Definitely going to try it.

Don't be afraid to try one of the 'cajun' recipes with LOTS of pepper in the
external dry rub. It doesn't transfer anywhere near as strong as you might
think.

Meanwhile, I just came back from the hardware store. Sitting right out
front on display was an infrared "fryer". Looks like a propane type
except
it's electric and you don't use any oil. Seems to me that it would cook
the bird similar to an oven, but I don't know.

The advantage to oil is that it transfers heat from both inside and outside
the bird. The liquid oil transfers heat much more effectively than air. I
can't imagine an infrared unit would be anywhere near as effective as oil.

As for oil absorption, it's critical you DO NOT let the oil go below 350F.
Granted, you can't let it go over 400F either. It's best to get the oil up
to about 375F prior to putting the room temp bird in it. That way the
cooler temperature of the bird will only drop the oil temp back to around
350F. Then just maintain it there. That temp succeeds in "sealing" the
outside of the bird against oil getting into it. It's not just the skin
that protects the meat, it's about a eight of an inch layer of whatever's
exposed to the oil. I find it's also useful to use a digital temp probe
with a heat-proof wire. But I only put the probe into the turkey's breast
meat at about 35 minutes into the cooking cycle (for a 15lb avg bird). Once
it hits 155F I pull the bird and leave it out to rest for 15-30 minutes.

Done right there really won't even be any oil dripped off the bird. In
fact, Thursday's cooking shows hardly any drop in the oil level from when I
started. Most of which was probably a bit that bubbled out during the
cooking.

-Bill Kearney