The Best Turkey Fryers of 2024, Tested & Reviewed

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Thanks to 70-plus pounds of poultry, we found the best turkey fryers, including countertop and oil-less options.

In This Article

Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore

Deep-fried turkey is a relatively new culinary phenomenon that makes a fantastic alternative to roasting Thanksgiving turkeys. The dish originates in Louisiana, where Cajun crawfish boil pots were repurposed as supersized deep fryers. The exact origin is somewhat murky, but by the early 1980s, fried turkey had started to filter out of its homeland, and today it's a popular culinary challenge nationwide.

My first encounter with fried turkey was in the late 1990s, when I, unclear on the concept, decided to approach it in the style of preparing duck confit, slow-braising the turkey in oil for hours on a kitchen stove in a huge stock pot. One star, would not recommend it. The turkey was fall-apart tender, but it also fell apart in a perilous pot of hot frying oil, leaving me to skim out chunks of flabby-skinned turkey. (Subsequent attempts while following the proper procedures have yielded better results, thank you very much.)

With more information at hand, including a good recipe, I can relate some lessons learned from my first attempt. First, you need a large pot of 350°F oil. Second, you need the oil to return to 350°F in short order to get the crispiest skin and moistest meat. Third, you need special equipment and shouldn’t do this on an apartment's tiny, two-burner stove. A big pot and propane burner make the process far more pleasant because it can heat a large amount of oil quickly, return it to temperature equally fast, and operate outdoors without too many special site preparations. So, what’s the best turkey fryer for you? We gathered the most popular models designed for turkeys and brought them into our test kitchen to help find that out.

Safety is of the utmost importance if you plan to fry a turkey. You'll be working with hot oil near an open flame, and you should have everything you need set up and organized before you turn on the gas. (You should also have a fire extinguisher handy.) Start by determining how much oil you need: Place the turkey and stand in the pot and cover with water to the fill line. Then remove the turkey and measure how much water is left. That's the volume of oil to add to the pot.

It's also important to prep your turkey before dropping it in the oil. Make sure it's fully thawed, and pat it dry inside and out with a paper towel. Water droplets and any frozen parts will make the oil spatter and potentially splash out of the pot. Secure the turkey in a rack and lower it slowly into the preheated oil. Cooking should take roughly 3 to 4 minutes per pound, but it's important to monitor the oil temperature to keep it as close to 350°F as possible, and to check the turkey's temperature for doneness. (It should register 165°F in the thickest part of the breast.)

After removing the finished turkey from the oil, place it on a rack set over a baking sheet to drain, and let it rest for about 15 minutes before carving.

The Big Bird got to cooking temperature and recovered after we added the turkey surprisingly quickly.

Setup was time-consuming, and the base seemed insecure.

Let’s go ahead and get the bad part out of the way: The Big Bird scored low in the setup department. It took about an hour following the included instructions to put it together, and doubts set in when the stand with the burn shield underneath looked uneven. It got better from there, though. The Big Bird isn’t a neat or pretty fryer; it has no bells, whistles, modern conveniences, or added safety features. But if you’re looking for a traditional turkey fryer for an authentic experience, it does the job it’s intended for very well.

The pot has an impressive capacity of 44 quarts (11 gallons), albeit with no guidance or indication of a maximum fill level. We filled it halfway with oil, and the 5.5 gallons reached a cooking temperature of 350°F in just under 30 minutes, one of the fastest heating times of the models we tested. Bayou Classic fryers are strictly analog. They included a long-probe dial thermometer to monitor your heat, so staying on top of the temperature is critical. After we added the turkey, the corresponding temperature drop was minimal, only 20 degrees, and the Big Bird recovered to 350°F in just under 15 minutes.

Dimensions: 16 x 16 x 21 inches | Capacity: 44 quarts | Includes: Burner stand, fryer pot with basket, vented lid, poultry rack, grab hook, thermometer, insulated glove, seasoning injector

This inexpensive kit includes almost everything you need to fry a turkey.

It doesn’t come with a burner stand, and the pot may be too narrow for the largest turkeys.

This inexpensive cousin of the Bayou Classic Big Bird is our best value pick but still includes almost all the accessories you need for a successful turkey fry. It's the perfect choice for someone who already owns a burner stand, as it doesn't come with one. The key to the 1118's success is in its pot. It's neither so thin that it loses too much heat when the turkey drops and makes a flabby-skinned bird, nor so thick that it takes a long time to reach frying temperature.

