Benefits of an Oilless Deep Fryer…and Some Drawbacks Too

 

Fried turkey is just amazing – the best turkey you'll ever have, but there is some serious drawbacks to deep frying a turkey. First, and the least important drawback, is that it’s not very healthy. Now, you may not care much about that because you only have fried turkey once or twice a year and that's perfectly fine. In fact, it's probably more healthy that you are actually eating what you want then denying yourself at every twist and turn.

But that's beside the point.

The more worrying drawback to deep frying a turkey in a traditional turkey deep fryer is that it's extremely dangerous. The stories have been all over the news in the past couple of years (just check here and here). There are even a bunch of YouTube videos. Just check out this one:

For future reference, if you are around someone frying a turkey, do not do it on a deck or patio or anything else that can burn, and always keep an eye on it.

Anyway, an oilless turkey fryer is a much safer way to get the same taste. Your house or family is probably not worth the risk of a juicy turkey. That's why I started this site. To show you all your options.

Those are the major benefits – health and safety – for getting an oilless fryer instead of a traditional fryer. This option is also great if you have someone in your household with a peanut allergy, as you usually have to use peanut oil to fry a turkey. In the long run, it's also cheaper because you do not have to buy vats of oil for your bird.

Some of the Drawbacks in Comparison

One reason to use a deep fryer over an oven, is that the turkey cooks so much faster. Oil fryers take about 4 minutes per pound to cook a turkey. That’s exceptionally fast. Oilless turkey fryers, depending on the model, take about 10 minutes per pound. That’s still a significant gain over the oven, but less than half as fast as true frying.

The basket used to hold your bird in an oilless fryer may also leave marks on your bird, so if you're Martha Stewart this may not work for you (but I’m sure even Martha would think this was cool, overall). But if you're like most of the rest the world don't really care about that, then this shouldn't be a problem.

The more I look into these things the more I think it’s a no-brainer:

If you value flavor, savings, health and safety over presentation and time it takes to cook, go with one of these turkey fryers.