- Slow. All right, now we're cooking with gas! (Hannah chuckles) (exciting music) - Turkey season is almost upon us and soon people are gonna be
cooking up these big birds at festive fall gatherings
all over the country. - Traditionally, turkeys
are roasted in the oven, but these days more and more people are cooking them outside, either grill roasting
them or deep frying them. - So should you be grilling or
frying your turkey this year? We've tested gear in both categories and we'll give you the rundown so you can decide for yourself. - It's a turkey-palooza! First up, Lisa with grill roasting. (exciting music) - Okay, it's grill time. I have started using
this recipe every year ever since I learned about it. It's the simple grill roasted turkey. You can find the recipe on
americastestkitchen.com. I love this recipe for
simple grill roasted turkey because it frees up your oven. You can do your pies, your side dishes, anything you want indoors because your turkey's
comfortably cooking outdoors, which is also a great
excuse for you to sneak out and escape the party for a little while and "check on the turkey",
but this recipe is so easy and really doesn't need any babysitting. The other thing that's interesting about grill roasting your turkey is you might think, "Oh,
am I gonna grill my turkey? What's that?" It's not gonna taste grilled per se. It may have a very light smokey
flavor, but really not much because it's really gonna
be roasting on the grill rather than being grilled. It comes up beautifully brown
with really delicious flavor. It's a classic turkey,
but outdoors, hands off. It's awesome. I have our Best Buy grill from Weber. Our favorite is also by Weber. It's the Weber Performer, which is the exact same
grill but with some extras. It comes attached to a nice rolling cart. You don't need a separate table. And it has some other nice features which I'll talk about in a minute. But this one has
everything you really need. There are charcoal grills
out there over $2,000. It's like the Rolls Royce of grills, sure, but you do not need that. We wanted a well engineered, usable model. Everything you wanna do,
you can do right here. It's a very lightweight
and easy to assemble grill. I put it together in
45 minutes flat myself. I am not that mechanically inclined. And it does everything you want because it has these little features that let you control the
amount of heat and the airflow, and that gives you all
the barbecuing power. It has a event on the
lid, which is offset. So you can direct where the smoke and heat is gonna go inside the grill. Some have the vent right in the middle and all that just goes
straight up the middle. And so positioning this where you want the smoke and the heat to
travel gives you all the power. The other thing you wanna
know is the bottom vent with this lever right here. And you can see this oval
means that it's closed, and this means there's airflow. So the more you move it
this way, it's more open. This way is closed. When you're done grilling, you
shut that and you shut this and the fire will extinguish. When you open them all the
way, it will get much hotter. Fire really needs air and that will make it
really go hotter or cooler. So you also get to direct the temperature. So this is awesome. It's a lot more complicated than just slapping some burgers down. Grill roasting gives you all the power. And people can even rig this
to do low and slow barbecue. I'm gonna set up the grill
for indirect grill roasting. So we're gonna take off our lid. We're gonna take off the top grate, which has these nice handles that are nice and raised and easy to grab. And that gives you just
the bottom grate here. So on the bottom grate, you're
gonna open the vent halfway because that's gonna control the heat. Full open is very hot, fully
closed will kill the fire. So halfway is gonna give
us a roasting temperature. I'm using a foil roasting
pan, a large one. It's roughly 9x13. This is a big roasting pan. I folded back the sides a little bit. And just put that in there. You're gonna pour in three cups of water. When the fat drips onto the
hot coals and then vaporizes, then that gives you a grilled flavor. This is gonna catch those drips and keep them from creating
a burned or grilled flavor. You're gonna get half a
chimney of unlit charcoal. And this is our favorite
chimney starter also by Weber and it holds about seven quarts. And we wanna put half on each side, unlit. This handle stays cool,
there's a heat shield here, and this helps you
control the the pouring. When it's cold, it's not that big a deal, but when this is full of lit coals, you definitely need both of
those handles to control. I've divided them half and
half unlit on either side. I'm gonna go get the hot coals and put them on top of the unlit coals. So I'm putting my lit coals
on top of my unlit coals. And it's okay if some
stuff falls in there. You're not using that water
for flavor or anything. You've got your grill tongs, 16 inches. These are by Oxo. They're very easy to use. They lock and unlock very easily. And one handed. And you can arrange the lit
