Deep fried turkey became all the rage a few years ago.
Apparently, way down south (Louisiana) people have been deep frying turkeys for years. 3 minutes to the pound, so a 12 pound turkey is done in 36 minutes, as opposed to the hours it would take in the oven. Nice and moist, crispy skin. The downside is you can't put stuffing in.
We had a neighbor from Virginia and he was into deep frying turkeys so Tony and I decided to give it a try. We already had a gas cooker for lobster, so we just needed to buy a big pot and lots of oil. I have to say, it is quick and fast and the turkey is very tasty. All the bubbling oil is a little scary though. We have a thing that looks like a hanger to put the turkey in and out of the pot. And we set it up in the middle of the backyard, way away from anything combustible.
Shortly after we got our cooking apparatus, there were a bunch of articles in various newspapers and it seemed like EVERYBODY was deep frying turkeys. Of course, there were the idiots who tried to do in their garage, or too close to the house, or after too many beers, and ended up with a turkey conflagration. But we never had any problems.
This page has some pictures and other info:
http://www.fabulousfoods.com/school/cstech/fryturkey.htmlLeslie