I have fried turkeys before.

If you don't want to go to the trouble of making a turducken, a deep-fried turkey is a great option. It is a little hair-raising for sure, but not that big of a deal. I prefer turducken but it is more work.

Every year there is a news story about some fool who fried a turkey inside his screened porch, thereby burning down the house.

Going to NC for Thanksgiving this year. Trying to decide if I have enough confidence in the "new" Benz to drive it down there.

Had deep fried turkey a few years ago at sisters house. Tasted like I was drinking the grease straight out of the kettle. No thanks.
Gonna have dinner with some family then off to work at 4pm.
I know, I'm greedy. But it feeds my mercedes habit.

Something was not done correctly if your deep-fried turkey was THAT greasy!!

It will be a little more greasy than a roasted turkey, but in all honesty I don't like turkey very much. It gets dry almost instantaneously and has very little flavor, hence my love for turducken. Use plenty of cajun spice mix between each layer and you can't go wrong. The oils in the duck keep everything moist and it's just wonderful.

I look forward to Thanksgiving due to the turducken!!

We've got everybody coming to our house again this Thanksgiving. It's just easier with 4 kids to stay put and have everyone come here. My brother and his family are going to his grandmother-in-law's (his in-laws live in FL) so it'll just be us, my parents and my FIL. My sister and her boyfriend are staying in Chicago for Thanksgiving but will be coming this way for Christmas. It's actually fine with me since we've got to find room for all of these people in a 1250 sq.ft. bungalow cape with 12x12 rooms :eek:

We haven't decided if we're going to fry the turkey yet or not. I've done it a fair amount and it is nice and tasty. BobK, oil temp is critical. Both on initial "dunk" and during cooking. If it's not hot enough it'll draw that grease in instead of sealing it out. That's probably what happened. You really do need to monitor that temp, it's really not "set it and forget it". I set up our fire pit next to it and sit right there, beer in hand, tweaking the gas one way or the other to keep it right in that 360 range. (Or maybe it's my excuse to escape ;)) If done right, it is great. It doesn't dry out like it can in the oven.

Lotsa stuffing, green bean casserole, smashed garlic potatoes, gravy, real cranberry sauce in addition to a couple of cans for my kids. My wife will bake an apple and pumpkin pie and we usually pick up a chocolate cream pie from the Deli down the street.

Ten Penny Ale sells 3.3 keggies so I'll pick on of those up to enjoy. Other than that, we'll pretty much just be slothing around in front of the tube watching football and keeping the fireplace stoked.

Turducken stuffed with cornbread and creole sausage for the second year now. (cajungrocer.com) I tried deep frying a turkey and a goose. The goose was great (especially the neck skin) with deep fried sweet potatoes. I prefer roasting a turkey, breast down for 3/4 of the time and flipping it breast up to crisp the top for the final 1/4 over deep frying (very moist).

But IMHO nothing compares to a turducken.:cool:

I'm going to do a Turducken for some occasion, I just haven't figured out which. It was a tough sell to get the family to break with tradition and try a fried turkey but after they tasted it they were sold. So it may just be a matter of me continuously suggesting it and it'll finally happen for a main holiday. If the Pats make it to the Super Bowl we'll be having a big party so that might be the perfect opportunity to sneak that into the rotation. While we tend to stick with the traditional New England fare (right down to the turnips and rutabagas that I forget about), taste is more important! All hope is not lost yet. :)

If anyone else here has tried to make their own turducken, you will no doubt agree with me that purchasing one for between $50 and $80 is well worth the investment.

I can do a turducken on my own but it's a PITA. Takes roughly 2 hrs or more of knife work. No thanks. De-boning the turkey isn't hard. The duck is a little harder, the chicken hardest of all due to the small size.

Reminds me of an episode of "Everyone Love Ramon" where his mom made a turkey out of tofu and at midnight the men where in the kitchen feasting on a real turkey they smuggled in..

Don't tell anyone but I will be cooking this year...my ususal Cuban turkey with all the trimmins.

...which has a distinctly different aroma when cooking - I can smell the cumin and garlic from here:)

I agree. It's worth the cost to save the work. The turducken comes with the leg and wing bones on the outer turkey, but the other 2 birds are completely deboned. It's awesome being able to slice right through the whole turnducken and get concentric rings of 3 meats with sausage stuffing in the center. It may sound expensive, but for a 15 - 20 lb turducken you only have the four turkey bones as waste. Plus there was definitely a positive reaction around the dinner table last year with talk of hoping for one this year.:D Another hit (which surprised me since most of my guests aren't into brussle sprouts) was "Shaved Brussel Sprouts with Chestnuts & Pancetta".

Swamp,

Try to sneak a turducken in when you can. I unveiled the turducken last year without anyone knowing beforehand. There are some picky eaters in my group and everyone was happy with it.:D

Would you share the Shaved Sprouts reciepe?

Sure!

Shaved Brussel Sprouts with Chestnuts and Pancetta

- 2lb. brussel sprouts (fresh if you can get them but frozen is fine)
- 6 oz. pancetta cut into 1/4" pieces
- 4 tbs. unsalted butter
- 1-1/2 cups finely chopped chestnuts

Remove the outer leaves from the sprouts and cut in half through the stem. and julienne. Set aside.

Cook the pancetta in a pan over medium heat, stirring occasionally for 5 to 7 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pan.

Add butter, and brown (don't let it burn)

Add sprouts and cook until tender (5-7 min)

Add the chestnuts and pancetta and cook for 2 more minutes.

Salt and Pepper and serve.



That's the recipe as I found it. I doubled the pancetta and think that is why I got the good reviews. I got the chestnuts from Williams-Sonoma. They are already peeled and ready to use (Marrons French Chestnuts). I hate cooking and peeling chestnuts but love to eat them.:D

Driving up the Ft. Stewart for the last full family Thanksgiving for a few years.

One sister & her husband are flying in from Grand Forks AFB, another sister is driving in from Lackland AFB, my brother is driving down from ATL, and my 3rd sister is driving in from...across town. All 7 of us (and 3 spouses) will be in town at once. Should be a fun, exciting holiday for sure!

My sister from Grand Forks has orders for Incirlik and will be leaving in a few months, so this'll be a good holiday. We'll be going out to the shooting range for a 'lil fun. (Pics will follow) We'll also be hitting Savannah for drinks and fun on Friday. On my way back home on either Saturday or Sunday (or both) I'll be pulling into Daytona for some browsing and maybe some shopping at the Turkey Rod Run.

"Shaved Sprouts," just sounds wrong . . . .