temp when it comes out of the smoker and the temp of the oil I just go by looks and keep my thermo handy so I can pull it out of the oil and check the temp then put it back in or know its done.

Erain I had pics up and they got lost in the great crash and I can't find them again


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## joetech (Nov 22, 2010)

This sounds great...I normally smoke and fry a turkey, but this year I'm thinking combining the two like mentioned above. If you smoke to a internal temp of 120 - 130ish and then put in my turkey fryer how long should leave in the fryer? I'll be doing a 12lb bird this year.

Thanks


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## coffee_junkie (Nov 22, 2010)

Could someone give us some clues as to how long this takes per pound. I am VERY interested in trying this this thanksgiving. I just need to know when to start. I am doing two 12 lb birds. I could smoke them both, pull one, fry, wrap and toss in a cooler then do the other.


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## cuervoacres (Nov 22, 2010)

I don't know how long per pound but when I smoked mine to 140 then into the 350 oil it didn't take very long to get to 160's. I am thinking around 7 minutes or less.I will probably do like Pineywoods and check it after about 5 minutes to see where its at.....

BA


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## joetech (Nov 22, 2010)

Thanks sounds like a plan....


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## coffee_junkie (Nov 23, 2010)

How long in the smoke????


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## dgross (Nov 23, 2010)

Hmmm, just found out that the turkey we are getting tomorrow is larger than 14 lbs. and you guys just may have solved my dilemma 
	

	
	
		
		



		
			






! I was a little concerned about the danger zone myself, and since I have a turkey fryer upstairs ( that has been sadly neglected ) this might just be the way for us to go 
	

	
	
		
		



		
		
	


	





. Thanks for the thread and Happy Thanksgiving to all!!


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## dieselrealtor (Nov 23, 2010)

I am now seasoning my MES, haven't used it yet,

I am planning to smoke at 275 for around 4 hours,  then fry,

still trying to figure this out, any suggestions?

I have been using my ECB, not used to all the temp choices :-)

I have 2 turkeys, 12 pounds each


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