Fried Turkey- BIG WILLIE Style

My good buddy Big Willie likes to cook and he plans on frying a bunch of 10 pound turkeys this holiday season. Big Willie knows I have all the equipment to deep fry turkeys, so he ask me if he could practice at our house last night. NO, NO, NO. Don’t worry this is not a tragic story of how we burned the house down. No, Big Willie and I have big brains and know better. All went well, we did it far away from the house and turned the fire off while dunking the turkey in the 400 degree oil. Once it’s settled and frying away you just relight the burner and let her go for about 30 minutes. Everyone down south knows how to fry a turkey, right?

What blew me away was the dry rub Big Willie came up with. First of all I did not think a dry rub would work with a deep fry. I thought it would all wash off when submerged. Wrong, if you get the rub inside and under the skin real well it will work fine. This was the cool part, Big Willies Rub.

Take 40 bay leaves, lucky my Mom gave me a laurel plant years ago and it is thriving today. You also use a few tablespoons of a Cajun rub. some oregano, thyme and black peppercorns. So Big Willie put all this into my coffee grinder and pulsed it into a course rub. It smelled great, I love bay leaf and use it often, but it’s always a mild additive to the recipe. Not this time, it was the main ingredient and it worked great. The turkey was juicy and definitely took on the flavor of the rub. Try it sometime or meet me in Mobile for Thanksgiving, I plan on frying a few.