Char-Broil 08101480 The Big Easy Oil-Less Infrared Turkey Fryer

First, The Big Easy (TBE) cooks much faster than a "regular" turkey fryer. From start to finish, a turkey in TBE takes a total time of about 8-10 minutes per pound plus about 10-15 minutes to clean (by leaving it on) and a few minutes to cool down. Traditional oil frying may take much less time per pound but you have to heat the oil for an hour and then you have several hours of cooling, disposal, and cleaning time remaining.

TBE not only gives you the same crispy skin and incredibly moist flesh as traditional frying but you can also -
- use a dry rub without having it wash off in the oil
- put some "savories" in the cavity
- use fine wood chips for a light smoke flavor
- make "beer can chicken" or similar recipes
- baste during cooking

I've also used it for chicken (whole & parts), duck. leg of lamb, and various cuts of pork & beef and had great results every time.

The only problems I've heard about usually have to do with improper assembly, usually not seating the propane valve properly inside the burner tube to allow for proper gas flow. Other than that, it's pretty much idiot-proof. I'd also recommend you get a decent thermometer (I have a digital with remote alarm) - the one supplied by Char Broil isn't all that accurate.

I've been eating and cooking fried turkey since I was a kid in Louisiana (some 50 years ago when we used cut-down 55 gallon drums and fried the turkey until it floated). I'm totally sold on The Big Easy; it may well be the best cooking tool since cast iron.

Have only used it once so far. Cooked a 18 lb turkey for Christmas, slightly bigger than the recommended 16 lb capacity. Turkey was moist and delicious, next time I will inject with seasonings etc. I am anxious to cook other items.
The only problem I had was that the 3 self tapping screws would not go into the holes. Of course, it was Christmas, luckily I was able to find replacement screws at Walgreens. It was fairly easy to assemble, I watched the how to guide, but you do need to follow the written directions as the video skips around.
So, overall I am very happy with the product.

I have fried turkeys for years and was apprehensive about using this product with no oil. We used it for our Christmas turkey and it was wonderful. No mess with all the oil, and certainly saved on the cost of the oil.

The Char=Broil Big Easy cooker cooks great once you learn to cook all over again , my problem is with the quality of workman ship. One of the rings in the basket was missing a spot weld and bottom of the bucket had a spot weld that missed it's mark and left that part of the bottom lose.

Got this for Christmas, set it up and used it same day. Was a little tricky assembling but not bad. Bird came out great, I will never fry again. Crisp skin, juicy meat. Excellent, and it only took 3.5 hours to do a 20 lb bird.