The Philips Premium Airfryer Xxl Hd9650 Is Our Top Choice
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The Spruce Eats / Tamara Staples
After extensive testing, the overall winner is the Philips Premium Airfryer XXL HD9650 for its high-level performance, user-friendly controls, and ease of cleanup. If you’re looking for a budget option, a good choice is the Chefman 3.7-Quart TurboFry Air Fryer, which not only was quiet and compact but also easy to use.
Air fryers have gained popularity for producing crispy, evenly browned “fried” foods without the use of an actual deep fryer. They work by circulating hot air around food, similarly to a convection oven, and eliminate the need for much, if any, cooking oil, resulting in grocery savings and less cleanup.
Many air fryers are programmed with multiple cooking functions and can double as a toaster oven, convection oven, warmer, rotisserie, indoor grill, and more. With so many options on the market, it can be tough to choose the one that’s right for you, so we tested the top-rated air fryers in our Lab and compared them side by side. We also sent several models to our experienced at-home product testers to gather more insights straight from real-life kitchens.
Here, the best air fryers, based on our extensive testing insights.
How To Pick An Air Fryer
Air fryers work almost the same way that convection ovens do. Air is rapidly circulated around the oven through a fan system, which helps food achieve the crispy, crunchy texture that fryers are known for. Thats why Weinstein and Scarborough told me that an air fryer is not really a fryer. Its a hot-air dehydrator. It uses very hot air currents to dry out coatings until theyre impossibly crunchy without much added oil .
Most air fryers have a basket or wire rack that allows food to sit above the base, so air can even circulate around the bottom, therefore creating a 360 degree flow of heat. Weinstein and Scarborough shared some advice for shopping for an air fryer over email. Look for a solidly-built machine, they wrote. In general, more metal means more stable, more durable, and more long-lasting. A metal air fryer will hold heat better, last longer, and work more efficiently. A cheap plastic one, not so much. Heres what to consider when shopping for an air fryer.
Different Types Of Air Fryers
There are a few different types of air fryer to choose from, but all of them work in a similar way. You can choose between two main types:
Drawer air fryers have inserts with handles that can be easily lifted out of the cooking unit and shaken up to evenly cook your fries or chicken without having to turn using a spatula.
They are a very popular design because they often have an insert that elevates your food to allow air to circulate inside the air fryer basket as it cooks. You can sometimes even lift this filter out of the main basket, which contains oil and juices as they drip away from your food, to make sure none of it ends up on your plate.
Mini oven air fryers are the second and less common type. We feature many of them in our guide to toaster ovens, because they come with layered designs that can be used to bake and roast as well as air fry.
Some even come with rotisserie functions that can be used to cook kebabs or whole chickens, but because they don’t have a drawer that can be easily pulled out, they can be more fiddly to operate.
Recommended Reading: Instant Vortex Air Fryer Oven Reviews
Best Air Fryer 202: For Low
We have reviewed the 10 best air fryers you can buy for two people or large family meals, from Ninja, Instant, Philips, Cosori and more
Choose the best air fryer for your kitchen with our reviews of cookers from Ninja, Instant, Philips, and more. Air fryers are quickly becoming a household essential for quick meals and oven-free lunches, and with a variety of sizes to choose from, there is an option for every family.
Some air fryers now come with dual baskets, allowing you to cook one part of a meal in one drawer, and a side dish or even dessert in the other. And air frying aside, many models come equipped to bake, roast, reheat and even dehydrate with easily adjustable timings and temperatures. When you’re done, most of the models in this guide come with dishwasher-safe baskets and inserts, meaning they’re easy to use and even easier to clean.
Best Air Fryer Toaster Oven
The Breville Smart Oven Air handles a variety of kitchen tasks with aplomb, from your morning toast to a roast chicken to air-fried everything.
- Size: 21.5” x 17.5” x 13”
- Capacity: Air fry basket is 16.5″ x 12.5″
- Dishwasher-safe parts: No
- Preset modes: Toast, bagel, broil, bake, roast, warm, pizza, proof, air fry, reheat, cookies, slow cook, dehydrate
- Power: 1800 watts
Pros: Two convection settings for custom cooking comes with helpful accessories makes oven-quality meals quickly can take the place of many other appliances, including a roaster, air fryer, dehydrator, toaster, and more
Cons: Large countertop footprint
Air fryers generally come in two styles: the windowless units with a drawer containing a fry basket and the ones that look exactly like and, in fact, are convection toaster ovens. The Breville Smart Oven Air is in the latter group, but it’s not simply jumping on the air fryer bandwagon.
It shined making broccoli, producing gently crisped yet tender and moist florets. It did the best job of making crisp, evenly cooked fresh-cut fries. We’ve even found it useful for other everyday tasks, including roasting sweet potatoes, proofing dough, and toasting bread. There are several different presets, including pizza and cookie modes.
The Breville Smart Oven Air comes with useful accessories, including a roasting pan, air fryer basket, broiling rack, and pizza pan.
