Char-Broil The Big Easy TRU-Infrared Oil-Less Turkey Fryer + Accessory Kit

After my first use, I'm very impressed with The Big Easy (TBE) Oil-less Turkey Fryer from Charbroil. I have done several traditional deep fried turkeys, and the turkey I did with TBE looked like, tasted like it had been traditionally deep fried.IMPORTANT NOTE: THE MAXIMUM SIZE TURKEY THE TBE CAN HOLD IS A 16 LBS.Some items to help you make your decision to purchase TBE or not.INSIDE THE BOX THERE IS :1) TBE unit (metal black wall on the outside, bare steel wall on the inside, and a circular burner at the bottom).2) Four legs; 2 handles; a burner control module/ ignition system, with hose to connect to an LP tank; a metal heat shield used to protect the ignition system; a packet of screws and nuts for assembly.3) A drip tray and an aluminum foil pan to put in the drip tray.4) A stainless steel cooking chamber that easily drops in/pulls out of TBE.5) A heavy wire basket to put the turkey in to keep the turkey centered in the cooking chamber inside TBE while cooking.6) A metal hook to lower and raise the basket (especially while hot).7) A wire mesh lid to cover the open top of the cooker and reflect heat back into TBE.8) Assembly directions, a good quality dial meat thermometer, and a recipe book.ASSEMBLY AND SEASONING THE TBE:There is a little bit of assembly required. All you need to complete the assembly is a philips-head screwdriver. There are four legs to install (3 screws and nuts each leg), two handles (2 screws each handle), and the burner control assembly (3 screws). It will take 15-20 minutes to assemble, possibly less.After assembly, place the aluminum foil pan in the drip tray and slide the drip tray into its slot. Hook TBE up to a full LP tank. You need to season the interior of the stainless steel cooking chamber. It's very easy to perform the seasoning. The stainless steel cooking chamber has a curved bottom with a small hole in the middle of it. Tilt the cooking chamber a little, pour 1-2 oz. of vegetable or peanut oil inside it (you can use a spray like PAM, but I think you'll get a thicker more even coat will the oil), making sure it doesn't run out the hole, and using a paper towel, evenly wipe the oil all over the inside bottom and up the side of the stainless steel cooking chamber. Place the cooking chamber inside TBE, turn the gas on high, twist the igniter nob until the gas lights. In a few minutes, the unit will heat up, the oil will start to turn brown and smoke. After about 15 minutes the oil will stop smoking. Turn the unit off and let it cool. It's seasoned.ON TO THE COOKING:When you use traditional deep frying, a turkey will take approximate 3-4 minutes per pound to cook. A 15 lb. turkey will take 45-60 minutes. When you consider the oil warm up time of 30-45 minutes, you're looking at a total time of 75-105 minutes, or 1.25-1.75 hours, from lighting the burner to pulling the cooked turkey out of the fryer.In TBE, a turkey will take 10-12 minutes per pound to cook. A 15 lb. turkey will take 150-180 minutes, or 2.5-3 hours). Here in NE Ohio, today's temperature was about 38-39 degrees F., so it took the full 3 hours from lighting the burner to pulling the turkey out of TBE. (The turkey had an internal temperature of 165 degrees.)TBE's BENEFITS COME IN OTHER WAYS:1) You don't need 2.5 to 3.5 gallons of oil, saving you about $30-$40. (Yes the oil is reusable, 3-4 times, if stored properly, it will last for up to 6-12 months)2) Clean up. In traditional frying you need to let the oil cool 4-6 hours before you can strain/filter the oil out of the pot. Then you've got to wash a big, oily pot that doesn't fit into your kitchen sink. Let's say you want to eat dinner at about 5-6 p.m. Well, with traditional frying you'll be ready to clean your pot at 10 or 11 o'clock at night. That's always fun (sarcasm, if you couldn't tell).With TBE, when you pull the turkey out, you place the mesh reflecting lid over the TBE and let it continue to burn for another 15 minutes. Then turn the burner off, let it cool for 15 minutes, wire brush the cooking chamber, and you're done.3) No splatter, no oil spills, no oil burns on your arms from lowering a cold turkey into hot oil; much less chance of burning you garage or house down (I'm serious about this!)4) The until sits lower to the ground, practically no chance of it tipping over.5) With TBE you get drippings to make a gravy or sauce from (additionally beneficial if you used an injectable marinade, as flavors from the marinade will be in the drippings). In traditional frying, all the juices that cook out of the turkey are in the