How do you love to prepare your turkey? Do you like to deep-fry in cooking oil or have it grilled? By the way, can you use vegetable oil to fry a turkey?
Deep frying is a simple process compared to oven-roasting. You can deep fry a 15 pound turkey in less than 1 hour, but you cannot do the same when oven-roasting turkey.
Oven-roasting requires a lot of time. It involves a lot of planning, roasting, and basting to get the desired finished product.
However, we’re going to discuss deep-frying turkey in vegetable oil. Isn’t possible or not? Let’s find out.
Can You Use A Vegetable Oil To Fry A Turkey?
Yes, you can use vegetable oil to fry a turkey. However, peanut oil is the best, but if you don’t have access to peanut oil or you’re allergic to it, you can use vegetable oil.
However, vegetable oil isn’t the best for frying, given its smoke point (400 degrees Fahrenheit). Rather, it’s best for baking and sautéing.
Also, you have to use vegetable oil at medium heat to ensure it doesn’t hit its smoke point.
The best oils for frying turkey are the ones with higher smoke point. These include avocado oil, peanut oil and soybean oil.
The refined avocado oil boasts a smoke point of 480 to 520 degrees Fahrenheit, and therefore, has a high smoke point as you can see.
A Handy Tip: Smoke point refers to the point where cooking oil reaches its burning point. The oil stops shimmering and starts smoking.
Oils with low smoke points aren’t a wise choice for frying. Examples include unrefined flaxseed oil and almond oil. Both oils feature a massively low smoke point, 225 degrees Fahrenheit.
As we said earlier, you can use vegetable oil to fry turkey where you can’t find other options. Vegetable oil has low-fat content and it’s easily accessible.
How Many Minutes Will It Take To Fry A Turkey?
How long it will take to fry a turkey depends on the size of the turkey you’re frying and the amount of oil you’re using. The best advice is to ensure there’s enough oil in the pot. In other words, the oil should cover the entire turkey.
Chefs have devised a means of calculating how much time it will take to deep-fry a turkey. The simple strategy is to assume that it will take 3 minutes to deep-fry one pound of turkey, and then add an extra 5 minutes.
For example, if you’re frying a 20 pound turkey, it will take you 65 minutes to finish the task.
Note that larger turkey will take longer time to cook. You may even discover that the exterior is burnt, whereas the interior is undercooked.
So, if you’re deep-frying a large turkey, do this simple thing: cut the turkey into smaller parts and fry each part separately. By the way, the time you take to fry a turkey isn’t what count or what people are after. What matters to people that will eat the turkey is the doneness.
If the turkey is undercooked, people won’t want to eat it anyway. Those who may manage to eat it may not enjoy it as they had envisaged.
Does Vegetable Oil Have A High Smoke Point?
Smoke point is the point when cooking oil starts burning. It stops shimmering and starts smoking, and could even catch fire. Thus, it’s not advisable to deep-fry with cooking oil that boasts a low smoke point.
So, does vegetable oil have a high smoke point? Yes, it does. The standard is 375 degrees Fahrenheit, while vegetable oil’s smoke point is 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
Can You Reuse Vegetable Oil?
Yes, you can reuse vegetable oil after deep-frying turkey. However, there are steps you need to take to ensure the used oil stays safe for later use.
The first thing you have to do is to allow the oil to cool down. Please, ensure the oil isn’t getting sunlight when cooling down, as this can cause the oil to suffer accelerated oxidation. Discard any used oil that has oxidized.
Why should you discard oils that have oxidized? Oxidation causes oil to release harmful compounds and toxic by-products that can obviously harm you.
So, keep your used vegetable cooking oil away from sunlight, heat and oxygen (store in an airtight container).
So, what you need to do is allow the oil to cook down after removing the fried turkey. However, don’t allow the temperature to drop completely before you strain it.
Once the temperature drops to the point that you can touch the oil without getting burnt, strain it. You can use cheesecloth or coffee filter to strain the used oil.
Remember that straining is important, as leaving impurities in the oil can cause it to get spoiled faster. So strain to remove any piece of turkey left in the oil or other added ingredients.
After straining, pour the oil into a neat container. After that, store it in a cool place, away from sunlight.
A Handy Tip: Always observe your used cooking oil before reusing them. Do physical observation and smell the oil too. If the smell is unusual, consider discarding the oil. A change of smell or color is an indication that the oil is unhealthy to use.
12 Tips To Follow When Deep-Frying Turkey With Vegetable Oil
These are the dos’ and don’ts to abide by when deep-frying turkey or any other animal with vegetable oil or other oils.
If you abide by these tips, you’ll fry your turkey successfully without causing any injuries to anyone or yourself.
- Never store used oil in a cooking pot. Once it cools down, strain and store in an airtight container. Storing oil in a cooking pot will give room for the oil to be oxidized.
- Your deep fryer came with instructions. Please, follow them. Don’t use the deep fryer until you have read and understood the instructions.
- Ensure your turkey is thawed before deep-frying it. In fact, after thawing, leave the turkey to dry up completely before immersing it in cooking oil. Otherwise, the oil will spill over and cause an injury to anyone around it.
- Never deep-fry on a wooden deck. It’s unsafe.
- If there’s grease fire, use a fire extinguisher to put it off. Avoid making the mistake of using water, as it would only get worse and you could get burnt.
- It’s okay to store used vegetable oil (you can also store other oils), but ensure you don’t allow the oil to cook down completely before straining and storing it. It should be warm before you strain and store it.
- Don’t store your cooking oil where there is sunlight. Oxidation may take place when you stay this way, making the oil unsafe to use. An oxidized oil releases several harmful compounds and toxic by-products that can harm you when consumed.
- Understand that the handles and even sides of your deep fryer can become very hot. So ensure you don’t touch them with your bare hands.
- Your vegetable oil should cover the entire turkey when deep-frying. The same goes for other cooking oils. However, don’t make the mistake of filling the pot to the brim.
- Ensure your kids and pets aren’t around when deep frying. Keep them far away from the kitchen.
- Always keep an eye on the turkey you’re frying throughout. Remember that you’re dealing with cooking oil that can get hurt and kids can mistakenly play around the cooker, anticipating when the food will be ready. Ensure you’re always around the kitchen, and don’t leave until you have strained and stored the vegetable oil.
- You can reuse used cooking oil. It’s safe, depending on the state of the oil. You can determine if used cooking oil is safe to use by smelling it or visual analysis. If you perceive a foul smell, then the oil isn’t safe anymore.
Can You Fry A Turkey With Canola Oil?
375 degrees Fahrenheit is the ideal frying temperature. Canola’s temperature is higher than this, making it a wise choice for deep frying.
Canola’s smoke point ranges from 400 to 475 degrees Fahrenheit. So it’s great for boiling and stir-frying.
To get the best result when using canola oil, set the right temperature. By doing so, you’ll achieve a crisp and not greasy output.
So, what makes canola oil a great option for frying turkey is its high smoke point. In addition, it also has low allergy concerns.
A Handy Tip: Always dry your turkey before frying it. The hot canola oil will heat up the water molecules within the turkey, causing the water vapor to push the bobbles to the surface.
Conclusion
Can you use vegetable oil to fry a turkey? Yes, you can fry turkey with vegetable oil. Vegetable oil has a high smoke point, so it won’t smoke or catch fire when used.
However, peanut oil is the best for deep-frying. But if you don’t have it, you can use vegetable oil. You can read the dos’ and don’ts when using vegetable oil to ensure you do so safely.
