I just ordered the Phillips Airfryer

[CraKaJaX]

Well, what I wanted to get at with this is that air fried chicken is going to yield the best results vs deep fried chicken, because the skin contains mostly fat, so the extra fat is is basically what oil gets trapped under the skin.

Contrast that to french fries which absorb a substantial amount of oil, and compare that to air fried results? You end up with something probably a lot closer to baked fries.

And I agree, I think this is more about the comparative ease and cleanup compared to deep frying food.

But my oh my, who doesn't love a good fry?

 

[Kaido]

Although our brains are 60% fat they require 130g of carbohydrates to work properly. I chose to get them through a healthy diet rather than through the specific ingestion of fatty foods. With that said I love fried chicken and chicken in general. Baked, bbq'd and grilled are all good with me too.

Yeah, I think that's what airfryers boil down to...giving you 90% of the experience, without the mess or as much of the unhealthiness, especially if you eat it on a regular basis.

I have had some good results with my airfryers so far, but I need to spend more time cooking with them to really nail down specific recipes & try out a bunch of variations to get things down pat.

 

[SaltyNuts]

The halogen ovens use directly radiated heat in addition to forced convection. Given the price difference I would only get the philips if you want a better/prettier built version of more or less similar thing. There are apparently knockoffs of the philips, but they still seem to cost more, presumably due to the more complex molded body.

I would get the panasonic IR oven before anything above its price point, since it "fries" just as well in addition to other benefits.

Thanks agent00f! I'm not 100% sure if that answered my question - are air fryers materially different than a turbo convection oven? Maybe, because they can use oil? Thanks!

 

[Kaido]

Thanks agent00f! I'm not 100% sure if that answered my question - are air fryers materially different than a turbo convection oven? Maybe, because they can use oil? Thanks!

So from what I can tell, they're all the same. My Oyama has a round coil that heats up with a fan that blasts the heat down & around. It does a good job cooking, but only crisps the top, so you do need to flip the food over to get both sides crispy. As far as oil goes, it's basically just brushing or spritzing them with oil. My small Panasonic toaster oven isn't convection, but it's small enough that it does a good job for small batches. My Breville is much larger & has a fan plus heated rods, so the cooking is more even. One of these days, I'll have to do some multi-batch testing across all of the gadgets to see how they compare. I'm pretty much using my Breville in place of my oven at this point & I've only had it a week or two. If I can talk my brother into a BigBoss, I'll compare that as well

 

[PJFrylar]

If I had more free time, I'd open up a Youtube channel just for reviewing appliances. There's a lot of amazing stuff out there that people just don't know about. I'll wax on & on about my Instant Pot, for example, because it's an amazing machine that saves me time & money and makes all of my food come out awesome.

How about a quick top 10 or so?

 

[SaltyNuts]

So from what I can tell, they're all the same. My Oyama has a round coil that heats up with a fan that blasts the heat down & around. It does a good job cooking, but only crisps the top, so you do need to flip the food over to get both sides crispy. As far as oil goes, it's basically just brushing or spritzing them with oil. My small Panasonic toaster oven isn't convection, but it's small enough that it does a good job for small batches. My Breville is much larger & has a fan plus heated rods, so the cooking is more even. One of these days, I'll have to do some multi-batch testing across all of the gadgets to see how they compare. I'm pretty much using my Breville in place of my oven at this point & I've only had it a week or two. If I can talk my brother into a BigBoss, I'll compare that as well

Thanks Kaido! So I was hoping the air fryers would someone circulate a small amount of oil through the meat, over and over again, to give it a fried taste, but otherwise be pretty healthy since little oil is used. Sounds like that was wishful thinking? Thanks!

 

[Kaido]

How about a quick top 10 or so?

I started a thread a few months ago over in H&G:

https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/kitchen-appliance-discussion-thread.2478633

I'll probably add some more reviews over Thanksgiving. I have a good 30 units or so at home that I use on a rotating basis.

 

[Kaido]

Thanks Kaido! So I was hoping the air fryers would someone circulate a small amount of oil through the meat, over and over again, to give it a fried taste, but otherwise be pretty healthy since little oil is used. Sounds like that was wishful thinking? Thanks!

Nah, they're basically just hairdryers pointed into a can. Same idea as a convection oven, just smaller, cheaper, and blows top-down. The idea is that you add maybe a tablespoon of oil onto the food to coat it, then basically broil the food, which also cooks all the way through because it's in such a small enclosed area. Nothing fancy; there's a lot of marketing hype to these things. That doesn't mean they're bad tho...I mean, $44 for the Oyama is a killer deal & they could easily charge $129 & it'd still be a good buy.