oil, and get burned off.MY FIRST TBE TURKEY:My turkey was a 15 lb. total weight (giblets & neck included), and that is how you determine the cooking weight of the turkey.While I was seasoning the cooking chamber, I pulled the plastic leg holders (some turkey producers use wire) off the turkey (recommended to remove by Charbroil) and washed and pat dried the turkey and removed the pop-up timer in the turkey.Normally I brine a turkey, but since today's turkey was more about a test run of TBE so I'd be familiar with it for Thanksgiving dinner, I didn't brine the turkey. Besides, brining takes 10-12 hours, and I just didn't have the time. I used Tony Chachere's Injectable Creole Butter Marinade. BRINING THE TURKEY IS ALWAYS BETTER, but if you're using an injectable marinade, brining isn't as necessary. In my opinion, if brining and injecting provides you a flavor/moisture rating of a 10 on a 1 to 10 rating scale, just injecting easily rates 8.5-9 out of 10.This was my first time using Tony Chachere's marinade. I really liked it. So much so, that it will now be my go to marinade. One of the problems of using an injection is trying to fill the syringe after the jar or bottle is half empty. With Tony's, there's a foil seal under the bottle cap. Just remove the cap, puncture the foil with the syringe, tilt the bottle and the marinade will flow right to the needle. The bottle I purchased came with a small 1oz. plastic syringe (actually a good quality). I have a big, metal 'professional' grade syringe, but this little syringe was very adequate.I sprinkled a light dusting of Tony Chachere's dry seasoning on the skin of the turkey. I poured a small amount of oil onto a paper towel, rubbed down the metal cooking basket, and placed the turkey (legs pointed down) in the basket, spreading the legs as much as possible to allow air flow into the cavity of the turkey. I placed my digital thermometer probe into the middle of the breast of the turkey. I put the basket on a rimmed cookie tray to catch any drips and carried the turkey out to TBE. I lowered the turkey into TBE, turned the gas on high, and lit the burner. I plugged the wire cord from my probe into the digital thermometer base, set the thermometer alarm to go off at 165 degrees, and placed the base of the thermometer away from TBE. I did not put the mesh reflecting lid on right away. Charbroil doesn't recommend using it for the full cook time because it reflects so much heat you could actually burn the top of the turkey.After 1.25 hours, I placed the mesh lid on TBE. After 3 hours, the alarm on my thermometer went off, I removed the basket from TBE and placed it on a clean cookie sheet, put the lid back on TBE, removed the drip tray, placing it on the cookie sheet, and brought the turkey into the house. I set a timer for 15 minutes to give the turkey a chance to rest and redistribute its juices. I tried to skim most of the liquid fat off the top of drippings. Then I poured the drippings into a sauce pan and placed the sauce pan on the stove set to a medium temperature, to bring the drippings to a boil. After the drippings came to a boil, I mixed in a couple of tablespoons of mashed potatoes to thicken the sauce.When the timer went off, I went outside, turned the gas off at the LP tank, and when the burner on TBE went out, I closed the valve on TBE's control panel. I came back inside, removed the turkey from the cooking basket, and carved a very hot, incredibly juicy, and tender turkey. Mmmmm!After dinner, I washed the drip tray, aluminum foil pan, and the wire cooking basket by hand (the basket would probably fit on the bottom shelf of most dishwashers). Then I went out, gave the inside of the stainless steel cooking chamber a light wire brushing, and put TBE away.All and all, a very good experience.Updated January 25, 2013:After a few more uses, I am still extremely pleased with TBE. The weather was more pleasant on Thanksgiving Day, the temperature was close to 50 degrees when I put the 15 lb. turkey in the fryer, and it took 2.5 hours to cook. I have found that temperatures below 40 degrees (I haven't tried it when the temperature was below freezing) do slightly affect the cooking time, but it is still a great experience compared to traditional deep frying a turkey. I REALLY like the easy clean-up. But even that wouldn't matter if the turkey didn't taste great!Further Update January 12, 2017Still using it, and still loving it. I haven't went back to traditional frying method since I first tried this. I loaned the unit to a friend for his 2016 Christmas turkey, his family loved it! They are looking to buy TBE now!!

