I followed the recipe exactly. It was so good I've been requested to make the same turkey for Christmas! Christmas turkey- hahaha. The turkey was spicy if you got some of the rub, but you could "mix" in as much spice as you wanted bc the rub was on the skin! A 13lb bird took me 55 mins at 325*. A+
Used this three years in a row and everyone loves it. It's not spicy at all like some reviewers say (not sure what they did wrong). I hate spicy (even mild salsa) foods and so do my kids but we gobble this up!
WOW! This was great! It was by far the best marinade I've ever tried. The only thing I did different was I put the turkeys in large zip-loc bags with the marinade for 3 days. I was afraid that it would be to spicy but not at all. It had a wonderful flavor. We have no turkey left after only 1 day! Thanks for the great recipe!
We just tried this marinade. It is wonderful. We fried it at 325 for 45 minutes. It does not need any more time. As the others have said, the spices marry well and it is not too much. I'll be using this again
I haven't made this yet but was wondering how I can ensure I get a golden brown turkey instead of a indigo black turkey? My brine has honey (sugar) in it. If I keep everything in my brine the same (2 quarts veg broth, 1 lb salt, 1 gallon of water) and omit the honey, will that help to prevent the blackening of the bird? This marinade scares me but the rave reviews are too positive NOT to try it.
I made this like 4 years ago and forgot how good it was. So I made it this Thanksgiving and I was the bomb. I will make this again so moist and the crust on it Delicious. this is a must try.
We made this for Thanksgiving for my entire "traditional is the only was to go" family. The only reason that this rub received less than 5 stars is because it served more as a coating vs. a rub that seasoned the turkey. As a coating, it was very tasty - and shockingly NOT peppery (have to be honest, we were terrified at the amount of pepper in this recipe). We have fried over 10 turkeys and this is probably the best coating. The only suggestion that I would make is that next time (and there will be a next time with this coating) is that some Italian Dressing should be injected into the turkey. And the reaction from my tradition-loving family? They loved it!!
Absolutely amazing! **wear gloves when applying the rub/marinade** my hands were on fire after massaging my turkey with it!!!!!
We tried this for Thanksgiving yesterday and really loved it! The flavor was fantastic! We also injected a separate marinade and fried the bird.. and the combo of the two made for a world class turkey!! Thanks for sharing your great recipe! One word of caution: this rub did end up turning our turkey black in the fryer.. so some of that was inedible. But it still tasted great and the bird was not burnt... just blackened. Just be forewarned!
Amazing turkey!!! I am so glad I found this recipe. My family could not stop raving about this turkey. Like others noted, the rub is more like a coating and it takes some time to get it on the bird. I had about 1/8 of an inch covering the breast and tops of the legs, and just did the best I could with the other parts, but this worked fine. We will make this our new family tradition!
I consider myself pretty gourmet - and was a little skeptical as well when I saw the ingredients. But I was willing to take a chance. Suspend your disbelief - this is an excellent recipe that I highly recommend. I made it for a pre-Thanksgiving gathering of friends who all loved it. Would make again.
This recipe was PHENOMENAL!! This was my first time making the turkey...After reading all if the reviews I followed the recipe. The only thing I did different was inject the turkey with Italian dressing. I used every grain of seasoning inside an outside of the bird, and let marinade overnight in a large food grade bag (18lb turkey). I used my butterball xl turkey fryer at 325* for roughly 1hr 20 mins. When I pulled it out, it was cooked exactly at 165*. At first taste I thought it was salty, but after carving and serving it BOOM! The flavor was out of this world! It cooked perfectly and did not appear burned. Everyone loved it, but the ultimate compliment was seeing the turkey platter empty at the end of the night (usually we have a little left over). I am DEFINITELY using this recipe next year!
There is only one word to describe this recipe - INCREDIFREAKINLICIOUS!!!! My family is very competitive and you HAVE to come up with something new to keep you in the "game". So, having said that, when I looked at this recipe, I was really skeptical even though I read all the raving reviews. Nevertheless I plowed ahead and made the rub. I rubbed it under and on top of the skin as well as the inner cavity. I felt like I was giving the turkey a massage!! I also injected the turkey with 1 cup italian dressing, strained and 1/2 cup white riesling wine. OMGoodness!!! This was, HANDS DOWN, THE BEST TURKEY I HAVE EVER MADE! I also made a beer and butter injected turkey. 21 guests later, both turkeys are picked clean! My neices and nephews both said this was the best turkey they have ever eaten. So, thanks Allrecipes.com because now I'm at the top of my game in the family cooking competition!!!