 

[agent00f]

Has anybody ever calorie tested air fried chicken with skin on vs deep fried chicken with skin?

It was always kind of my personal belief that the skin on chicken is basically pure fat and very unhealthy, deep frying it doesn't make it more unhealthy, fat doesn't absorb fat. So by just air crisping what is already basically pure fat, you are tricking yourself into thinking its healthier.

You're right it's fat and protein, but practically speaking, when you crisp skin the fat drips out, which makes for an excellent solvent for a sauce/base. Duck is the best here, or the asian market free-range chicken if that's available to you.

Kaido is correct fat isn't "bad" for you per se, at least not particularly worse than carbs. Eg. eating fat doesn't make you fat in itself given the way the body breaks down food.

Well, what I wanted to get at with this is that air fried chicken is going to yield the best results vs deep fried chicken, because the skin contains mostly fat, so the extra fat is is basically what oil gets trapped under the skin.

Contrast that to french fries which absorb a substantial amount of oil, and compare that to air fried results? You end up with something probably a lot closer to baked fries.

And I agree, I think this is more about the comparative ease and cleanup compared to deep frying food.

The starch structure in fries absorbs fat a lot more readily, not dissimilar to the batter on fried chicken. The fatty skin itself even in oil is going to crisp/harden and eject fat if anything as long as the oil is hot enough to do so.

 

[momeNt]

The starch structure in fries absorbs fat a lot more readily, not dissimilar to the batter on fried chicken. The fatty skin itself even in oil is going to crisp/harden and eject fat if anything as long as the oil is hot enough to do so.

To clarify, I meant naked fried chicken, like buffalo wings to be sauced or rubbed, not battered. I have no idea how air fryer would work on "fried chicken". My guess is not that well?

 

[agent00f]

Thanks agent00f! I'm not 100% sure if that answered my question - are air fryers materially different than a turbo convection oven? Maybe, because they can use oil? Thanks!

These devices all use Convective/conductive and Radiating heating to varying degrees so there's a spectrum from (100% C / 0% R) to (0% C / 100% R). The philips is close to the former and panasonic is the latter, with the cheapo halogens in between.

I suspect the airfryers do circulate a bit of atomized fats, but certainly not very much compared to simply coating the food in some fat. If you're concerned about thickness of such a coating, use a sprayer. From the "fat in food" perspective, I don't think you can get something for nothing, ie fatty taste without actual fat deposit.

 

[agent00f]

To clarify, I meant naked fried chicken, like buffalo wings to be sauced or rubbed, not battered. I have no idea how air fryer would work on "fried chicken". My guess is not that well?

That's what I meant too in the second sentence.

They work ok enough on batters, as do normal ovens for that matter, you just need to to add fat to the batter for somewhat similar taste of course.

 

[Kaido]

Walmart has a small air fryer for $39:

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Farberware-Air-Fryer-White/54297049

Great reviews!

 

[OutHouse]

Necro thread of how to waste your money.

 

[preslove]

I like my air fryer. I make wings and pork chops most often. It's great at reheating. Having some sort of small oven with a convection function is a good thing to have in your kitchen.

 

[Kaido]

I don't think Trump will be getting the new Airfryers from Gourmia:

https://www.cnet.com/products/gourmia-cook-cam/preview/

Camera & Wi-fi built-in!

 

[feralkid]

Been looking for an alternative to a deep fryer or a convection oven. Deep fryers are too messy, and what to do with all that oil when it needs to be changed. Convection ovens for me are practically useless for all the space it will take up on already crowded counter tops.

Agreed, at least for my tiny kitchen; however, if you ever need to replace your kitchen oven, go convection. Electric or gas, both are available.

 

[Kaido]

Agreed, at least for my tiny kitchen; however, if you ever need to replace your kitchen oven, go convection. Electric or gas, both are available.

I recently cleaned out my appliance collection & donated my Airfryer to a buddy who needed a small cooking system. Right now, I am just using the Breville Smart Oven Pro:

https://www.amazon.com/Breville-BOV845BSS-Convection-Toaster-Stainless/dp/B00XBOXVIA/

Not cheap at $270, but a lot cheaper than the Philips XL, which retails for $350. Tons more space in the Breville, has a convection feature, and broils too (up to 500F). I use the toaster oven 80% of the time (baking stuff like cookies & puff pastry, and reheating frozen breaded chicken & whatnot) & my regular oven the rest of the time; it does a pretty much equal job for smaller batches. I found the Philips, even though it was the XL, to be too small for me most of the time. The Oyama had a lot more space; having used both, I would recommend the far cheaper glass models (Oyama/Magic Chef/Big Boss/etc.) to start out with. For deep-frying, I use a 16" flat-bottom carbon-steel wok with a cheap induction cooktop, which (1) lets me take it outside to get the smell out of the house, and (2) doesn't have an open flame in case the oil bubbles over (which hasn't been an issue, thanks to the outwardly-curved wok bowl).

