Each Thanksgiving, I like to mix things up a bit with some new side dishes, a new dessert or a new turkey recipe.  This year it's smoked turkey and a sweet onion pie.  Last year it was a turkey grilled on the Weber kettle.  And two years ago it was 108 deep fried turkeys.

Being married to a wonderful woman from Memphis means periodic trips down South, sometimes for the Memphis in May BBQ contest and sometimes during the Holidays.  In 2006, we took the family down for Thanksgiving and I seized the opportunity to lend a hand at my favorite fried chicken joint, Gus's World Famous Fried Chicken.


Each year, Wendy and the team take advanced orders for fried turkeys and spend most of the day before Thanksgiving (Thanksgiving Eve?) out back injecting and frying 100 plus 12-15 pound birds.  Definitely not an easy task but they have it down to a science.  Drop the bird in one of 6 or so pots, figure out the cook time, take it out, replace, and so on.

Several hours and beers later, we dropped the last one, number 108 which was heading home with me.  By the end I was exhausted.  The spice from the injection had blurred my vision beyond repair.  My clothes were coated in oil and food.  And my skin had absorbed about a gallon of peanut oil, giving me a lovely pre-holiday shine.

Was it worth all the trouble for no pay?  H#ll yeah.  I'm now officially a fried turkey expert and can claim something most folks cannot, deep frying 108 turkeys for Thanksgiving.  And how'd that last one turn out?  Well I barely got this picture before it was completely inhaled!