I made one of these turkeys last year to compliment the baked turkey my mother made. I was informed this year I would be frying 2 of these, and we won't bake any. Don't be scared by the cayenne. It is not spicy.
Adds very good flavor to the turkey. Used the Creole Seasoning recipe on this site and reduced the amount of cayenne pepper to 1/4 cup, allowed to marinate overnight. Wasn't too spicy at all (didn't eat the skin though). Next time I will use the full 1/2 cup of cayenne pepper and it will probably be even better!
My large family loves this..we deep fry two turkeys using this marinade every Thanksgiving and Christmas...I use Creole butter injection in addition to the marinade..we never have leftovers!
This sounds wonderful, but I will be using an oiless deep fryer. I wonder if it will be too spicy without the oil to tame it down?
Holy Fried Turkey! This is awesome. I will never fry another turkey without this marinade. Thank you so much!
Used it at christmas and it was pretty good. Everyone loved it but i expected the skin to be crispier and the inside to be more tender. I even injected with 1/2 bottle of italian dressing but didn't much like that taste. I did cut down on the pepper some and I won't do that next time, and next time I will inject with beer and let sit for 2 days or so.
fantastic marinade, this was my first deep fried turkey and it was awesome. My whole family loved it and it only took a short time to cook.
The turkey was black...and I do mean black...but oh my god was it delicious. I will never roast a turkey again. I only wish the bird turned out prettier.
WOW!!! I injected the bird then rubbed it down the night before Thanksgiving. Best turkey ever! Thank you
I used this recipe last year and it was absolutely wonderful! It was my first time frying a turkey, so I was fearfult that the marinade would make the turkey too hot. Boy was I wrong! The flavor of the turkey was perfect. It was so perfect that people have been asking for me to do the turkey again this year and I, therefore, and to come back to find it. Others have tried to order turkeys from me? Thanks for a great recipe.
Best tasting turkey EVER!!! We took a chance on this marinade and we are so glad we did! Do not get scared of all the spices! It is not spicy after it is fried!!! It is just the tastiest and juiciest turkey you will ever taste! My 8 year old son who is the pickiest eater and allergic to everything under the sun... tried a piece of the hot crunchy skin and he was hooked! He ate a full Thanksgiving dinner for the first time ever! I think that says it all! Try it, you will never want to eat turkey any other way. Easy, great recipe!!
I HATED turkey until this recipe which changed my mind forever. We make this every year and it's to DIE for. Yes, like others have said, it WILL come out black but no worries, it's not burnt! Everyone raves about this every time we make it. This year I think I'm going to try a brine prior to deep frying.
This is so good there are not words that will describe this rub. I will defiantly use this for all my birds I deep fry. I was a little worried when making it, when it started to make me sneeze and cough. Even washing out the platter that the bird was sitting on made me cough. But this is the most tasty and juice bird that we have ever done. Don’t worry about the spices it really does mellow when you deep fry the bird. I also used a Creole butter injector which gave the inside a little kick too. Loved it. We just couldn't stop eating it.
I cooked this last year (2009) at my girlfriends dads house and everyone loved it. This is the best way to cook a turkey I wont have it anyother way.
I was very skeptical with trying this recipe since this was my 1st fried turkey. The turkey tasted great! I just didn't like the burnt look of the skin. Is it any way to get around the burnt look? It doesn't look pretty on the table.
This is my thired year using this recipe. I rub the turkeys 3 days before we fry them, wrap them in heavy plastic bags and pack them in an ice chest and take them with us to our annual sanddune trip. After a 1 1/2 days I turn them over and repack them in the ice chest. They are simply delicious. You can inject them if you want but it isn't necessary. Everyone raves about the flavor.
Amazing! I picked this recipe up in a hurry for my company holiday party. Most people have had fried trukey but not a "cajun" fried turkey. This was a hit and looked like pirhanna had attacked it within 20 minutes of carving the first bit off. Excellent recipe. I used a 15 pound bird at 350 and everything came out beautiful.