coals over the unlit coals and that will get it
low slow heat over time. Now I'm going to put that grate back on and I'm covering the grill. Now, first I'm just gonna
open the vents on top halfway. These slide fully open,
closed, and partway. So I'm doing halfway. And I'm just gonna let
it heat up a little bit. Five minutes. And then I'm going to scrub
the grates and oil them. We always clean the grates before we grill because that soot and schmoots
from last time you cooked is gonna get stuck on your
food and make it taste bad. If you want a nice clean grilled flavor, you wanna clean and oil your grates and once you're used to
it, it's no big deal. Now, you want to get the probe into the meatiest part of the breast. Back up not near the bone. And then you're gonna put this turkey, it's gonna go the same length as the pan. The pan is gonna catch the drips. Got your probe coming out. So you can either close it in here, which I don't like to do 'cause
it's not good for the wire, but I just take it and thread it right through the vents of the hood vent so then the wire is not
being pinched in the grate. And I'm just gonna put that on. I'm gonna make sure the
vents are halfway closed and over the turkey, and that will direct the
heat right up to that breast. And I'm gonna hook this
to our favorite chef alarm by Thermoworks, and I've set it to 160, which is what you want
the breast to reach. This is called the
remote probe thermometer and it's also a clip on candy thermometer. This will beep very
loudly when it hits 160, and you come back and your turkey's done. And you do have a thermometer
on the lid of your grill. That's really just talking
about the air temperature in the top of the grill
near where this is. It's useful as sort of a guideline, but you really want
your probe in your meat because that's what you're
really going to eat later and you want that to be
the right temperature. Before I really learned
about charcoal grilling, I just thought you put the briquettes in, you pop the grate on, and
you grill the burgers. There's so much more to it than that. And what it comes down to
is the amount of control the grill gives you,
the barbecue or griller. This is a good moderate size. It's not too big, not too small. Some of the grills that we tested didn't have as much
space as this one does. 22 and a half inches is the
diameter of the grill grate and it's really a good size. You could really cook for
a whole party of people. This simple grill roasted
turkey is really simple. I don't have to do anything. I don't have to flip the bird, I don't have to turn it around, nothing. It's in there, it's gonna cook, it'll beep when it's done. It's gonna take about two hours. So it's done. The breast is at 160 and
we're gonna take a look. If you notice, it's gorgeous, evenly browned all the way around because we put our coals on
both sides of the turkey. So all the heat came up and out and over. Okay, so I'm gonna take this and put it on the carving board to rest. This is my little trick for getting it off without puncturing it. I just take the foil that
I'm gonna rest it with and then I grab it right
through and I lift it off. And now it can rest. I can even leave my mitts right on there to keep it from moving
while I bring it indoors. So while this turkey rests, let's go to Hannah who's
gonna deep fry a turkey in our winning turkey fryer. (exciting music) - So Lisa just talked to you all about grill roasting a turkey. I'm gonna talk today about
deep frying a turkey, another wonderful way to
cook your turkey outside. Now, our friends over at Cook's Country just developed an
absolutely delicious recipe for deep frying a turkey. So we've got you covered if you're interested in
doing it this holiday season. But today I'm gonna talk about
why you might wanna do it and the tools that you need
to safely get the job done. Deep frying in general is
known for crispy, crackly, delicious, shattering, caramelly colors. And deep frying turkey is no different. The skin on a deep fried turkey is so beautifully bronzed and crackly. The inside remains tender and juicy. It creates an absolutely delicious bird. So first and foremost, that's
why you might wanna do it. Second of all, it frees up your oven so you can cook your sides while
you cook your bird outside, which if you're doing a lot on a holiday you know that oven space is precious. Third of all, it is a really
fast way to cook your bird. You can actually cook two turkeys in the time it takes you to
cook all your sides inside. I've got our winner from
Bayou Classic right here. And this is the propane burner that goes with it from Gas One. You really want a stable base. This is a huge vessel of hot
oil, you wanna feel secure. You can see right here,
don't worry, it's not lit. Super secure, so it
just allows you to feel a little bit safer while you're
doing this whole process. The other thing was the
material of the pot. So aluminum and stainless
steel were the choices. We found stainless steel is
