Oil-less Turkey Fryer Equipment Review

Aurora Catering's

Tips, Use and Review of....

Char-Broil's Big Easy Oil-less Turkey Fryer

I have developed several recipes using the Big Easy, check them out at the bottom of this page...

EQUIPMENT

The Big Easy is really that EASY!! It takes about 30 minutes to assemble out of the box, and you have to do a one time season of the interior stainless steel cooking drum with oil before use (and additional 30 minutes), but from there on..... you are good to go!!

Oil-less Fryer Mesh Lid ... The darker the char the better the fryer cooks because of the infrared heat radiated by the darkened surface.

The Oil-less Fryer comes with a wire mesh lid that is used in cold or windy conditions, otherwise the lid is not required. In fact it could cook the meat too quickly, and you really don't want that.!!

I think of the "Oil-Less Fryer" as more of a roaster. It uses both infrared heat and convection heat for it's cooking techniques. So..... if you see me referring to it as a roaster, don't email me!

OK, For the basics....

The internal diameter of the "fryer" is 12 inches. The basket that comes with the "fryer" has a cooking diameter of about 10 inches and a depth of about 11 inches, so whatever you are planning on cooking has GOT to be no larger! SORTA.... well see below!

I surmise that the basket is designed to keep the turkeys off of the internal lining of the cooking surface and to give the meat about an even distance from the surface. So, if you keep that in mind you can cook other meats in the "fryer".

Thermometer and Hook Oil-Less Fryer Thermometer The Fryer comes with a meat thermometer. You really do need this because you can't cook things by the frying method of Minutes/LB. BTW, I have found that it reads about 10F than the actual temp. (I checked with my professional thermometer). That is why the red set point is 10F than the normal cooking temp. I would suggest that you check yours before using it right out of the box.

Also included with the fryer is a hook, it is used to lower and raise the basket. Both accessories are required for proper use.

I have several 12 inch long professional skewers, they are heaver than the ones that I have seen in the grocery stores. So I would suggest that you check with your local restaurant equipment supplier and see if you can purchase 8 - 10 of them.

Check out the pic on the right... I use them to crisscross the basket with the skewers and to suspend them from the top of the basket. These are great for "frying" or as I would like to say "roasting" different meats.

Also.... I use the center portion of a Turkey Fryer that DOES use oil, mine is the perfect height of about 13 inches. (See Pic, left) The pole based inserted into the center portion of certain meats (chickens, pork loins, a turkey....) will keep the meat in the center of the fryer, and you don't get any marks that a basket would produce.

With this pole centered device, rather than the basket, I should be able to cook a larger turkey!

Char-Broil sells several accessories, I haven't purchased any of theirs. You can check out what they sell on their website.

These are some of recipes I have developed Using the Big Easy..

Oil-Less Fried Turkey Recipe

Oil-Less Fried Pork Loin Recipe

Oil-Less Fried Chickens Recipe

Oil-Less Fried Chicken Wings

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