THIS WAS AMAZING!!! We tried our first deep fried turkey this year and wanted a great marinade. This definately surpassed all expectations. I was really scared about all the hot spices in it but it was not spicy at all. I can not eat anything to spicy and I could even eat the skin on this, which I do not do. Out of 9 people, 6 were children and they all loved it. We did marinate it for 24 hours too. So from the words of my 4 year old niece "You are the best cooker, that was the goodess bird" LOL.....Thanks :)
Awesome recipe! My husband was afraid to try it and actually started regreting doing it after we coated the bird. But we read all the reviews and decided to give it a chance. So glad we did, it turned out delicious and everyone loved it!
First time frying a turkey; great recipe, family loved it, pepper was NOT overpowering, used Kraft Tuscan house italian and opted for minced garlic and freshly ground pepper (that took a long time). Can only say this is definetly one of the best fried turkey recipes I've tasted.
Yes, I was nervous about trying this recipe, but trust me it's delicious. Decided to search on-line for a new recipe for Thanksgiving and this one was a WINNER. The flavor is awesome!! In the pass my family complained the turkey is to dry, not this one. Very juicy. Our 10lb turkey was eaten in 1 day. I will pass this recipe on to others.
All I can say is...FABULOUS!!!! The skin did come out black (and I tried to keep the burner to 350 degrees), but no complaints from anyone at all!! It was a medium turkey but was gone in a few days. Thanks! Hubby and I will ALWAYS keep to this recipe.
We made our first deep fried turkey for Thanksgiving and used this recipe. It was deliciously moist and tender--even when we were finishing up left overs a week later. No dry turkey here! Every bite was juicy and flavorful.
Love Love Love this recipe!! Only problem is, it is the only way I want turkey now.
I gave this recipe to my brother who was frying the family turkey this year. It was excellent! Tender and juicy. He followed the recipe exactly. We will be doing this for Christmas too!
This is the only marinade I use when I deep fry turkeys. I love the taste and it is not to hot as you would think it would be. Everyone who has my turkeys rave about how great it tastes. I've been asked for the recipe multiple times. I half the recipe because I always have to much unused.
Used this recipe last year & we all absolutely loved it, we will never bake a turkey in the oven ever again. This made such an amazing crust on the turkey but yet it wasn't over powering in flavor. All I can say is thanks for sharing this with us :)
Our first attempt at deep frying a turkey and it was AWESOME. Better than we ever expected. Very good! Looks like it's burnt but somehow it's not. But it is very moist. We ate the whole turkey in a day and plan to make many, many more.
I've always used cayenne powder. B/c the bird is damp, the powder stays on the skin and is easier to marinate in my opinion.
This was my first time frying a turkey and i used this marinade and i must say that it was the best tasting turkey i've ever had. The flavor was not overpowering and even though the skin was black, it was absolutely delicious.
wow! followed the recipe, but didn't own a deep frier. Marinated a 12 lb bird for 48 hrs. After 48 hrs scraped most of the paste off the bird put about 1/4 cup in the cavity and smeared it around. baked at 425 for 30 mins, then turned the oven to 250 and 20 mins per lb of turkey The skin was too hot to eat but the sauce in the pan with the meat dipped in it WOW!!!
This was stellar!! Followed the recipe as written and allowed the turkey to marinade overnight. Deep frying pretty much killed the oil but the flavor of the bird was totally worth it! The neat was juicy and flavorful. Everyone liked the meat. The skin, while crispy, was quite spicy. If you are not a fan of spicy food then skip eating the skin. One more on quantities: The recipe as written is way more than is required. I had an 11 pound Turkey and I had about 2/3 left over. I applied the seasonings to the skin and to the meat below the as well.
This will be the third Thanksgiving we use this recipe. We rub the turkey the night before. The turkey is gobbled up in minutes. Everyone loves the flavor and the juiciness.
This is the best tasting turkey I have ever eaten. I do not like spicy food and thought this turkey would be to spicy for me but after cooking and eating it I found it was perfect. The turkey was easy to prepare and was good on the first try. I have a Big Easy turkey fryer that I cook it in which does not require grease. You can not go wrong with this turkey. I just prepared it again using turkey parts vs the entire turkey and it was still good. I am not sure why all reviews did not give this one five stars
We have made this recipe at least half a dozen times. No one in my household really likes turkey, or at least we didn't think that we did. This recipe made us really enjoy turkey. So much flavor so moist! Give it a try. You won't be disappointed.
