Kinky Turkey Three Way

For actual Thanksgiving day we made turkey 3 ways, injected with marinade and deep fried, brined and smoked and finally, roasted in the oven with 2 sticks of butter on it. Yes, TWO STICKS OF BUTTER, my mother-in-law could give Paula Deen a run for her money.

The fried turkey was probably the most fun to cook, honestly. My father-in-law had purchased a turkey fryer specifically to try it out for Thanksgiving and this was its maiden voyage. After getting the turkey completely defrosted and completely dry we got to play with syringes and marinade! We chose some cajun butter flavor and got to shooting that turkey up. It was completely ridiculously hilarious to jam the needle in and watch the saggy, cold turkey skin plump up as we pressed the plunger. There were copious jokes made about various Real Housewives of various places. Then we lowered the turkey into the preheated peanut oil and let it go.

The roasted turkeys were actually two boneless turkey breasts that my MIL cooked. She seasons her turkey parts the same way she seasons a whole bird, just salt and pepper and two very cold sticks of butter on top. She also cooks fat side up on the breast, just to add our voice to the debate of breast side up or down. As the turkey roasts the butter slowly melts on top and keeps things moist while adding delicious butter flavor to your pan drippings that will become turkey gravy.

The smoked turkey breast was our most labor intensive turkey variation. We brined the breast for 24 hours in a large, 2 gallon ziploc bag with a mixture of water, apple juice, salt and brown sugar and stored it all in the fridge. Thanksgiving morning we brought the turkey out to dry on the counter for an hour or so; covered it in poultry seasoning and then added it to the smoker. We smoked it over hickory pellets for about 3 1/2 hours or until the meat reached an internal temperature of 165.

I think the smoked turkey was everyone's favorite actually. I enjoyed my piece of fried turkey, because it was apparently immediately adjacent to the injection site. It was all juicy and flavorful and YUM! But the smoked turkey was deliciously seasoned and flavored all the way through. The roast turkey was fine, of course, tasted lovely especially with a bit of cranberry sauce.

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