I went out and purchased a Bayou 30 Qt Turkey Fryer that also came with an additional fryer pan for doing fish and shellfish. It cost me $75 and then on top of the equipment to cook with, I had to go and buy a massive amount of peanut oil. All I could think was “This better be good!”.

So we decided to do a trial run of it before actually using it for our Thanksgiving turkey. I had bought it in September and we ended up using it the first week of October. I had some friends over and it became the event of the day trying out the Turkey Fryer. My first concern was figuring out how to put the stand together. We made it through that with very little problems and then the next fear was whether or not the stand would stay upright once we lowered the turkey into the pan. I had visions of it all tipping over and the hot oil catching fire and even more that someone would get hurt.

We followed the instructions and set up the stand, placed the pot in the stand and added the peanut oil and lit the burner. I’d like to say it all came off without a hitch, but I’d by lying. We had a little trouble with the regulator in getting the oil up to temperature, but it wasn’t a big issue. Once we figured out that we had to adjust the heat a little higher, the oil finally came up to temperature.

I had been advised by a friend who has used turkey fryers for awhile to not use a really cold turkey, but rather to put a cool turkey into the hot oil so as not to lose too much of the oil’s temperature. So that’s exactly what I did. I had the turkey in a cooler overnight and it was just in cool water, not freezing cold. I said a little prayer that we wouldn’t all die of food poisoning and moved on.

The Turkey is placed on the poultry rack which keeps it from having to touch the bottom of the pan which in turn keeps the bottom of the Turkey from burning or sticking. This rack has what they call a “Grab Hook” coming up out of it that you end up being able to pull the Turkey out of the oil with once it’s done. So this whole grab hook cooking rack is a one piece mechanism that you have to attach the bird to before submerging it into the peanut oil.

I cooked my Turkey at a rate of 3-4 minutes per pound and in just 50 minutes we had a perfectly done, gorgeously browned on the outside Turkey. I could barely wait to slice into it and taste the meat after hearing so many people tell me how much more moist a fried turkey is compared to your run of the mill basic baked Turkey. I did use a meat thermometer to make sure that the bird was in fact done.

We were not disappointed! It was so incredibly moist inside and very very flavorful. I love turkey but I do often find it to be a very dry meat so this was so wonderful! 5 people made very short order of a 14 pound bird that afternoon and I knew I had to do this again for Thanksgiving.

We did indeed use it again with great results the following month on Thanksgiving. I think my better half simply enjoys the socialization involved and the liquid refreshment consumption that occurs while watching the turkey fry! It is interesting and a lot of fun.

Will I continue to Fry all my Turkeys in the future? No, probably not. I have since found that simply brining them the day before produces some similar moist results without using all that oil and risking a fire. I do however like this fryer and have since used it several times for a seafood fest in the midst of summer. The additional family size fryer pan that it comes with has a nice drainer frying basket that is ideal for doing a fish fry, scallops or shrimp.

I’m not sorry that I bought it but it’s not something that I’m going to use very often because of the expense and the hassle afterward of cleaning it. It is fun thought to use once in awhile and the fact that this particular one came with the additional smaller fryer with the fryer basket made it well worth the investment since we do have lots of seafood especially in the summer months.

Rating: 8