The Best Butterball Turkey Fryers

Four things decide this, in this order. Capacity first, because a fryer that will not take your bird is not a candidate at any price. Then controls, because temperature management is where first-time fryers actually come unstuck. Then build and safety hardware — stainless versus powder coat, drain valve or no drain valve, breakaway cord or a plain one. Price last, and only as a tiebreak between units that already clear the first three.

What is deliberately not in the ranking: star ratings, review counts, and anything we could not read off a live listing or a primary safety source. We have not fried a turkey in all four of these units, so you will not find a claimed side-by-side test on this page. What you will find is the specification each maker publishes, the capacity each one is actually rated for, and an honest read of what that means for a household cooking one big meal a year.

Every unit here was confirmed on sale new at the time of writing. One well-known model — the Butterball XXL Digital — is missing for exactly that reason, and we would rather have a short list than a padded one.

This is the single most useful thing to understand before you spend anything. Butterball is a turkey company. It does not build appliances. The fryers that carry its name are made by Masterbuilt under a brand license, which is why searching “Butterball turkey fryer” returns listings titled “Masterbuilt Butterball”, “Butterball by Masterbuilt” and plain “Masterbuilt”, all showing recognizably the same machine.

The practical consequences are worth spelling out:

• The badge is not a quality tier. A Masterbuilt-badged fryer is not a cheaper imitation of the Butterball one. In the two cases on this page where the formats match, it is the same category of appliance with a different name printed on it.
• Price does not track the badge either. The cheapest and the most expensive units on this page are both made by Masterbuilt; only one of them says Butterball on the front.
• Model numbers are the only reliable identifier. Listings for these fryers are written by resellers as often as by the manufacturer, and the titles drift. The model number is what pins down what is actually in the box.
• Accessories mostly cross over. Lifting hooks and baskets sold for the Masterbuilt 10-liter XL are routinely listed as fitting the Butterball XL, because the pot is the same.

None of this is a criticism of either brand. It is just the reason a shopper who has decided they want “a Butterball” should be comparing capacities and controls instead, which is what the picks above do. If you want the two-model version of this argument rather than the whole range, the Masterbuilt versus Butterball head-to-head takes it apart in more detail.

Every indoor electric fryer carries a maximum bird weight, and it is a hard limit rather than a suggestion. The oil has to cover the turkey, the pot has to contain the oil, and the displacement when you lower a bird in has to stay inside the pot. Exceed the rating and you either get an uncovered turkey that cooks unevenly or oil over the rim, which is the failure mode nobody wants indoors.

Across the units on this page:

• Up to 20 lb — the Butterball XL only. One option, and it is the reason the XL leads this list.
• Up to 14 lb — the Professional Series and the digital Masterbuilt. Enough for six to eight people eating normally.
• The 10-liter format — sold as XL and sized for the same bracket as the XL badge suggests; treat 20 lb as the practical ceiling here too.

Translate that into people before you buy. The usual planning figure is a pound to a pound and a half of whole bird per person, which puts a 14-pound turkey at eight to ten covers with no leftovers worth the name, and a 20-pound bird at twelve to fourteen. If your number is higher than that, an electric fryer is not the appliance — and the honest alternative is not a bigger fryer, it is a different method. Our fryer sizing guide covers the propane route, and feeding twenty is its own planning problem.

One more thing the quart figure will not tell you: oil volume. These units take substantially less oil than an outdoor propane rig, which is a genuine running-cost advantage and the main reason people switch. The oil quantity guide has the water-displacement method for getting it exactly right in whichever pot you end up with.

The appeal of this whole category is that frying moves inside: no wind, no rain, no uneven ground, no propane. That is real, and it is why we recommend an indoor electric fryer over a propane rig for a first-time host almost every time. But “indoor safe” is a claim about the appliance, not about your kitchen, and there are four things to check before the turkey arrives.

The circuit. These are 1,500 to 1,650-watt appliances on a standard household supply. That is most of what a 15-amp kitchen circuit will give you. Share it with a microwave or a kettle and you will trip the breaker, probably at the worst moment. Find out which outlets are on which breaker before the day, and give the fryer one to itself.

The counter. The largest unit here is roughly 19 by 20 by 17 inches. Measure, and then clear more than you measured, because you need somewhere to set a basket of dripping bird down the second it comes out. Nothing flammable overhead, and not under a wall cabinet you care about.

The cord. Every unit on this page has either a breakaway or a detachable cord, and that is not marketing. It is the mitigation for the one accident that is genuinely plausible indoors: somebody catches the cable and pulls three gallons of hot oil off a counter at hip height. Route it so nobody walks past it, and never extend it with a domestic extension lead.

The smell, and the thaw. Frying indoors puts oil vapor into your house for the rest of the day; run the extractor and open a window. And the rule that does not change indoors: the bird must be completely thawed and patted dry. Water meeting 350°F oil is the mechanism behind almost every turkey fryer fire, and an indoor unit does not make that physics any gentler. The safety guide covers the full sequence, including what to do if oil starts to smoke.

Budget for these alongside the fryer, because discovering them on the morning is a bad day.

• Oil. The largest single running cost and not included with any unit. Peanut oil is traditional for its smoke point; high-oleic sunflower is the usual allergy-safe substitute. Our frying oil comparison covers both, plus how many times you can reasonably reuse it.
• An instant-read thermometer. Non-negotiable, and separate from whatever the fryer uses to hold the oil temperature. You are cooking to an internal temperature in the thigh, not to a clock. See the thermometer roundup.
• Heat-resistant gloves. Long ones. The bird comes out of hot oil on a hook and the steam coming off it does as much damage as the oil.
• Somewhere for the oil to go. A sealable container that holds three gallons, bought before the day rather than improvised at eleven at night.
• A grease-rated extinguisher. Class K or ABC, within reach, and never water on an oil fire. The accessories roundup has the full kit list.

The Butterball XXL Digital. The obvious omission, and a deliberate one. It is a well-known model and we could not confirm a live listing for that exact unit sold new when this page was written. We do not feature products you cannot buy, so it does not get a pick here. If it returns to stock it will earn one.

The black Professional Series variant. There is a second Professional Series listing in a black finish at essentially the same specification, capacity and price as the stainless one above. Giving a finish option its own pick would pad the list without telling you anything, so it is noted here instead: if you prefer black, it exists and the trade-offs are identical.

Outdoor propane fryers. Not a Butterball product line, and a different safety argument entirely. If you are weighing the two approaches, read propane versus electric before you spend anything.

Oil-less infrared cookers. They are badged by other makers and they are not frying in any meaningful sense. They get their own page at oil-less turkey fryers, which is the honest place for them.

Used and refurbished listings. A second-hand fryer with an unknown history of oil and heat is not something we will recommend to someone cooking their first holiday meal on it.