In our tests, it took about 45 minutes to reach 350°F, and the oil only dropped by 20 degrees after adding the turkey. It was back to 350°F in 22 minutes, which was one of the faster recovery times we observed, and the end product had crispy skin and little residual oil. This pot is somewhat narrow, but that's only a drawback if you plan to fry a large turkey.

Dimensions: 12 x 12 x 16 inches | Capacity: 32 quarts | Includes: Fryer pot with basket, poultry rack, 3 skewers, lift hook, thermometer, seasoning injector

This large-capacity countertop machine can deep-fry, steam, or boil.

The grease management system doesn’t drain all the oil, and the short power cord is cause for concern.

Most countertop deep fryers don't come anywhere near the capacity needed to fry a turkey. Masterbuilt's unit is an exception, rated to accommodate an 18-pound bird indoors, safely and without (too much) mess. It also has boil and steam modes, adding lots of extra utility. It heated reasonably quickly in testing; the temperature indicator light never went off, but it reached 350°F on a meat thermometer. There was a significant temperature drop after adding the turkey, from which it never recovered during the 46 minutes it took to cook. The result was a moist turkey with some non-crisped areas of the skin.

Our major complaint with this fryer is cleanup. The oil filtration and drainage system is great in theory, but it's not able to drain the full contents of the fryer. We had to remove the bowl to take care of the last of the oil. We also didn't love the power cord, which attaches to the front of the machine and is quite short. There's a magnetic breakaway design for safety, but it's an unnecessary inconvenience.

Dimensions: 18 x 16 x 15 inches | Capacity: 10.6 quarts | Includes: Basket, lifting hook

The Big Easy manages reasonably authentic fried-turkey results with absolutely no oil.

Setup is a chore, and the infrared heat doesn’t “fry” as evenly true deep frying.

How do you fry an entire turkey without oil? A machine that's essentially a huge outdoor air fryer powered by propane. The Char-Broil Big Easy can handle up to a 16-pound bird, using intense infrared heat to cook from all sides equally. This gets the turkey done faster than a standard oven (or even a convection oven) and can achieve decent browning without drying out the meat. Plus, you won't have to buy — and then dispose of — gallons of oil.

Since it doesn't have to bring oil to temperature, this fryer preheats very quickly; it was ready to go in 5 minutes in testing. (Ambient temperature measurement is a little wonky because there's no liquid to put a probe into, but we got decent results just hanging the thermometer in the open air.) The Big Easy took about an hour longer to cook a turkey as true deep frying, but it certainly cut time off traditional oven-roasting. Our test bird was very juicy inside and had some crispy skin, albeit not equally crispy everywhere.

Our major complaint with this machine is assembly. The included pictogram directions aren't very clear, and we needed both the called-for screwdriver and an extra rubber mallet to complete the job. With that said, we were impressed enough with the Big Easy's oil-less performance that we think it's worth the cost and the work.

Dimensions: 21 x 24 x 16 inches | Capacity: 16-pound turkey | Includes: Rack, lid, lifting hook, thermometer

The Bayou Classic 44-Quart "Big Bird" Kit had the best heating and recovery time of the fryers we tested and yielded crisp skin and moist meat – all while maintaining the experiential essence of turkey frying.

Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore

We tested a total of seven turkey fryers by, well, frying a turkey in each one. We made separate observations and ratings on each step of the process. The tests included one indoor deep fryer, one outdoor oil-less model, and five outdoor deep fryers.

After completing our cooking and cleaning tests, we revealed the retail prices of the turkey fryers to consider value. At the time of testing, the fryers ranged from $70 to $289, with an average of $130.

For successful deep frying, a turkey needs room for oil to circulate all around. It should be completely submerged, without touching the bottom or sides of the pot. That means you need a large vessel, bigger than even a typical stockpot. For even a small turkey, you should look for a fryer that's at least 20 quarts. The 44-quart Big Bird that topped our tests can handle up to a 25-pound turkey — that's not the absolute largest bird you can buy, but it's enough for 20 people.

It's a good idea to err on the large side when picking a turkey fryer; oil boiling over is a very dangerous proposition. Having a lot of hot oil also helps to reduce the temperature drop that happens when you add the turkey, which makes for better cooking results. On the other hand, the bigger the pot you use, the more you'll have to spend on oil to fill it and propane to heat it.

