Smoke then into fryer?

[Peter Condit]

My "new" Genesis gold has the side burner. I am considering using it to give deep frying a try with a small turkey, maybe 12lbs.

I was wondering if smoking using the rotisserie for a few hours first might be a good idea. My thought is to leave the bird on the spit, but slide it close to the end and use the spit as the dunking rack. I do not own a dedicated turkey fryer set up, but do have a decent sized pot that should work.

Would like to hear from anyone who has combined these methods.

 

[timothy]

I could be wrong but I don't know if your side burner has enough BTU's to do it.

 

[JKalchik]

Turkey fryer burners generally have 50k BTUs or more. I'd be at least as concerned about the side burner support (caveat: I have no personal knowledge of your particular grill,) it is going to have to support the weight of the bird, 4-5 gallons of very hot oil and the pot.

 

[BFletcher]

You raise good questions but I cannot speak to them since I've never utilized this method. Assuming there are no other caveats, one thing you would have on your side (ha ha) is a warm bird rather than dunking a 30-40*f raw one in the oil.

I have the Masterbuilt XL electric fryer. A couple years ago I loaded it with a 20 lb turkey and the temp never did recover to an acceptable level. Prior to, I did smaller birds where it would recover to a decent oil temp. I would now resign myself to my Eastman Big Kahuna for a turkey deep fry; that sucker produces 65K Btu vs---possibly---12K for the side burner. If you already have the oil I wonder if a trial run could be beneficial where you see how hot the side burner will get the oil without food.

Is there risk in placing the fryer pot over the Genesis main grates?

Good luck and enjoy your Thanksgiving!

 

[Peter Condit]

I suspect it depends on outside temps and size of pot

 

[Peter Condit]

I've looked on cl. Looks like people getting rid of fryer setups pretty regularly for cheap. Probably go that route. Thanks.

 

[Timothy F. Lewis]

I agree, the side burner isn’t going going to have the guts to hold temperature. Besides, that would put a lot of hot fat pretty high up for safe frying.
I like the concept of the smoke-fry cook, just not using the little side burner.

 

[Tony-Chicago]

Cook and smoke using the rotisserie, then when it is almost done, wait a minute.
Then let it sit and carve....

 

[timothy]

I've done the smoke and fried turkey once before, but I used my Char broil big easy oil less infrared turkey fryer.
Thing is with a smoked turkey is the skin gets rubbery and acts like a seal that does retain moisture. ( penetrate the skin on a smoked turkey and you'll know what I mean)
Dropping that into a pot of hot oil?? I dunno could be a major problem...