way more durable over time. It heats up a little slower, but it's way more durable over time. And durability is key here. You do not want any oil
leaking out of these and going anywhere near
the flame on the bottom. So we really value durability here. And stainless steel,
like this Bayou Classic, was our top choice. Now, you might say, "This
looks like a big pot, Hannah. Why do you have to have a
turkey specific big pot?" I'ma tell you. First of all, the size of this pot, this is way longer than even
a lobster pot, for example. Though, you could cook
lobsters in this FYI. But that's because it allows you headroom. So right here is the fill line and this is filled with oil to right here, but once you add a turkey,
it's gonna displace that oil and it's gonna move it way up the pot. You don't want the oil anywhere
near the top of the pot. Then it really turns into a safety hazard. So the biggest thing that
makes a turkey frying pot a turkey frying pot is it is very long and it has a lot of extra room in there, so you're not gonna get your
oil anywhere near the top. They also come with different accessories. Steaming baskets like this. You can do lobsters, you can do tamales, you can do a crawfish boil. And these just make it that much easier, and more fun so it's not a one trick pony! I can imagine building whole parties around one of these things. They're so much fun, fun to feed a crowd. So a good big strainer,
this is about 17 quarts, just makes the pot that
much more versatile. All right, it's time to
light this bad boy up. I'm gonna show you how easy it is. I have my lighter right here. Lefty loosey, open the gas. Wooh! There we go. All right, now I'm gonna put the pot on, the Bayou Classic pot. I've got my thermometer on here. This is filled with about three and a half quarts of vegetable oil. See how stable that is? That was not the case for all of these. And let me tell you, you do
not want a hot pot of oil being unstable anywhere
near you or your family. So this is like, I'm
shaking this right now and it's pretty stable. Got my thermometer in here. The tip is about an inch submerged, so I know I'm gonna get
an accurate reading. It's nowhere near the walls. That can throw off your reading. All right, so now I'm gonna
wait till this heat's up. We are looking for 325 over here. That is our ideal fry temperature, and then I will lower in the bird. All right, so I wanna talk about safety because safety is one
of the biggest concerns when you are deep frying turkeys. Now first of all, do not fry a turkey when it's raining or snowing outside. As the old saying goes,
oil and water don't mix and that's definitely true here. You also wanna be mindful
of where you set up. You wanna be away from any structures and you wanna be on a flat level surface. A patio or a concrete driveway are ideal. A really key factor is to
make sure your bird is thawed all of the way before you
put it in the hot oil. A lot of house fires
actually start this way. Folks don't thaw their bird all the way and then it explodes. So make sure to thaw your bird before you put it in the hot oil. Our rule of thumb is one day for every four pounds you wanna
keep it in the refrigerator, but make sure you can
actually temp your bird to see if it's still frozen inside to be doubly, doubly sure, but leave enough time to thaw your bird if you're gonna deep fry it. You wanna make sure you keep
the flames below the pot. You don't want the flames to
lick up the side of the pot. That way if any oil splatters, it doesn't come in
contact with the flames. I'm about to hit 325 here,
which means it's action time. We are ready for the bird to go in. And I also have a couple safety
tips for this stage as well. First of all, you wanna make
sure you turn off the gas anytime you're putting in
or taking out the bird. That way any splatter does
not go near the flames. I've got to turn it off
in two locations here. The red knob that goes to
the connector right here and the propane tank. Righty tighty. Grill gloves. These are our winners from Steve Raichlen. You really wanna get good coverage. You can see this goes all
the way up to my elbows. I feel like a surgeon. A turkey surgeon. All right, I'm gonna
take the thermometer out so that does not impede our lowering. I'm going to put my thermometer probe in the thickest part of the breast. I'm gonna do this now
because you do not wanna be trying to insert a
thermometer over the hot oil. So I'm gonna do this horizontally into the thickest part of the breast. I'm gonna connect the chef alarm after. That's just 'cause I
don't wanna deal with it hanging off of here right now, it just makes things a little bit easier. So this is really one of the things that makes a turkey fryer a turkey fryer. The rack holding the bird,
the hook that lowers it. These are very key for safety. So I'm gonna carefully walk over here. I'm just gonna hold this
out of the way like this and lower it very slowly into the oil because it will sputter. This turkey was also patted dry. You wanna make sure to minimize any moisture on the surface of your bird. Very slow. (hot oil sizzling) Oh my god, it's like a geyser out of the carcass of the bird right now! All right, so I'm gonna wait until the sputtering of the oil stops to turn the burner back on because this is a stark example, one of those splatters
