to me fried tasted the best but making it is a real PITA. Hubby will eat whats put in front of him so I'm lucky :)

Two years ago, when feeding a big crowd, we did a traditional roast turkey, a fried turkey, and a beer-can turkey on the grill. If your grill is tall enough, the beer-can method (same as beer can chicken - take the whole bird, season inside and out, drink a few sips out of a can of beer, and stand the bird up on it using the can and 2 legs as a tripod) produces a moist and delicious turkey with the right timing and temp. Frying turned out great too. The injection is key on the frying, I'd say. Also, you can use your frying pot for other events during the year (as an example, ours yielded 200 chicken wings for the Super Bowl one January), and the oil, once cooled, can be filtered and reused.

duck :P

I have used a Weber grill to smoke several turkey breasts, using indirect heat. I bought the gadgets that clip in and allow you to stack charcoal on the sides. I would add wet wood chips every half hour or so. The breast would be ready in a few hours. I'm pretty sure I got instructions and guidelines from the booklet that came with the grill, but since I no longer have it, I'd probably head for their website if it was my first.

I agree that the skins of the duck and chicken do not crisp, but on the one I ate, there was no pockets of fat. We surmised that the long cooking time had melted all the fat of the into the stuffing. Of course, as that turducken was purchased, I have no way of knowing if extra fat was removed in the assembly process.

I have actually seen frozen turducken at Wal*mart - possibly just for the holidays. I don't recall the brand, but it may have been Tony Chachere. A bit pricy at IIRC $19.99 for something under 5 pounds (I don't recall the exact weight either), compared to other Wal*Mart frozen poultry options. There's also a front page story about turducken on Yahoo. Getting very popular, I'd say.

I prefer to fry a turkey if I am doing the cooking but I do enjoy a brined and well roasted turkey if someone else is doing the work. Yummy!!!

I prefer mines roasted if preparing it myself.

I've seen them as well.

One of my former neighbors used to use that and boy does he make some of the best smoked turkey. ^

Cajun style deep-fried turkey is a Thanksgiving Blessing from God!!!
 

I know, "deep-fried turkey" sounds obscenely fattening at first... but it is freaking amazing! I fried 2 boneless turkey breasts of about 3 lbs each today. First of all, the end-to-end time is significantly less than oven-roasting. After thawing the turkey overnight, I just had to pat them dry and then place in ziplock bags with Cajun seasoning. Let sit for a couple hrs, and then fire up my old backpacking stove on the backyard patio. (MSR Whisperlite white-gas stove in case anybody is curious). Heat about 2 gallons of peanut oil in a chili pot at full blast until it is ~ 360-375 degrees F (took about 40 minutes). Then place the turkey breasts in and cook for almost 25 minutes.

That was the most tender and moist turkey I have ever eaten. Sorry to "toot my own horn", but it was that good. And that is after eating turkey for almost every thanksgiving for my first 25 yrs (and a couple of the past 5). By cooking on the back patio, I was able to make sure the house did not smell like a kentucky-fried turkey. From what I hear, it works equally well for whole birds - though have to use a larger pot and adjust cooking time for the greater weight. Highly recommended.

^^^ I am with ya. I haven't had it in a few years, but for a couple years there our family fried turkeys every year for Thanksgiving and/or Christmas and boy oh boy...that is some good eating.

And tender as all get out.

Gobble Gobble!

Craig

Last year I was at a house, and they had 3 turkeys, cooked 3 different ways. One was deep fried, kind of tough. One was BBQ, not so good. One was cooked in the oven, the best of the 3. People kept arriving and leaving all afternoon and evening, so most of the turkey meat was consumed. I was in the band, and they let us eat, lots of people brought home cooked dishes, it was pretty cool.

How to cook turkey?
 

I know how to cook it in an oven the traditional way. This year I am trying something different.

I will buy 2 small turkey breasts --- maybe 2-3 lbs each and then do it two ways:

Smoked in the smoker with apple wood brickets.
Deep fried in Peanut oil with a cajun rub on top.

How is the best way to go about this? what is the recommended cooking time for this way?

Any suggestions/tips would be very helpful.

Not certain on how this works with just the 'breast' of a turkey... but have had fun at least watching turkeys deep fried for years... but beware of the peanut oil- very flammable as our deck has discovered :eek:

Do inject your turkey well with marinade prior to the deep fry... helps preserve & infuse flavor... garlic is always nice!

Upon completion... a doubled paper bag is a good place to let it rest, allowing it to stay warm and let some excess oil flow off-

Enjoy!