The Skinny:
- Drastically reduces the cook time of all your favorite meats
- Moist and tender results with little cooking effort
- Comes with a handful of accessories that makes cooking easy
- 100% lightweight stainless steel construction
The Skinny:
- Drastically reduces the cook time of all your favorite meats
- Moist and tender results with little cooking effort
- Comes with a handful of accessories that makes cooking easy
- 100% lightweight stainless steel construction
Things We Love:
Unique Cooking System
At first glance, the Orion Cooker Charcoal Smoker doesn’t look like much. It’s lightweight and stands just below three feet in height, but appearances can be deceiving — the Orion Cooker combines the best qualities of a smoker, Dutch oven, and pressure cooker for truly one-of-a-kind versatility.
Much like a Dutch oven, it absorbs heat in the cooking chamber and creates convection currents to quickly cook just about any cut of meat. This process relies on lit charcoal along the bottom ring of the cooker as well as in a separate area near the top, and the tight seal on the cooking chamber adds steaming to the many capabilities of this Orion Cooker unit. The result is tender and moist food that’s ready to serve in much less time than conventional cooking methods.
We were tempted to push the limits of the Orion Cooker by using it as a smoker too, and it didn’t disappoint. We smoked a 9-pound brisket to perfection in about four-and-a-half hours, and a 20-pound turkey needed just more than two hours to get all the smoky goodness we wanted! All we had to do was place a ring of wood chips between the inner drip pan and the unit’s outer shell. From there, the stainless steel shell transferred heat into the wood chips to fill the cooking chamber with smoke for delicious flavors. The key to quick cook times, though, is that the sealed chamber slightly builds pressure throughout the smoke session.
Healthy Living
When testing the Orion Cooker, we found that it’s a must-have tool for healthy eaters. Its ability to function as an oven or steamer (especially if there’s liquid in the drip tray) allows you to cook meat in the healthiest ways possible — none of the carbon of smoking or the cholesterol of deep frying! In addition to cooking lean meats like chicken and fish, we discovered that the Orion Cooker is just as capable of preparing veggies as a healthy side. And with how well it keeps turkey from drying out, it just might be the star of our next holiday gathering.
Lightweight & Portable
Remember when we said this model didn’t appear to be much on the surface? Well, its size and low-profile design actually work in its favor. At just 27 pounds, the Orion Cooker is perfect for tailgating, camping, or just about any other outdoor adventure. But it also offers a surprisingly large capacity despite its portability, giving you enough room to cook six racks of ribs or three whole Boston butts. This unit even comes with three cooking grates, three stainless steel rib hangers, a drip pan, and a poultry stand. Feeding extended family or a parking lot full of dedicated fans has never been easier!
Things To Consider:
The Orion Cooker includes a handy guide detailing exactly how long you should cook each cut of meat according to its weight. We strongly recommend following these specific cook times to get the best results. The guide also makes it so that you never have to remove the lid to check on your food, which interrupts the cooking process and wastes a great deal of precious steam. Our only issue with the Orion Cooker is that it needs a large amount of charcoal to operate, meaning it can be somewhat expensive to use. To get the most value of your charcoal, we recommend taking advantage of the unit’s capacity and throwing in as much food as you can per cook.
If you still have questions about the Orion Cooker, call one of our BBQ experts at 1-877-743-2269 today!
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