hits your flame down there and it's not gonna be good. So that's definitely why
we turn the burner off when we are adding and removing the bird. Now I'm gonna hook up my chef alarm. I'm looking for 150 in the breasts. That's 'cause we're gonna
have some carryover cooking when this rests on the other end. Now we wait, and like I said before, this is an incredibly
fast way to cook a turkey. Budget three to four minutes per pound. This is a 12 to a 14 pound bird. Our recipe expects us to be
done in 35 to 50 minutes. So you know you can go
have a cold beverage, fix up your sides inside, and
then your turkey will be done. All right, so I'm gonna put
my oil thermometer back in. This is the one that came
with the Bayou Classic. We typically don't like
dial face thermometer, but I've got the chef
alarm working over here. I just am trying to keep a good monitor on the temperature of the oil. You want it to be between 300 and 315, and the burner is adjustable. So if I feel like it's lagging, I'm gonna turn that heat up a little bit. Another burner we tested
had a safety function. It turned itself off every 15 minutes, which means we had to
relight it every 15 minutes. It was a total pain and you can see that
is why this burner won. It's a lot easier to use,
a lot easier to set up, a lot easier in use. Kaw, the turkey's done! If you use that out, I'll
literally murder you. All right y'all, we just hit 150, that means our turkey's done. I'm going to turn off the gas. Remember, you always
wanna turn off the gas when you're bringing the
bird out and putting it in. Righty tighty. All right, so my gas is off. This is slowly calming down. Got my lifter, gloves on, this is my landing spot right here. Super slowly bring the bird out. Yeah, we really liked
this rack on the bottom. Some of the other models
have different styles. Prongs coming out. This one just perforated, flat. It was super easy to use. And look how beautiful
this golden bird is. All right, so we pulled this at 150. It's gonna just rest
here until it hits 160, some carryover cooking there. And then Lisa and I are
gonna bring these birds back into the lab to try 'em out. All right, so we're back here in the lab. We each have our turkeys. They're looking gorgeous. You can tell they look a little different. I have my fried one here. - [Lisa] Yep, and this is
the grill roasted turkey. - Yeah, mine's a little
craggly and cracked. You can see it's got that
crispy skin going on. It pulls away a little bit from the bones because you're really, you're putting a room temperature turkey right into a vat of super hot oil. So it pulls away a little bit, but they're both looking pretty good. Yours is looking gorgeous. - Yeah, on the grill you basically get an indirect heat setup and it just browns the skin
really evenly all over. - And you were saying it's not
a super smokey bird, right? - Right, right. It does not taste like you grilled it. Because it sits over a pan of water, the fat doesn't drip down onto the coals and smoke and vaporize the fat, which is what gives you
real grilled flavor. You get a very, very light hint of smoke in the skin a little bit, but really this tastes like
you roasted it in the oven. So if you're worried about
having some real smokey turkey, don't worry, no one would even
know if you didn't tell 'em. - We've actually both
made our turkeys outdoors for the last five years, I think, for me. - Yeah, at least. Yeah. - Yeah, and because look
at all the other things you can be doing with your oven - Mm-hmm, and you get to escape outside and cool off a little bit
and have a minute of peace and "check on your turkey". - Yeah. Lisa and I do a lot of
"checking on the turkey" on the holidays.
- Right. So let's get a little bit
into the pros and cons of grilling versus frying. Mine is kind of set and forget,
yours is a little hands on. You've gotta be there and
it cooks very quickly, which is pretty great.
- Yeah, we actually started Lisa's, went and filmed mine, and went back to Lisa's. - So you could do two of those in the time it took to cook this one. So if you need a lot of turkey and you don't mind the hands on part of frying it and taking it
out and handling the hot oil, you can just keep frying turkeys. You'll have as much as you want for as many people as you
need, and it's amazing looking. - I have to say, we're total converts. - Definitely. So for more information on all the gear we talked about today, check out the links below. And for the recipes, go to
americastestkitchen.com. - Yeah, and let us know in the comments, how are you gonna cook
your turkey this year? Are you gonna go outside on
the grill, the deep fryer? Are you gonna stick inside with the oven, or maybe even sous vide it? Please let us know and make
sure to like this video and hit that subscribe button
so you never miss an episode. - I went right for the stuffing. (both chuckling) (exciting music)
