First introduced to the Philippine market by
Imarflex in the 1970s, the turbo broiler is basically a
convection oven. It has a round shaped cooking vessel, usually made of glass, and the cover is also the housing for the
heating element and a
fan.
By forcing hot air to circulate in the relatively small space, it can quickly cook (hence turbo) meat, poultry, or basically anything that cooks via dry heat. I have even successfully baked bread in my turbo broiler, using dough for french bread I was able to make a fairly decent loaf of artisan bread at home.
It is more common in the Philippines than anywhere else in the world probably because it was introduced here first. There are even cookbooks that have turbo broiler cookery as its main topic.
Because it uses hot air, you can cook food and achieve a crispy on the outside tender on the inside slab of meat without having to use oil. And since the ideal way of cooking in a turbo broiler is having the food on a rack, the fat can easily drip away. Surprisingly the food does not turn out dry or leathery. Chicken cooked in a turbo broiler is crispy on the outside and tender on the inside.