 

[Kaido]

Really interesting new appliance from Breville:

https://www.brevilleusa.com/the-smart-oven-air.html

The Smart Oven "Air" - MSRP $399. Ouch. Wow. iirc, my glass-top oven was $449 from Home Depot. Although Amazon has it for a bit less, at $385 shipped:

https://www.amazon.com/Breville-The-Smart-Oven-Air/dp/B01N5UPTZS

Anyway, this is basically the same concept as their Smart Oven Pro (which I love), except it adds a faster convection fan, so you have regular convection & then "super" mode. So this basically adds 3 features on top of the existing Pro model:

1. Air frying (super convection)
2. Dehydrating (4 racks!)
3. Slow cooking (if you're using something like a Dutch oven...one less appliance you need to have)

Also, it's slightly larger & can take a 9x13" pan, which is awesome. It can fit a 12-cup muffin tray or 9 slices of toast. It also has a proofing mode for doughs & breads. I am intrigued by the dehydrator function as well; currently, I have a large Excalibur that I keep on top of my deep-freezer in the basement, but it'd be way more convenient to keep in the kitchen! Reviewers say it is about the size of a microwave, so be aware of the larger size. They advertise being able to roast a 14-pound turkey in it, which is pretty dang cool for a countertop cooker. The reviews are really good across the board (Amazon, Williams Sonoma, Sur La Table). It has 13 preset modes:

1. Toast
2. Bagel
3. Broil
4. Bake
5. Roast
6. Warm
7. Pizza
8. Proof
9. Air-fry
10. Reheat
11. Cookies
12. Slow cook
13. Dehydrate

 

[Kaido]

Finally had what I'll call my first serious airfryer success!

For background, I ended up getting the Breville Air linked above (goes on sale for $329 from time to time). Note that this is a countertop oven, not just a fancy toaster oven. It is also the largest countertop airfryer that I am aware of. Anyway, I've been working on my quesadilla game using this workflow:

https://www.seriouseats.com/2017/02/food-lab-great-quesadillas.html

It took me a good half a dozen cooks before I mastered the technique, because it's easy to over-cook or under-cook & not get that excellent crispy exterior on the tortillas. But once I got it figured out, I decided to try to figure out how to do meal prep using them. Microwaving them just made them soft & kinda soggy, and using my toaster oven didn't do the trick either. However, airfrying made them come out not only perfect, but better than perfect! They ended up puffing out really nicely, just like frozen pizza bites do!

I still have some more experimenting to do, as I've only air-fried these from the fridge (going to do freezer next to see how it affects cooking time & crispiness), but I've had excellent results sticking them on the rack in the cold airfryer oven & doing 6 minutes @ 400F in air-fry mode. Below is a picture of a shredded chicken salad quesadilla (plain pulled chicken, mayo, mustard, paprika, garlic powder, salt) with shredded mozzarella mixed in, pan-fried, cut into triangles, put in the fridge, and then air-fried a couple days later. The texture even got a bit more flaky, kind of like pie crust!

 

[zinfamous]

whatever happened to QBert? Did he eat his last Chili (with beans) or bacon-wrapped pizza?

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Really interesting new appliance from Breville:

https://www.brevilleusa.com/the-smart-oven-air.html

The Smart Oven "Air" - MSRP $399. Ouch. Wow. iirc, my glass-top oven was $449 from Home Depot. Although Amazon has it for a bit less, at $385 shipped:

https://www.amazon.com/Breville-The-Smart-Oven-Air/dp/B01N5UPTZS

Anyway, this is basically the same concept as their Smart Oven Pro (which I love), except it adds a faster convection fan, so you have regular convection & then "super" mode. So this basically adds 3 features on top of the existing Pro model:

1. Air frying (super convection)
2. Dehydrating (4 racks!)
3. Slow cooking (if you're using something like a Dutch oven...one less appliance you need to have)

