Deep-Fried Turkey Marinade

  4.8 – 233 reviews  • Marinade Recipes

In a cooking lesson, we learned how to make this fennel pasta dish. We adore it. Fennel adds a distinctive touch to the dish’s flavor profile. For a family-style feast, we mix it with a recipe for grilled sausage with pepperonata!

Prep Time: 10 mins
Additional Time: 7 hrs 50 mins
Total Time: 8 hrs
Servings: 15
Yield: 3 cups

Ingredients

  1. 1 (16 ounce) bottle Italian dressing
  2. ½ cup cayenne pepper
  3. ½ cup black pepper
  4. 1 cup Creole seasoning
  5. 2 tablespoons garlic powder

Instructions

  1. In a medium bowl, mix 3/4 Italian dressing, cayenne pepper, black pepper, Creole seasoning, and garlic powder. Rub over turkey, using remaining Italian dressing to fill cavity. Allow turkey to marinate 8 hours, or overnight, before deep-frying as desired.

Reviews

Jessica Ramirez
This recipe was a hit! We had no left overs as we normally do. Everyone loved it! I highly recommend it!
Elizabeth Alvarez
This has been our go to rub for deep fried turkey for the past 5 years. You would think is would be too spicy but it give the turkey a wonderful flavor. With the leftover rub I marinate walleye or perch overnight and and deep fry that using a pancake/beer batter. With the leftover turkey the next day just boil the meat off the bone to make a spicy turkey soup / stew with eggs noodles.
Russell Fuller
We have used this recipe without fail for the last 13 yrs. To the point if not done Turkey will sit days after Thanksgiving. When done no left over Turkey at all . Our family and friends love it!!
Bradley Dennis
Delicious. We will be using this one for the 3rd year in a row.
Garrett Caldwell
Used this recipe for my very first fried turkey it came out absolutely marvelous. I actually fried two turkeys one for my house and one for my mother’s house. I highly recommend this recipe!
Nicholas Collins
We did use this recipe for our Thanksgiving lunch- dinner today 11/25/21. We followed the instructions of the recipe but we did not add the total amount for pepper as we ran off of it. We did marinated the 14 lb Turkey overnight in a plastic container..around 12 hours approx. We cooked by carefully starting to drop the Turkey in the deep fryer with peanut oil at 400 temp to seal it . When the temperature then dropped to 325 we continued frying the turkey at 325 temperature for 35 min until done. The Turkey came out dark but not black. Very juicy, and Honestly NO spicy. Kids eat it and repeated. Side dish was salad. A Simple and wonderful meal. We were very satisfied with the recipe and planning to keep using for future fry turkey meals. The recipe it is really good ..highly recommended.
Dawn Melendez
Way too salty
Elizabeth Baldwin
This is an awesome recipe and very delicious. We deep fried our turkey. Be careful when lowering the turkey into the hot oil, this allows time for the marinade to cook on the outside of the turkey. No worries, the marinade will stay attached. Enjoy…..
Alexandra Meyers
This marinade was super easy to make and apply. The end result was awesome. It was really juicy and tasty. It was not spicy.
Michael Moore
This was by far the best fried turkey we ever ate! Great recipe!
Michelle Martin
I tried this recipe for the first time for a big family thanksgiving diner several years ago. I was very skeptical and concerned when I started putting all the ingredients together. Because of all the wonderful reviews, I kept going and followed the recipe. I am so glad I didn’t turn back. Although my family had several comments about how black the turkey looked. I had very little turkey left over to bring home. I’ve been asked to make the turkey ever since. The only thing I added to my process is, prior to cooking my turkey I put it in a brine for about two days before marinading it. Don’t let the peppery seasonings keep you from trying it. It will not make your turkey taste spicy hot. You will have great flavors.
Mariah Romero
I made it exactly in alignment with the directions… it was the talk of Thanksgiving!!! They are already asking for me to fry again for Christmas. Thanks to the genius behind this recipe!
John Moore
Resulted in an amazing, juicy, tasty bird. At first I wasn’t going to follow thru with deep frying this 22.5 lb bird after reading posts online but I’m glad i did! This is our first fried turkey and it blew everyone away. Id be afraid to try another recipe in fear of disappointment compared to how succulent & juicy this turned out. Most posts I’ve found suggest cooking in oil at 350 degrees at 3 – 3.5 min per pound. We dropped this bad boy in at 350 and could barely get oil back above 250, continued at that for 1hr 15 minutes and this 22.5 lb. bird was cooked perfect, 160 – 180 throughout. We used a 26 quart fryer I borrowed, made a heck of a mess splattering oil on concrete patio dropping it in as slow as could be.. so i will certainly be investing into a much larger pot. What i don’t get is if this big bird was PERFECT (and i mean perfect) at 250 degrees at little over 3 min per pound, i imagine this and any other bird would be over cooked and less juicy at the higher temp for same amount of time.. IDK but I’ll be paying even more close attention to temps & times from here out.
Joseph Hutchinson
This was fantastic. I did not add the cayenne pepper because I was afraid it would be too spicy. Just the creole seasoning and Italian dressing and pepper Marinaded overnight Flavor thru out was amazing. Moist and flavorful. The skin did look burnt like others said but did not taste burned at all. Was delicious I will make this again. Might add a little cayenne next time lol
Phillip Frazier
5 years now that Ive been using this recipe for our Thanksgiving turkey. Everybody loves it! The flavor & mild spice is just right. I brine my Turkeys overnight then rinse & marinate over night.
Marcus Conley
Definitely a keeper!!!
Mckenzie Garza
We have used this recipe for years… it’s the best! I don’t change a thing.
Sonya Hayes
love this as wriiten
Michael Lewis
There’s fried turkey and then there’s Real Good Fried Turkey…great quick marinade. Gives your turkey a little kick
Joel Mendoza
This is my third year deep frying my turkey using this rub love it
Eric Chandler
Best turkey I have ever eaten! It was so incredibly juicy with tons of flavor. We have tried this recipe the last 3 years and we finally got it right. I think the secret to this year’s success was giving the oil plenty of time to get to temperature. It always takes longer than we think, so we have to rush to get the turkey in. The oil dropped almost 100 degrees when we put the turkey in but that was okay. The outside had time to sear and hold in all of the juices. This marinade is delicious. After rubbing it all over the outside of the skin, I also rubbed it between the turkey and the skin, which gave it an amazing flavor since we don’t eat the skin. Some bites had zingers of spiciness so next time I will add a little less of the peppery marinade under the skin, but I won’t change a thing about the recipe. So good!!

 

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