Cajun Deep Fried Whole Turkey
The best way to season your turkey, or any other large piece of meat, is with an injector and a spicy sauce. Use at least 1/2 oz. of sauce per pound of turkey (1 oz per pound is what we use), making sure to inject the sauce deeply and evenly. You should also season the turkey inside and out with seasoning such as salt, black pepper, cayenne or red pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and celery salt (Tony’s Chachers Creole seasoning works well). Much of the seasoning applied to the outside of the turkey will wash off during cooking, so don’t be conservative when applying seasoning. We usually try to season the turkey the night before our cookout, this seems to allow the seasoning to work better.
Ingredients
Basting/Injecting Sauce
1 quart of water
1/2 cup of salt
1 oz of pepper sauce
3 oz of Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp of garlic powder
1 1/2 oz of garlic juice
1 1/2 oz of onion juice
1 tsp of meat tenderizer
Instructions
- Preheat your cooking oil to 325 degrees.
- Mix all ingredients in sauce pan and bring to a boil, let simmer for at least 15 minutes, remove from heat and let cool. This sauce may be used on meat, poultry, or wild game.
- Dry turkey with paper towels both inside and out to reduce the danger of splashing oil.
- Place the turkey on turkey frying stand, breast down, and lower the stand slowly and carefully into the hot oil. (We have found by partially dipping the turkey in the oil and lifting it out several times helps remove the excess water and reduce splashing oil. We usually cook smaller turkeys (10#-12# or less) about four minutes per pound and larger birds about five minutes per pound. Make sure that the bird is completely submerged in oil.)
You may adjust above seasoning to taste by adding different spices or varying amounts. Any left over sauce may be stored for several weeks in the refrigerator. Some cooks substitute other liquids instead of water. Some of the liquids substituted for water are beer, Coke, Dr Pepper, and fruit juice(apple, pineapple, cranberry, etc.).
- Some people find the 1/2 cup of salt in the above recipe is too much for their taste.
- When seasoning fowl, puncture skin as few times as possible.
- When seasoning large cuts of meat always inject from the top so the sauce won’t leak out. If you feel it necessary to inject from the side, always angle needle downward.