Also, it's slightly larger & can take a 9x13" pan, which is awesome. It can fit a 12-cup muffin tray or 9 slices of toast. It also has a proofing mode for doughs & breads. I am intrigued by the dehydrator function as well; currently, I have a large Excalibur that I keep on top of my deep-freezer in the basement, but it'd be way more convenient to keep in the kitchen! Reviewers say it is about the size of a microwave, so be aware of the larger size. They advertise being able to roast a 14-pound turkey in it, which is pretty dang cool for a countertop cooker. The reviews are really good across the board (Amazon, Williams Sonoma, Sur La Table). It has 13 preset modes:

1. Toast
2. Bagel
3. Broil
4. Bake
5. Roast
6. Warm
7. Pizza
8. Proof
9. Air-fry
10. Reheat
11. Cookies
12. Slow cook
13. Dehydrate

I have this oven! I got it for sale at about $250 plus tax. I love it, super accurate cooking and everything comes out perfectly even vs my big gas range. You can fit a big sized pot into it for slow cooking too. I did air fried wings for superbowl and they came out great. 40 pounds of wings got demolished for the game.

The only thing though is when airfrying greasy food it's a pain in the ass to clean. I have cleaners that come every month and they take care of the oven but for daily maintenance, be prepared for some scrubbing.

 

[nakedfrog]

Finally had what I'll call my first serious airfryer success!

For background, I ended up getting the Breville Air linked above (goes on sale for $329 from time to time). Note that this is a countertop oven, not just a fancy toaster oven. It is also the largest countertop airfryer that I am aware of. Anyway, I've been working on my quesadilla game using this workflow:

https://www.seriouseats.com/2017/02/food-lab-great-quesadillas.html

It took me a good half a dozen cooks before I mastered the technique, because it's easy to over-cook or under-cook & not get that excellent crispy exterior on the tortillas. But once I got it figured out, I decided to try to figure out how to do meal prep using them. Microwaving them just made them soft & kinda soggy, and using my toaster oven didn't do the trick either. However, airfrying made them come out not only perfect, but better than perfect! They ended up puffing out really nicely, just like frozen pizza bites do!

I still have some more experimenting to do, as I've only air-fried these from the fridge (going to do freezer next to see how it affects cooking time & crispiness), but I've had excellent results sticking them on the rack in the cold airfryer oven & doing 6 minutes @ 400F in air-fry mode. Below is a picture of a shredded chicken salad quesadilla (plain pulled chicken, mayo, mustard, paprika, garlic powder, salt) with shredded mozzarella mixed in, pan-fried, cut into triangles, put in the fridge, and then air-fried a couple days later. The texture even got a bit more flaky, kind of like pie crust!

That looks delicious.

 

[Kaido]

I have this oven! I got it for sale at about $250 plus tax. I love it, super accurate cooking and everything comes out perfectly even vs my big gas range. You can fit a big sized pot into it for slow cooking too. I did air fried wings for superbowl and they came out great. 40 pounds of wings got demolished for the game.

The only thing though is when airfrying greasy food it's a pain in the ass to clean. I have cleaners that come every month and they take care of the oven but for daily maintenance, be prepared for some scrubbing.

You can't mitigate the sides & top, but for the bottom, they sell a toaster oven liner on Amazon (you can buy sheets, or a roll & then cut it yourself to fit). That way you can slide out the cleaning tray & just rinse the black liner off, or chuck it if it gets too nasty!

Also, you scored an amazing deal on it! Just checked & it's still going for $400 new!

It's a beast. Does great at proofing doughs, dehydrating (sous vide jerky ftw! just got some ParaFlexx sheets to fit in it), airfrying, baking, etc. It does require a lot of experimentation to adjust your recipes, but like the Instant Pot, once you have it figured out, it's such a great time saver!

 

[Kaido]

That looks delicious.

They're great if you need easy food for kids, or if you want snacks for sports games, a quick snack, a video game session, movie night, or just wanna demolish a pile of them for dinner. The cool thing is they are infinitely variable, plus you can couple them with dips. You can do a tuna melt version, chicken salad version (we make that a lot...if you're feeling lazy, Sam's Club has giant cans of chicken similar to canned tuna that is pre-cooked & shreds in seconds), patty melt with ground beef, southwest version with salsa to dip, fancy ones with grilled chicken, melted cheese, and spinach with garlic aioli to dip, etc.

My goal is to figure out the freezer trick (i.e. if they can be air-fried from frozen or need to be thawed first to retain the crispy crust) & then make a truckload of them to keep in the deep freezer, that way I can rotate through flavors. The puff was unexpected but most welcome...they're good straight from the skillet, but not having to "make" them by simply throwing them in the air fryer makes them that much more convenient when you just need some quick food.