Updated December 24, 2025 at 2:32 AM HST
There is a mystique around turkey frying. It sounds wild to people who haven't seen it, or who have only seen videos of it going very wrong.
When my brother Bruce Inskeep started frying turkeys at his home in Texas 23 years ago, our dad approved, and even paid for the fryer. For the obvious reason, our mom did not approve. But Bruce persisted, safely, and our brother Jim also took it up.
This holiday season, Bruce demonstrated his turkey frying technique for NPR. It's straightforward but requires a little math, a steady hand and a few common-sense steps to keep from burning down the house.
The turkey comes out especially juicy, and fries in less than an hour, compared with several hours in an oven. The process is so fast that Bruce sometimes makes extras for his neighbors in suburban Dallas.
"I think the most I've ever fried in a day, besides my own, is four," he said.
You can hear Bruce's turkey frying demonstration by playing the audio story above. It's worth it just to hear the turkey going into the boiling oil.
If you want to know how it's done — or try it yourself — below are some turkey frying basics from Bruce. We also called the Butterball Turkey Hotline, an advice line for turkey cooking tips that is staffed through Dec. 24, and their guidance was similar.
Turkey frying is an outdoor sport
Do not do this in the house or anywhere near the house. Bruce does it in his backyard on a stone patio, which he has covered with aluminum foil to avoid grease spatter. "Don't fry a turkey on a wooden deck, for God's sake," Bruce said.
Use safety equipment
Bruce wears a pair of long heat-resistant gloves around the hot oil. He also has two fire extinguishers handy. "Never had to use them, but always good to have them," he said.
Use a propane fryer and know its capacity
You want enough oil to cover the turkey, but not so much that it spills over. Bruce will often conduct a "displacement test" with water to know how many gallons are right for the size of turkey he is putting into the tank. On this day, he poured 3.5 gallons of peanut oil for his 16-pound turkey. A larger turkey would call for less.
You may re-use the oil
Before frying the turkey, some people will use the oil to fry other foods, such as french fries, which will later affect the taste of the fried turkey.
Preheat the oil
The goal is 350 degrees. Bruce heated the oil to 400 degrees before the turkey went in, calculating that the room-temperature turkey would "drastically reduce the temp."
Notice we said room temperature
The Butterball folks emphasize that you should thaw the turkey before it goes in. Bruce thawed his turkey days in advance.
Take it easy
Lifting the turkey on a specially made hook, Bruce lowered it into the tank. He did not drop it into the tank, as you see in the videos of turkey frying gone wrong."You do a gradual dip," he said. "The name of the game is to put this in slowly, because sometimes the turkey has water on it. Oil and water do not mix." As we watched Bruce, he took well over a minute from when the turkey first touched the oil until it was fully covered and settled in.
Fry it for 3 to 4 minutes per pound of turkey
In this case, a 16-pound turkey for 3.5 minutes per pound works out to 56 minutes. There's a bit of art with the science — since Bruce added a few extra minutes because it was an exceedingly cold day for Texas, and the fryer briefly dropped below 350 degrees.
Don't leave the fryer unattended
This is a good time to stand around and swap family stories, as you will hear Bruce doing in the radio story.
Remove the turkey as slowly as you lowered it and give it 20 minutes to cool
Since I wasn't at the house to taste the result, we got an independent assessment from Abigail Ruhman of our local station KERA in Dallas, who recorded the sound for the radio story. Ruhman pronounced the fried turkey excellent — even though she said she has "never actually really liked turkey."
I also asked Bruce if fried turkey does well as leftovers.
"Usually, there aren't any," he said.
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