Char-Broil The Big Easy TRU-Infrared Oil-Less Turkey Fryer - Smoker & Grill for Outdoor Cooking, Thanksgiving, and Backyard BBQs

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 received this as an early Christmas gift from my wife, and got it in time to cook the Thanksgiving turkey. I've never cooked a turkey before, having left that up to my brother-in-law on previous Thanksgivings, so I was a bit nervous. Having watched all of the youtube videos out there on how to use this unit, I felt that I could handle it with not much issue.Unit arrived as expected, and the assembly was painless. Read the manual and seasoned the cooker before the first use.We had a trial run a few days before Thanksgiving, and I cooked a 4 lb Cross Rib roast. Not the best cut of meat, but decent.The roast cooked quickly, and was good. Not exceptional, but good. Again, I was not passing judgement on the cooker, as I thought it was more the cut of meat that was at issue.Thanksgiving arrives, and I'm ready to go. We had a 14 lb turkey that we brined overnight using Alton Brown's recipe. The recipe calls for aromatics (apple, cinnamon, onion, etc) to by put in the bird's cavity when cooking - I did put some of those in the cavity using cheesecloth, and I think it led to my only issue - more on that in a bit...Prep for the cook was relatively simple - rinsed and dried the bird after removing from the brine, and I let it warm up for an hour before cooking it. Slathered it in canola oil, and inserted the meat thermometer into the breast. Off and running. 2 hours later, I removed a beautifully cooked turkey, and my family started hovering around. The first thing you notice when you cut into it is the skin. It's so crispy and delicious, we all just stood around and picked at it for a good 20 minutes before we sat down to eat. Amazing.As for putting the aromatics in the cavity, I think it did interfere with the cooking process, as the very inside of the bird was still a little pink. I believe that it caused the temperature inside the cavity to not reach a high enough temperature, and the result was some minor undercooked meat. Note to self.Move forward to Christmas - time for Prime Rib! At this point, I was excited to try again - I've cooked prime rib on the rotisserie, in the oven and on the smoker, and I was excited to see how this unit would do. I seasoned the roast (about 8 lbs), and fired up the cooker. Cooked in about 1.5 hours, and pulled it off when the internal temp got to 130 degrees. Wrapped it and let it rest for 30 minutes, and it was the best Prime Rib I have ever cooked. Perfectly done on the inside, with a nice crust on the outside. Rave reviews all around, and the leftovers did not last long.At New Years, the afore-mentioned brother-in-law came over with his family, so we decided to give the turkey another shot. Same size turkey - about 14 lbs, with the same Alton Brown overnight brine. This time, however, we kept the aromatics out and just cooked the turkey. Came out perfectly. Crispy skin, moist on the inside, and not a hint of pink. My brother-in-law, who is a bit of a turkey snob, said it was the best bird he had ever eaten. I'd say that was a success. Last night, we threw a tri-tip in the cooker, and it again, came out perfectly.If you're looking for an addition to your outdoor kitchen, I highly recommend this cooker. It's far more versatile than I initially thought, and I look forward to lots of use moving forward.This unit is awesome! I picked it up to cook the Thanksgiving turkey(s) and liked the idea of a deep-fried meal without the mess and hassle of oil. Plus with small kids around, this seemed a safer alternative. There is a small learning curve to achieving the desired results, but it is quick and easy - clean up is also easy too. I’ve cooked roasts, lamb, and turkeys, and am looking forward to other meals! It’s also easy on fuel and simple to start. I’d recommend it!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. JeffCooked 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.Don’t waste your money with this product. I tried to fry a 11lb turkey after 4 hours the blood was still running out of it and had to finish cooking in the oven.The so call dripping in the tray was nothing but a tray of blood. Pretty grossed out Couldn’t get any satisfaction from the dealer or the manufacturer when trying to return for a refund. The manufacturer did offer to send new parts which I was responsible for replacing.Have used it just once !Happy with how it cooks so far! One critique Would be having to purchase additional accessories to make more functional & I still need a small basket for layering items. To cook!