Clay Johnson: Brining the bird

Brining is the next key step in getting your fried turkey done right. This step, which can be done before the turkey is really done thawing, involves taking the turkey out of its wrapping, taking the “bag-o-guts” out of the inside, and submerging it in salty wanter (brine)

If your turkey is already thawed by the time you put it in there, make sure to add some ice to the mix to keep it cold and sanitary. If it hasn’t thawed, cold water does the trick just fine. Brine the turkey for a maximum of 12-20 hours.

Between 4-8 hours before your turkey fry, you want to inject and rub down your turkeys. Generally I’ve found the marinades that they sell to be useful only for the injectors they sell. The marinades themselves tend to be bland and tasteless compared to other ingredients you can pick up. Generally out of all of them, the Teryaki one tends to be the best. If I’m frying multiple turkeys, I tend to use this sauce for the guests who are too weak and feeble to eat real (read: spicy) foods.

I generally use the following:

1. 1 Bottle (I use the entire bottle) of the green Jalapeno tobasco sauce. —This stuff is easily the best I’ve had. It is renowned and generally out of everybody who tries my fried turkey, this is easily their favorite.

2. 1 Bottle of Firehouse Carribiean Jerk Marinade. I’ve done this once, and people loved it. The trick is with this stuff—it has herbs and stuff in the marinade, so I actually recommend that you use a paper-towel and strain the bottle before injection. Otherwise the junk gets in your syringe needle.

3. The aforementioned “Cajun Flavor Injector” Teryiaki sauce.

But you should also experiment. You can use anything that’s not very dense. Things like tobasco sauce (Next time I may try a turkey with their new Chipotle smoked pepper sauce), soy sauce—the sauces that are very thin are your friends. Thick things—barbecue sauce, ketchup, that stuff is not going to work out well for you. And generally if you think that injecting your turkey with Ketchup is a good idea, maybe you should just stick with the happy-meals.

After you’ve injected your turkey (and the more injection the better. I’ve never over injected my turkeys. Just keep injecting them in as many places as you can find until it is saturated)

Finally, you need to put a good rub on the turkey. My favorite rub of all time comes from ButtRubb.com. It leaves the skin amazingly tasty. It is really my secret ingredient. Put as much of this stuff as you can on the turkey and then stick it back in the refrigerator.