blackened turkey... a thanksgiving tale

i'm pretty confident that most of you have heard of blackened chicken.

you know, the southern favorite, cajun spice chicken. i have never tried it myself because i typically don't like spicy foods. but i am sure many of you have at least heard of it or even tried it yourself. am i right?

 

well, how many of you have heard of "blackened turkey"? (upon doing a google search i did discover that it does exist, but it is also a variation on the cajun blackened chicken. this is NOT what i am referring to)

 

let me tell you a little tale of OUR "blackened turkey"....

 

since mitch and i married 9 years ago, we have managed to NEVER cook a turkey, by choice. we have always had thanksgiving with family, friends or, the one pathetically sad year we had it by ourselves, we ordered a safeway turkey dinner.

 

well, not this year! i was ready to go another year without cooking a turkey, but mitch had other plans. so, i let him be in charge of the turkey for the family gathering. ever since a neighbor practically burned down his house frying a turkey several years ago, mitch has wanted to fry a turkey. i was a bit opposed to it, not only because i didn't want the house to burn down, but a turkey fryer runs about $80, not to mention the $50 to buy the 35 gallons of oil required to fry a turkey. that's one large expense for turkey when i prefer ham!

 

fortunately, i found a fryer on sale at target for $40. i spent the $48 for the oil and, of course, bought the turkey. we were all set to fry our first turkey!

 

the day donned bright and sunny and we were ready to give it a try. before starting, mitch asked me, "where is the fire extinguisher?" once locating the extinguisher, mitch slowly lowered the turkey into the boiling oil and it sizzled away.

notice the extinguisher and its close proximity to the fryer! it sizzled for about 28 minutes, a few minutes less than required, but mitch was a little concerned by the turkey's appearance. so, he opted to take it out early.

 

as he carried the turkey inside the first thing i heard him say was, "it's a good thing mona and wes are bringing ham! i hope it's a big one!" i didn't know why he would say this, but i also hadn't laid eyes on the turkey, yet!  he walked into the kitchen and this is what i saw:

(i was forbidden to take a picture, but i couldn't NOT document this turkey! come on, you know you would have taken a picture, too! it's our first turkey, after all! in fact in his protests he said, "hey, when you mess up a dinner i don't take pictures of it and smear it across the internet for all to see!" this is true and i am very grateful, however, i still took the picture)

 

here it is from another angle:

 

as bad as this looks, i am here to tell you that this "blackened turkey" was the BEST turkey i have EVER eaten! hands down!! it was so delicious that i asked him to make it again for christmas. this says a lot coming from a girl who NEVER asks for turkey. i have ALWAYS preferred honey baked ham! turkey has always been too dry for my liking, but not anymore! i am a changed woman, thanks to my husband and his "blackened turkey"! there were other non-turkey lovers in attendance at our dinner and they, too, agreed that it was the best turkey they had ever eaten. we're going to see if we can get the christmas turkey to be a little less black! we're trying for a golden brown next time!

 

**moral of our thanksgiving tale: never judge a book by it's cover, or in this case, never judge a turkey by it's skin color!