The Demo Site

One thing that has become very popular over the last 5 years or so is deep frying your thanksgiving turkey. I have to be honest, before I had a deep fried turkey, I really didn't care for turkey. Turkey to me was always just too dry to enjoy. Deep frying a turkey changes that dramatically. There's a reason why that is so, which Im not going to go into now. There is one big danger and another obstacle when it comes to deep frying a turkey.

1. Fires can easily be started. You have to be real careful.

2. You can spend almost 30 bucks just for the oil (which cant be reused).

I was planning on cooking a turkey this year the deep fried method, but I found something else that appeared to be a little safer. Char-boil's Big Easy Oil less turkey fryer. Yes I said oil less. So I made the decision to try "frying" a turkey with the Big Easy and picked one from sears (they had the lowest price I could find $129). about 16 pounds is all you would want to put in this fryer, so if you are looking to feed an army, this isn't your solution. The way this turkey fryer works is by using propane to light the burners that cooks the turkey. The website used the word infra-red when they describe how the cooking work, but just looking at it made sense.

How did I cook it?

Of coarse I wasn't going to wait til thanksgiving day, when all of the family is around to try this thing out for the first time. I bought about a 14 pound turkey and went through a test preparation to test it out, as follows.

Thawed turkey

Cleaned the turkey

Brined the turkey overnight

Injected the turkey with marinade

Brushed olive oil on the outside of the turkey to add a light coat of oil

Seasoned the outside of the turkey

I then placed the turkey in the basket, applied a thermometer, placed the basket inside the Big Easy and fired it up.

One thing I have to say about this way of "frying" a turkey, it is a lot safer than the traditional deep fryer. really was no different than cooking steaks on a grill. The whole cooking area of the Big Easy is protected so you could stand right next to it and not worry about burning yourself. It took a little less than 2 hours to cook then I removed the turkey to a pan. I wouldn't necessarily say that this turkey was fried. The thing that comes to mind is rotisserie. the outer skin was a nice golden brown color and I would say some frying went on, enough to get the desired effect, containing the moisture. This turkey was really moist, very close to a deep fried turkey.

I would have to say that on my first try, I am very happy with the Big Easy. The turkey was near fried with very minimal hassle and danger. And I didnt have to by that $30 box of peanut oil.

Char-broil's Big Easy oil less turkey fryer will cost you about $149, but if you look around you can find cheaper prices.