It’s easy to pick peanut oil as your deep fryer oil when you’re going with turkey. It’s free of cholesterol. It has a high flash point, so it’s less likely to catch on fire.
It also has a high smoke point for great flavor and for multiple uses (which is great if you’re deep frying a lot of turkeys for a party).
But there’s no one-size-fits-all rule on deciding on how long to heat peanut oil in turkey fryer pots. It all depends on the size of the turkey, and you need to make sure you have enough oil.
General Guidelines:
To find out how much oil you need, start by putting in your uncooked turkey into the fryer pot.
Put in some water to cover the turkey completely, and then mark the water line once you take out the turkey. Then take the water out, and put in the oil at the same level as the previous water level.
The general rule for deep frying whole turkey is that you need 3 minutes per pound and then you have to add 5 minutes. So a 14-pound turkey will need 42 minutes plus 5 minutes extension, ending up with 47 minutes total.
Large turkeys are more difficult to deep fry, since it’s possible to have a burned turkey on the outside and undercooked turkey on the inside.
If you have a large turkey, it’s better if you cut them into smaller pieces and you fry them separately.
More Specific Guidelines:
Here’s how much oil you need and how long your turkey needs to fry in hot oil depending on the size of the turkey.
- 22 pounds of turkey. You will need 5 to 6 gallons of peanut oil. The dark meat and the white meat must be deep fried separately. You’ll need about 3 minutes per pound, or about an hour and 6 minutes in total.
- 20 pounds of turkey. Again you need 5 to 6 gallons of oil. The white meat and the dark meat will also need to be deep fried separately. The general rule stays at 3 minutes per pound, or an hour in total.
- 15 pounds of turkey. About 5 gallons of oil should be fine. Again, fry the white and dark meat separately, and follow the 3-minute per pound rule.
- 14 pounds of turkey. You’ll need 5 gallons of peanut oil. This is small enough to deep fry whole, so that’s 14 pounds times 3 minutes, or 42 minutes. Add the5 minutes, and that’s 47 minutes total.
- 13 pounds of turkey. About 4 to 5 gallons of oil should do. This time, the frying time is only 44 minutes.
- 9 pounds of turkey. You don’t need much oil, as 3 to 4 gallons will be enough. You won’t need too much time either, as it should only take about 32 minutes or so.
Afterwards, you can reuse the peanut oil if you want. Just store it properly first.
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