At their simplest, turkey fryers consist of a large burner ring and a pot to place on top of it. They have a control knob that regulates the flame size, but they require temperature monitoring via a long-stemmed candy thermometer. Maintaining a target temperature can involve constantly fiddling with the burner knob. They also contain few, if any, safety features to ensure the hot pot of oil stays where it's supposed to on the burner stand. If you feel confident in your ability to set things up stably, a basic kit might be the match for you. There are more sophisticated fryers out there, such as the Masterbuilt above, that have temperature controls, grease draining and filtration systems, and other niceties that improve the ease of use but also take away from the authentic outdoor turkey frying experience. It’s really a matter of personal preference.

Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore

In theory, the only implements you need to deep fry a turkey are a pot and a burner, but most turkey fryer kits include at least a few extras that make things easier and the cooker more versatile. There's usually a rack included to hold the turkey in place and off the bottom of the pot, as well as a hook to lift the rock safely out of the hot oil. A thermometer is often included, too. One especially helpful accessory is a removable strainer, like in a pasta pot. This lets you use the turkey fryer to steam foods or make a seafood boil.

For the most part, no. If an appliance is powered by a propane tank — whether gas grill, pizza oven, or turkey fryer, you should only use it outside, on a level surface, away from walls, furniture, and other flammable objects.

There are electric turkey fryers made from indoor use, but these say explicitly that they're made for indoor use. No matter what kind of fryer you have, you should always read the instructions carefully and follow all their recommendations.

No matter how you're cooking a whole turkey, it's done when the meat reaches an internal temperature of 165°F. You should always use a meat thermometer to check your turkey rather than relying on an individual recipe's time estimate. But with that said, we found that it took about 45 minutes to fry a 12-pound bird at 350°F.

The exact time needed will depend on the size of your turkey, as well as how much oil you have in the pot and how much it drops in temperature. Some of the fryers we tested dropped as much as 60 degrees and never recovered to 350°F before the turkey finished cooking. This drop and lack of recovery made for dry meat, flabby skin, or both. A common workaround for this situation (always consult the manufacturer’s safety information before trying this) is to heat the oil to 375°F before dropping the bird, making it quicker for the oil to get back to 350°F.

The most important rule when deep frying a turkey is to never, ever overfill the pot with oil. If the oil boils over onto the bare flame, you're liable to wind up in a viral TikTok video, a hospital, or the morgue. It's really important to figure out how much oil you need for your specific equipment with your specific turkey before you start cooking.

We suggest using water for this. Put the turkey and rack in the fryer pot, then fill it with water to the manufacturer-recommended fill line. Remove the turkey, and measure the volume of water left behind. That's how much oil you'll need. Keep in mind that it takes a lot of oil to fry any turkey; you're looking at at least 3 gallons for a small bird, and 5 or more for a big one.

No matter what you do, you should never pour large volumes of oil down the sink, even with soap mixed in or with the garbage disposal running. This can clog pipes and damage not only your home plumbing but also the larger sewer system. Frying oil also can't go into most composting systems, either home or municipal.

This means that used frying oil generally has to go in the regular garbage. Check your local trash collection service for the rules about how to deal with large amounts of oil — most require it to be bagged and sealed separate from other items, and some won't accept it for pickup at all. One tool that can help is FryAway. It's a plant-based product you stir into the hot oil that makes it solidify as it cools so you can dump out a solid block rather than gallons of liquid.

CreoleFeast Turkey Fryer Set ($150 at Amazon)

The CreoleFeast is another traditional stand fryer with a 30-quart capacity. It scored fairly well in the setup department, and it heated the 3.75 gallons of oil to 350°F in just about 30 minutes. But it dropped 60 degrees over 6 minutes following the turkey drop and never recovered temperature in the time it took to finish cooking. The turkey was very moist, but the skin wasn’t particularly crisp. The manual doesn’t state the maximum turkey size for this cooker, but a 12-pound bird caused some oil to pop over the top. It’s not a bad fryer, but it has size and heating limitations that took it out of the running.

Bayou Classic 30-Quart Turkey Fryer Set ($89 at Amazon)

Bayou Classic is the top name in turkey fryers, but this was our least favorite of the three we tested. It's similar to our best value pick above, but with an aluminum pot that didn't hold heat as well as stainless steel. It's also slightly smaller than that model and can't hold a very big turkey. The cost savings isn't worth it.

King Kooker Turkey Frying Cooker ($108 at Amazon)

The King Kooker's no-frills burner assembled quickly and easily, but its lightweight aluminum pot was its big weakness. It struggled to maintain heat, especially after we added the turkey, which led to a long cooking time and a dry bird.

Greg Baker is an award-winning chef, restaurateur, and food writer with four decades of experience in the food industry. His written work appears in Food & Wine, Food Republic, Serious Eats, Tasting Table, and other publications.