My wife and I got lucky Monday morning, So we know have some turkey breast to cook. How ? I've heard of fried turkey brest but don't know how to do it properly. Past attempts have been less than satisfactory. So any tips on how to cook these boogers would be greatly appreciated.

I wouldn't fry it, but get one of those oven roasting bags as they are hard to mess up and do a good job.

I usually cover my breasts in bacon strips since the meat is so lean. Bake/Smoke whatever. OR Cut it up into strips and dust in flour and pan fry in butter. Season before flouring with garlic powder, pepper, whatever if you'd like...

Just cooked some this weekend; Cut in strips and make sure you soak in buttermilk overnight. Add cajun spices,salt, pepper. Use a breader that is spicy and shake in plastic bag to coat evenly with it also. Drop into a fry daddy and cook for few minutes, maybe 5 or 6 minutes. Dip into honey mustard. Buttermilk seems to be the key as I have had tougher meat without soaking. I could eat these all day long and seem to salivate now when I spot one in the field thinking about my stomach...

We cut ours into strips, soak in egg/milk mixture 3-5 minutes, and while strips are soaking combine self rising flour, crumbled ritz crackers, and spices of choice in a tupperware container. Take soaked turkey out and place in tupperware container with flour-ritz-spices, place lid on and shake vigoursouly until strips are coated--all the while have 3-4 inches of olive oil/vegetable oil warming to medium heat. Drop strips and rotate/turn strips occasoinally until both sides are golden brown, or until desired color is reached--usually 3-5 minutes per side. place strips on paper napkins to drain off grease and enjoy with your beverage of choice and sides, and of course don't forget the GRAVY!!

Dave

Fischer,



Thanks for the advise!!



I usually use a mixture of the 2, is this any safer?



Never thought of peanut oil, is it a healthier choice than vegatable oil? and what kind of flavor does it leave?? I bet it's GOOOOD!!

Dave, it'll certainly be safer, but there's no need. For flavour, you can't beat olive oil. But when deep-frying, you aren't looking for flavour from the oil, you're trying to seal the juices of whatever you're cooking. There are two good things about peanut oil:

1. It's higher flash point, so you can cook at a higher heat without smoking or fire (but don't push it). If any oil starts smoking during deep-frying, get it off the heat fast, or turn the heat down.

2. It doesn't transfer flavours easily. So, you can cook fish and fries in the same oil (not at the same time), and you won't have "fishy fries".

I'm not sure about the health aspects of peanut oil, but since it fries so well, you should get less oil remaining on the food (reminds me of the old Crisco commercial - "It all comes back, except one tablespoon!")

This chart is taken from the Corrine T. Netzer Encyclopedia of Food Values 1992.This encyclopedia is often used as standard reference material in the training of professional chefs. As this chart indicates, Olive Oil actually has the highest smoke point of all the natural frying oils.It has been effectively utilized as a very common frying oil in the Mediterranean for centuries.If you like the taste of olive oil, it is both safe and highly acceptable for this use.The reason that it is not used more frequently in North America has more to do with cost than any other factor.

Enjoy.



Olive Oil- 437 degrees F

Peanut Oil- 425 degrees F

Lard- 370 degrees F

Canola Oil- 425 degrees F

Walnut Oil- 325 degrees F

Butter, Clarified- 400 degrees F

Whole Butter, Unsalted- 260 degrees F

TH, that's really interesting. I'm basing my post on all that I've heard over the years and personal experience. I do a lot of stir-frying (not deep-frying) and have seen it smoke far sooner than the other oils I use.

But, I decided to do a search on the 'net to see what's up. It was no help. Depending on who's site you look at, the smoke point is from 350-450 (olive oil manufacturers put it higher, for obvious reasons, and manufacturers of other oils put it lower - again for obvious reasons). So who to believe?

I won't (can't) dispute what you've posted. Guess it's up to each of us to make our own choice.

Thanks for the info.

F. I suspect that there is a wide range of smoke points on olive oil based on the quality of the oil. I think that you are probably using a better quality of oil that smokes easily. The first presses have a higher amount of solids in the oil. I suspect that these solids are what burn readily. For that reason the virgin and extra virgin oils have more body and better flavor than the pure oils. The pure oils are of less cost and quality and as such would probably smoke at a higher temperature. The tests on smoke points that I have read do not specify which press of the oil is being measured.If you look at the posted smoke points for whole butter and for clarified butter you will see that the clarified butter has a much greater smoke point because the milk solids have been removed. Just a thought. I believe that oil manufacturers would be quite bias as to present their products in the best light. For that reason I have used independent data.