One of the greatest features of frying a turkey is that it cooks very quickly when compared to roasting a turkey. The general rule for frying time is 3-3.5 minutes per pound. My turkey frier manual suggests 3.5 minutes per pound. However, we recommend checking on the turkey after 3 minutes per pound has elapsed. Especially the smaller turkeys, they seem to cook a little faster (per pound).

The ultimate guide for your turkey is internal temperature. When deep frying a turkey, it's easiest to use a Candy or Deep Frying Thermometer. It will likely be included with your turkey fryer. A meat thermometer works just as well. The USDA says that the internal turkey temperature should reach 165 degrees. When measuring the temperature, be sure that the thermometer is in the center of the meat and not touching bone.

We recommend cooking until the turkey breast is 170 degrees Fahrenheit. Some place will recommend cooking the dark meat 10 degrees higher than the turkey breast. However, when you're frying a turkey, you are going to stick the whole bird into the fryer. We figure that you're going to want one temperature to know that the turkey is done. It might get a little complicated trying to fry different parts of the same bird to different temperatures as long as the bird is all in one piece! So, in the spirit of keeping things safe and simple, fry it until the breast is 170 degrees Fahrenheit (which takes 3 to 3.5 minutes per pound). Your turkey is going to taste great!