Char-Broil The Big Easy® - Smoker, Roaster and Grill with TRU-Infrared™ technology, Black Finish.

I had this book marked in my wish list for almost 2 years before pressing the buy button. I have only had charcoal before and really wanted a gas option as the convenience would have us cooking more outside. I was undecided on traditional gas bbq or this smoker, roaster, grill and viewed a lot on you tube before going for this.I purchased ink bird Bluetooth thermometers to go with this and consider these essential.Firstly, the oven is pretty impressive. Crispy full chicken in 1 hour! Having a meat thermometer was the right thing as i wouldn’t believe it would cook this quick. The oven section is huge, i cooked roast potatoes in there with the chicken and it still has a lot more room left.The basket that drops in the oven is hot! You also need some form of oven gloves. Getting chicken out of the basket is the worst part, its clumsy as the meat sticks. I have a large chopping board near the bbq and basically turn the basket upside down, its primitive but the results are excellent.I tried a pork joint with apple wood chips in the smoker, we weren’t too keen on the taste so i will experiment more to see if the smoker part is any good for us. This is not a traditional smoker, its too hot. The internal temp is 200-230 degC it doesn’t matter if you have the setting on low or high the temperature always hovers over the 200 degCI just cook on high now, it’s simplistic and good results but I don’t know why it has 2 settings.The grill is pretty strange. As it cooks by infra red you see no flames but again its very effective. The griddle has small holes not large gaps so small items will not fall through. Any fat running through doesn’t flare up as there is no flame or heat coming directly from the bottom and although the dimensions appear small it is a really good sized cooking area. The griddle unlike a traditional bbq will stay looking clean. Its a ceramic grill. It goes straight in the sink to soak and is as good as new, no rust or burn marks.The body of the grill is great quality, I can’t see this grill ever going rusty. The benefits of infra red are the heat distribution, it doesn’t get hot spots on the actual body only on the internal stainless oven. I bought the cover for it and that too is so well made.I had to buy a new regulator to fit my calor bottle. I don’t know what the supplied one fits.Overall i am really impressed with the build quality and the internal oven. The oven adds so much more use and you can still grill whilst cooking in the oven.

The media could not be loaded. I love this BBQ. Its incredibly easy to cook up joints of meat that tastes absolutely fantastic. So far I've done 2 chickens, ribs, a pork shoulder and a leg of lamb which when eating with friends has met with universal approval. It also does the most fantastic vegetables; baked potatoes, sweet potatoes, garlic and aubergine are particular favourites.Some assembly is required but anyone who has done DIY successfully should be able to manage this. I would say the instructions are on a par with Ikea blueprints, with line drawings showing how to assemble. The device is solid. It comes with a patiogas propane regulator but its easy to change if you need to. I already had a butane bottle so simply bought a butane regulator from a high street retailer.I was worried that this would eat through gas but that doesn't seem to be the case and the £22 it cost for 8kg of butane (I already had the bottle) seems pretty economical.It comes with a cage for holding food in the smoker that has two moving shelves and 4 hooks for ribs or fish. Its incredibly easy to clean as all the juice and fat from the food drains out the bottom of the drum into a drawer than can be emptied when cool. I simply spray the drum down and give it a scrub with a BBQ brush.I would definitely recommend getting a BBQ food thermometer that you can watch from outside the BBQ so you don't disturb the drum full of smoke. Be warned however the outside gets very hot so don't put your thermometer attached to the side with magnets - I did and started to melt the plastic on the screen!The BBQ easily reaches 220C inside. As there is no direct flame however nothing I've cooked in there has burned. You can put the supplied grillplate over the drum for traditional style BBQ (burgers, sausages etc) but this is more outdoor grilling than BBQ. You can add woodchips to the smoke-box however to replicate the BBQ experience. I've also used the grill after taking things out of the drum to heat up breads, grill halloumi etc but its not recommended to do both simultaneously, presumably because the air flow is impeded - I image it would get like a furnace inside the drum.All in all, my best garden purchase for some years!