Wrapped in bacon.

It's best when I don't have to cook it.

stnkyjoe wrote:Can you tell the pollsters don't cook? You don't bake a turkey, you roast it. I love turkey roasted, fried, smoked. Mostly I love it stuffed!

Roasted in a brown paper bag like all of us do.

cooked in the microwave oven.

Brined and cooked on the grill!

jamaican jerked

sous vide!

Bgrant wrote:Cooked in a Dutch Oven. ツ

how long dose that take?

There's only one reason a person would not vote for "deep fried", and that's because you have never had it. It doesn't taste like you'd think "deep fried" would taste. Oh, my........ so tender and juicy. And I realize "deep fried" = unhealthy, but we're talking about one day out of the year. Yum!

Smoked makes food taste like an ashtray.

I prefer it baked. You don't get the gravy frying or smoking it, and you can't stuff it either.

mrsly69 wrote:I have had turkey BAKED, SMOKED, AND DEEP FRIED. All three are good, but when you get a perfectly baked Turkey, it hands down beats any method. The problem, it that most people don't know how to bake a perfect turkey. It is an art. As with anything, you must use proper seasoning and it does vary. When you get the a perfectly baked turkey, it is like heaven. Deep fried is good, but it isn't nearly as good as baked. The key to bake a turkey, is a good brine, seasoning (varies, but I go crazy with garlic, rosemary, EVO, thyme, salt pepper, safron), and LOVE. It is work to make a perfect turkey, but if done right, it is the BEST. Deep fried is good and easy. That is why it is gaining popularity. It is the lazy man way to cook, but is consistent.

This. I have tried all of them. Deep frying guarantees the meat will be juicy, but you can't eat the skin (maybe some are brave enough). Like I said before, stuff it with rosemary and thyme (I cut it fresh from the yard). It's amazing. The brining is important too. I also make a special concoction as mentioned above with melted butter as my basting solution. Also, cover with foil until the very end to keep the moisture inside that bird. One year I did a bit of surgery beforehand, and everyone loved it. I gently separated the skin from the meat so that it was more like a shirt... I layered butter underneath it, pressed it all around, and then proceeded as usual. It made it extra juicy, but I can maintain the same with the brine with less calories.

Who'd'a thunk that this would be akin to VMS versus Unix (anyone remember that flame war) or Mac versus PC (did that one die yet?) or Lindsay versus Paris?

Turkey, like all meat, is best when smoked over open fire using hardwood fuel. But if your local ordinances prohibit backyard open fires (ours don't, and come to think of it, they let us discharge firearms, too...) then an acceptable substitute is a large enough charcoal grill to smoke your turkey over hardwood chips.

If you're lacking a 55 gallon drum charcoal smoker, then your only option, really, is to come to our house...

On the grill. With bacon. Everything is better with bacon...

1- you bake a pie and roast meats.
2- I prefer to roast my turkey on a high heat, in brined the day before, in a basket weave of bacon to self-baste until crispy (& saved for topping the green bean casserole), with mire poix & pears, basted every 30 minutes. Remove the turkey and while resting on its platter, use a submersion mixer to blend the juices with a roux for the gravy. Nothing wasted, I use the left overs for turkey tetrazzini casserole, and then use the carcas to make homemade turkey stock.

I voted for smoked since I've never had fried turkey. I intend to buy one before I invest in all the paraphernalia and risk life and limb.

Brined overnight in salty apple juice, slathered in butter, stuffed with fruit and herbs, and drown in champagne then cooked in a baking bag until it falls apart. So good!

Fried is #1 by far.
Smoked is a very close second.
Turkey-in-a-T-shirt comes third. Take a clean cotton t-shirt (wash even if using a new shirt) and cover the turkey with it before roasting. Soak the shirt well with liquid of choice and roast as usual. Baste with pan juices regularly to keep shirt moist. When done peel away shirt to reveal a beautiful golden skin.

As far as fried turkey being unhealthy, don't believe it. If you don't put the bird into the oil to early (before it's hot enough) very little grease is absorbed. This will be evident by the oil level after cooking and the taste of the meat. Just be VERY careful when putting turkey into the fryer. Splash-over will result in a fire or injury or both.

It has to be sous vide, then a quick 2 minute deep fry.

I used to deep-fry turkeys...until I found the Infra-red cooker. It's fired by propane. BEST turkey. Even better than deep fried. Whole lot easier, not to mention cheaper, than dealing with all that used oil. This year we bake one and infra-red cook one. You gotta bake one if you want home-made gravy.

Double wrapped in heavy duty aluminum foil, then gently placed on the intake manifold of the car. After the 6 hour ride to gramma's house, she's fully cooked and real juicy.

Turkey tastes best when someone else cooks it.

OK, I know this sounds weird... but trust me it's awesome!
Smear mayonnaise all over the turkey (we use sage-basil flavor blend) before you put it in the turkey bag.
Cook as you normally would.

The mayo forms a hard shell around the bird that locks in the juice like you wouldn't believe. The meat falls right off.

Enjoy!!

Just the stuffing..

How many of you who voted actually have had a deep-fried turkey, I wonder. My guess of 90% the voters mental processing: "W00t! deap-fry is teh win! I love the internets and I am a ninja. lol, bacon, lol!"

Wrapped in bacon & then baked. My wife does this every year, we have people that have said they "do not like turkey." They eat it this way with us every year. BACON.....soooo good !
Makes everything better.

grilled and injected with butter!! Double yum!

Best when blanketed in bacon and then baked in the oven. Self basting pork-fat and tryptophan goodness.

Is turducken wrapped in bacon and roasted asking to much?

It's actually roasted, not baked. Baking is when you catalyze a chemical reaction by applying heat to transform mixtures of various levels of liquidity to homogeneous solids - like in cakes, muffins, etc.

Brine Bake and Sandwich.

I like it best roasted. Hubby likes it in the smoker. This year, roasted it is.

Love the word spatchcock, so will see if it's edible.

Turkey tastes best when: it's a Ham. Turkey sucks, it's all about the Ham! Who doesn't like leftover ham sandwiches for days? Yessssssssss.

bratsk wrote:I like it best roasted. Hubby likes it in the smoker. This year, roasted it is.

Well done, haha.

To the people who are saying "The people who are saying baked have never tried ______" you need to be respectful of opinions.

Fried turkey is great, so is smoked, but still to this day my favorite turkey has been a brined and roasted turkey. Let's be honest, turkey is going to be pretty good no matter how you prepare it.

It's good; but am I the only one who feels like something in preparing tur-duc-hen is borderline serial-killer?

Tastes best stuffed and roasted

it has a crispy skin and some cranberry sauce

vladistov wrote:It's good; but am I the only one who feels like something in preparing tur-duc-hen is borderline serial-killer?

I prefer what Howard has on The Big Bang Theory: Tur-bris-cafil

A few years I owned both a deep frier and a gas fired smoker (with water pan) so I had a turkey cook off - two deep fried vs two smoked. Took the results to a local tavern and after the votes were tallied I sold the deep frier. It wasn't a landslide, but enough of a margin to convince me that smoked is the best.