Deep frying v. roasting a turkey?
 

Ok you OA'ers out there. I have a question about turkey. Since Thursday is Thanksgiving in the States, my daughter and I are having a quam about which is fattest. A roasted turkey or a deep fried turkey? Which do you think?

Thanks MiddleSister

Depends on what you put on the roasted turkey (if you avoid lots of butter or oil it'd be less) but I can tell you that deep fried is one of the worst ways to cook anything much less a turkey lol

Deep fried has about 603 cals and 34 grams of fat per serving

I have to disagree with this. :) If done right, deep frying does NOT add fat to the turkey - especially if you don't eat the skin.

If the oil is hot enough to properly cook the turkey, the meat does not absorb the oil. The trick there, of course, is to make sure the oil is hot enough and the turkey is properly fried.

I'm not sure where you got your figures from, but I have to disagree with them as well. First of all, you don't say what part of the turkey (white meat has fewer calories and fat than dark meat) and you don't say if it's with or without the skin. And finally you don't say how much meat you're talking about. But I find it really really hard to believe that even if it were breaded and soaked in oil, a serving of turkey would be 600 calories.

This if from Livestrong:
2 oz of deep fried turkey breast (no skin) = 60 cals, 2g fat, 10g protein
2 oz of oven roasted turkey breast (no skin) = 50 cals, 1g fat, 10g protein

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I dont know about health reasons... PC has some great points... but I don't do it strictly for safety reasons. There are way too many things that can go wrong when you deep fry your turkey. Plus, IMO, it doesn't tase as good as a brined or injected turkey that's been roasted.

If you decide to fry it, please be careful!

Oooooh Rebecca... you just haven't had a good Cajun fried turkey, cher! :)

We won't be frying this year, but we always have at least 1 fried turkey a year and we always brine, then inject, then fry. They're the absolute best.

Safety is an issue though. You need to be super careful. We take our fryer out onto the grass - wet it down with a hose first, then set up the fryer. But we've been doing this for years and years and years since DH went to school in Louisiana. So we've had some practice. :)

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Haha... well, maybe not! It was injected, but I thought it was just too dry. We did have amaturs at the frier, though! Might have been cooked too long. I'm just so sold on brining and roasting!


Middlesister - Alton Brown seems to have some great (and perhaps overboard) safety tips for turkey frying that are worth looking into.

I'm from New Orleans and deep fried does = bad.....you are in denial PhotoChick lol Cher!

I haven't tried fried turkey but I have heard what Photo Chick said - that the oil is very hot and doesn't really soak into the turkey. I would love to try it but I don't have anywhere to do it here so we will have to be guests of someone that does it sometime!

oh- and as far as which is healthier- I guess that would depend. the way I typically make my turkey is not very healthy (I don't think) but it is delicious. - I brine and inject with cajun seasonings - I baste throughout cooking. It is the juiciest, most flavorful turkey I have ever had. Too bad we will be eating at another house this year! - oh well. It's about the people right??

Have you seen the new "deep fryers"? They use infrared or something instead of oil. Safer for sure but would it taste any different than roasting? I don't know.

Um, no really I'm not. I don't know where you get 600 calories, but it's just wrong. :)

Frying food - ANY FOOD - is not inherently worse than any other method of cooking *if* it's done right. Deep frying something in hot oil, if the oil is hot enough doesn't cause the food to absorb any more oil than basting it with butter during roasting does.

Now if there's breading or coating, the breading can absorb more oil, but the meat itself does not.

That's actually factual. :)

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I meant the whole turkey. My daughter and I have a disagreement on this fact. I think deep frying is less fat and she thinks deep frying is more fat. Either way since she fixed Thanksgiving Dinner this year, we had roasted. It was still very good, but the legs were dried out, I'd never tell her that though. LOL