There's fried turkey and then there's Real Good Fried Turkey...great quick marinade. Gives your turkey a little kick
I made this today for about 100 sailors at my command...NAILED IT!!! There is one guy in particular, a good friend of mine who you will hardly hear a rave review from! Today was that rare occasion and his reaction was unimaginable! It was a really special moment for me so, Mahalo Nui Loa!!!
This rub was a serious hit at our party. Everyone chose the cajun bird over the one we simply rubbed with salt and pepper. highly recommend.
Best turkey I have ever eaten! It was so incredibly juicy with tons of flavor. We have tried this recipe the last 3 years and we finally got it right. I think the secret to this year’s success was giving the oil plenty of time to get to temperature. It always takes longer than we think, so we have to rush to get the turkey in. The oil dropped almost 100 degrees when we put the turkey in but that was okay. The outside had time to sear and hold in all of the juices. This marinade is delicious. After rubbing it all over the outside of the skin, I also rubbed it between the turkey and the skin, which gave it an amazing flavor since we don’t eat the skin. Some bites had zingers of spiciness so next time I will add a little less of the peppery marinade under the skin, but I won’t change a thing about the recipe. So good!!
We used this marinade with our turkey in 2014 everyone liked it so much we are making it again this year.
Beat turkey ever! Flavor was amazing! Won’t just be having turkey for Thanksgiving anymore!
5 years now that Ive been using this recipe for our Thanksgiving turkey. Everybody loves it! The flavor & mild spice is just right. I brine my Turkeys overnight then rinse & marinate over night.
So we just fried out 14.65 lb turkey on Thanksgiving and OMG was it delicious! Thanks to other reviews that warned us of the black burned look to the bird we did not panic when we removed it from the fryer. However to be honest we were still very nervous. Prior the the guests getting there we cut a small piece of the turkey and let me just say it was hard to stop eating it before family arrived! lol Anyway we mixed the spices as directed the night prior to frying. We covered the turkey, under some areas of the skin, and inside the cavity. We removed it from the frig to fry at 2:30pm the next afternoon and fried it for 45 minutes at around 325/350 degrees. When family arrived everyone thought it was burnt and it was no good! haha For the 1st time the honey baked ham was not touched at all and there was a line for the turkey! Amazing!! People kept talking about it all night and we are expected to fry another for Christmas! This is truly going to be a traditional recipe for us from this point on! Highly recommend it! Enjoy!
I make this every holiday. my entire family demands it. now my daughter and son in-law are cooking it for Christmas. my 89 year old dad, who hates everything, loved this as well. i follow the recipe just as it says. it's great.
We were worried at first it was so dark, but once we carved it up, it was absolutely delicious!
This marinade is the only marinade I use for Turkey and everyone I've made it for loves it!
AWESOME Flavor but I will say I was a little scared of the ingredients because most of my family doesn't like heat. I did use 1/4 cup of cayenne pepper instead of 1/2 but there was no spice when it was done. I will do the recipe as pictured next year and I'm thinking about adding a stick of butter to the mix to see how that goes. This was my 7th yr frying a turkey for Thanksgiving and I usually had bought the butter creole marinade at Wal-Mart but they didn't have it in my area this year and they won't have to worry about me buying it anymore. My whole family raved over this turkey. And I was really surprised how the marinade tasted throughout the whole turkey not just the skin. EXCELLENT RECIPE, don't be afraid...
Resulted in an amazing, juicy, tasty bird. At first I wasn't going to follow thru with deep frying this 22.5 lb bird after reading posts online but I'm glad i did! This is our first fried turkey and it blew everyone away. Id be afraid to try another recipe in fear of disappointment compared to how succulent & juicy this turned out. Most posts I've found suggest cooking in oil at 350 degrees at 3 - 3.5 min per pound. We dropped this bad boy in at 350 and could barely get oil back above 250, continued at that for 1hr 15 minutes and this 22.5 lb. bird was cooked perfect, 160 - 180 throughout. We used a 26 quart fryer I borrowed, made a heck of a mess splattering oil on concrete patio dropping it in as slow as could be.. so i will certainly be investing into a much larger pot. What i don't get is if this big bird was PERFECT (and i mean perfect) at 250 degrees at little over 3 min per pound, i imagine this and any other bird would be over cooked and less juicy at the higher temp for same amount of time.. IDK but I'll be paying even more close attention to temps & times from here out.