I was looking for a new way to cook the Thanksgiving turkey and considered deep frying. Unfortunately, we are in an apartment this year while we are between homes, and I thought deep frying was just too much trouble. But I needed to free up oven space, so after reading the reviews on Amazon I took the plunge and tried the Big Easy.I wanted a dry run before Thanksgiving, so I tried a big chicken. I brined the chicken for six hours. I carefully set the unit up downstairs by our common grilling area and followed the directions for seasoning the unit. I rubbed the brined chicken with oil and put in the Big Easy. The resulting chicken was a dark mahogany color - darker than you expect when roasting. I cooked until the breast was 165 degrees. The chicken was a little uneven - the thighs were some of the best meat I have ever cooked, but the drumsticks and breast were a little dried out. I determined that the bird needed to come a little bit to room temperature to shorten the cooking time (it had started at 41 degrees).I was incredibly impressed by the safety of the unit. Very little heat seems to escape from the Big Easy, making it both safe and efficient. It is heavy enough to be very stable but light enough to move around easily. The handles stay cool after extended use and even the sides of the unit don't get dangerously hot. I was impressed enough to ignore the warnings and decided to use the unit on our small porch for Thanksgiving.I brined the turkey for 48 hours in a brine of 2 gallons of water, 1-1/2 cups of salt, plus honey, lemon zest and juice, and herbs (Thomas Keller's brine recipe, but a little light on the salt since I wanted the long brining time). I took my 14 pound bird out of the brine about four hours before cooking, so it came up to about 54 degrees. The bird went into the Big Easy a few minutes before 2pm and was done in about 2-1/2 hours to an internal temperature (measured deep in the breast) at 165 degrees.The turkey was a huge hit - one of the best I have ever cooked. The dark meat (our favorite) was exceptional, and even the white meat eaters commented that the breast was flavorful and juicy. We were going to mothball the unit for the duration of our apartment-living, but we like The Big Easy so much that we are going to keep it around. I can't wait to try another chicken with a dry-rub and making sure the chill comes off before cooking.I was a big skeptic. I'm a traditionalist and not fond of single-purpose gadgets. But I am sold on The Big Easy. Highly recommended and this will be a part of our regular roasting routine.

I have used it 4 times now. First was a turkey and it was perfect... absolutely perfect. The second was a huge pork loin. I cut it in half and put it together fat side out. I rubbed it with a nice mix and it was incredible. The outside was like the crackle on a bbq pig and the inside was by far the most tender pork loin that I have experienced. I put 2 metal skewers through it so that it hung on the rack. The third was two small chickens, one on top of the other again using the skewers... perfect perfect. The fourth was four small almost fatless pork loins again hung on the skewers. I thought because of the leanness of the meat they might be dry. NOT! I spiced them up nice and they were responsible for two more big easy purchases by friends the following day. Best purchase ever. Jeff

Infra red is definitely better than the messy oil option. Will never cook a turkey in the oven again. The turkey is always so moist and flavourful. Highly recommend this.

If you like to drink a few beers and man the Q this is not for you.Pop the chicken in, and come back in an hour and 15 and its perfect. No need to watch it. No flare ups.This also makes perfect roasts. Bark on the outside, and juicy on the inside.Great Buy. Very happy after using it 15-20 x

Cooked a chicken today at minus 15 degrees Celsius. Took 70 minutes. Crisp skin, moist. Easy clean up. Char-Broild should sell an extension for their propane hose. The propane fitting at the hose end is small and it took awhile to find the proper fittings ($38 worth) to add a 10 foot extension. Now i can keep the tank warm and cook outside.

Worked perfectly! Cooked a turkey in this with no mess of the oil like deep frying and it was the most moist turkey. Everyone was raving about it! Easy to use and the price was better then in stores.