Absolutely fantastic! This truely is the best fried turkey I've ever had. I let mine marinade for about 24hours. Rinsed all the marinade off before frying and it was so good!
We loved this recipe!! This was my first deep fried turkey ! I followed the instructions to the letter, and that was one delicious turkey. My husband kept going in the kitchen stealing pieces. At one point he and my son were missing and I found them sharing a drum stick. This recipe will be the only one I ever use for fried turkey. I'm not afraid anymore.
I was in a panic attack after losing my old laptop with this recipe on it. I finally found this again and Thanksgiving is saved. Don't change a thing, just make it, rub your bird, and fry that big daddy up. I fry about 6 turkeys every year between Thanksgiving and Christmas and I use this rub every time. I love it, people I cook for love it, and I'm always asked to come back and do it again the next time. Thank you!!!
This turkey marinade is amazing! I was skeptical that it would be too spicy, but it isn't spicy at all. My 2 year old loved it! When the turkey came out of the frier it looked burn beyond belief, but as soon as you cut it open it was moist and juicy!
tried this marinade because of all the great review. im sorry i did. turkey was way to spicy. kids couldnt even eat it.
I tried this recipe for the first time for a big family thanksgiving diner several years ago. I was very skeptical and concerned when I started putting all the ingredients together. Because of all the wonderful reviews, I kept going and followed the recipe. I am so glad I didn’t turn back. Although my family had several comments about how black the turkey looked. I had very little turkey left over to bring home. I’ve been asked to make the turkey ever since. The only thing I added to my process is, prior to cooking my turkey I put it in a brine for about two days before marinading it. Don’t let the peppery seasonings keep you from trying it. It will not make your turkey taste spicy hot. You will have great flavors.
Awesome turkey! Family loved it. It is now our official way of prepping our turkey for Thanksgiving.
I have used this marinade for both Thanksgiving and Christmas for a few years now. It goes great with all the side dishes you normally have for the holidays, something injected turkeys don't always do. The skin is the best part. I always let people know ahead of time that the bird will come out dark brown and black due to the marinade. Once they try a taste they are going back for more. Leftovers don't last long either.
Making it for the third Thanksgiving straight! Deleted the cayenne pepper and cut the Creole seasoning in half because my family doesn't like too much spice. Everyone always comes back for seconds!
Excellent, excellent marinade! Very easy to throw together. The marinade was much thicker than I anticipated. I thought I might inject some of it in the meat, but it was much too thick. Very delicious though. I marinated for about 18 hours and the meat came out PERFECT! Very juicy and tender. I will make this again!
We've tried various injectable marinades that were ok, but this is by far the best way to deep fry a turkey!
This was fantastic. I did not add the cayenne pepper because I was afraid it would be too spicy. Just the creole seasoning and Italian dressing and pepper Marinaded overnight Flavor thru out was amazing. Moist and flavorful. The skin did look burnt like others said but did not taste burned at all. Was delicious I will make this again. Might add a little cayenne next time lol
This turned out very well the addition of Italian dressing made a good impression, but you might reccomend a good Italian dressing, they vary so much, I put a dash of hot sauce in it it made it more flavorful, and not really hot.
This was my first turkey ever! I like everyone else was scared about it being too spicy but this was amazing! I put the whole bottle of dressing but that was because my following directions isn’t that good. I did blot the inside in the am after it had marinated all night. The smell was awesome and everyone couldn’t wait to taste. A total hit in my house even if it looked a little burnt
I love this recipe. The turkey came out perfect!!!!
Used this recipe for my very first fried turkey it came out absolutely marvelous. I actually fried two turkeys one for my house and one for my mother's house. I highly recommend this recipe!
Best Turkey hands down. Had an 18 lb turkey for 7 people and had only enough left over for 1 meal. It did come out looking burnt and a few people were worried but then everyone wanted a 2nd helping. 2014, Made it again this year and It was all gone before I could get some.
I tried the rub and the gravy for Christmas and I must say it was delicious. I rate this 5 stars. Awesome
Today was the second time my brother and I fried a turkey, the first time we used this marinade. Even after reading all of the reviews we were still nervous that the turkey was burned to the point of it being inedible. Boy were we wrong!!! The turkey is out of this world!!! Christmas turkey look out!!!!!!!