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What You Need To Know
Air fryers are all the rage, and for good reason. The best models cook food quickly and efficiently, and because they’re essentially countertop convection ovens, they can be used in place of a toaster oven or wall oven. Our favorite, the Instant Vortex Plus 6-Quart Air Fryer, can fit enough food for four people, has an easy-to-use basket that slides into the appliance like a drawer,… read more
How Much Money Do You Want To Spend
Many of our experts mentioned you should expect to spend around $80 on a good air fryer, though top-tier models can cost as much as $300. Some smaller models under $80 can work for smaller quantities of food.
Are they worth it? Thats up to you, Weinstein said. His $300 air fryer has lasted him a long time, but he owns air fryers half that price that have worked their way through testing the thousands of recipes in his books, too. For the uninitiated, its probably worth spending less at first to allow room for experimentation and growth.
Recommended Reading: Toaster Oven Air Fryer Recipes
What To Look For In An Air Fryer
When it comes to choosing the perfect air fryer for your kitchen, there are a few things to consider:
The Best Air Fryer Overall: Philips Premium Digital Air Fryer
Sometimes when you spend more, you get more. The latest model of our original winner from Philips is four times more expensive than some competitors. It has the most intuitive control panel of all that we tested, with a single dial for the time and temperature. When tested with smaller amounts of foodand most air fryers, we should note, work best for small batches of two to three servingsit performed admirably, more or less the same as some of the much cheaper options. But it distinguished itself with panache when filled up with fries: It cooked a pound and a half of fries with uncanny consistency. Other air fryers that claim a large capacity had nothing on the Philips. And while not a compact air fryer, when it came to counter space, it did have a smaller and tidier profile than many the other machines.
The Philips also claims fat removal technology. We dont love this particular branding , but it may be part of the secret to how it cooks all those fries so evenly. Fitted with a two-piece draining plate in the base that looks a bit like a pinwheel, the hot air swirls, torpedo-like, throughout the air fryer, rather than just blasting in a single direction from the heating element.
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Dont Be Afraid Of The Amount Of Oil
Not only does the olive oil prevent the tomatoes from burning, but it also helps to cook the tomatoes, providing a smooth and rich mouthfeel. I promise, you want to use the full 1/2 cup!
Description: Food Network Kitchen’s Baked Feta Pasta. Keywords: Cherry Tomatoes, Feta Cheese, Mezze Rigatoni, Garlic, Basil, Red Pepper
Matt,Matt,Matt
Dont Forget To Season With Salt
The balance of salt is very important in this recipe you can go from perfect to overly salted with just a couple extra granules. We suggest adding just a small amount of salt to the cherry tomatoes, then finishing the dish with a pinch of flaky sea salt. This will make your tomatoes and feta shine without over doing it.
Description: Food Network Kitchen’s Baked Feta Pasta. Keywords: Cherry Tomatoes, Feta Cheese, Mezze Rigatoni, Garlic, Basil, Red Pepper
2 pints cherry tomatoes1/2 cup extra virgin olive oilKosher salt and freshly ground black pepperOne 8-ounce block feta cheese, drained10 ounces mezze rigatoni1 garlic clove, finely gratedPinched, crushed red pepper flakes, optional1/4 cup fresh basil leaves, thinly slicedFlaky sea salt, for serving
DIRECTIONSPreheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Toss the cherry tomatoes and olive oil with 1/4 teaspoon of salt and several grinds of black pepper in a medium bowl until combined. Pour into a 2 1/2 to 3-quart baking dish. Place the feta in the center of the tomatoes, then season with a pinch of black pepper. Bake until the tomatoes have burst and the feta has softened, about 30 minutes. Raise the heat to 450 degrees F, then continue to cook until the tomatoes and feta are golden brown, 10 to 15 minutes more.
Meanwhile, bring a large pot of generously salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until al dente, about 13 minutes. Reserve 1/2 cup of cooking water, then drain well.
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Best Multitasking Air Fryer
The Instant Pot Duo Crisp is a pressure cooker, slow cooker, and air fryer all in one, making it one of the most useful and economical small appliances I tested.
- Size: 15″ x 15″ x 13.5″
- Capacity: 8 quarts as Instant Pot, smaller capacity as air fryer
- Dishwasher-safe parts: Yes
- With Instant Pot lid: pressure cook, saute, slow cook, steam, sous videWith air fryer lid: air fry, roast, bake, broil, dehydrate
- Power: 1500 watts
Pros: Multiple functions doesn’t dry out delicate foods can perform multiple steps in a recipe in the same appliance
Cons: Food on lower level of fryer basket cooks more slowly, many pieces to store, difficult to agitate food mid-cook, removing lid exposes heating coil
Air fryers often get a bad rap for being uni-taskers, but Instant Pot has bucked the trend by adding air fryer functionality to its already quite versatile multicookers. The Duo Crisp comes with two separate lids a traditional Instant Pot lid you’ll use for all your pressure and slow cooking and another equipped with an electric heating coil and fan that you’ll use for air frying, broiling, dehydrating, and more.
If you’ve used an Instant Pot, you’re already familiar with the Duo Crisp’s pressure cooking. We rated it the best multitasking electric pressure cooker. Plus, it did so well in our sous vide testing that we named it the best multitasking sous vide machine.
All told, this is the air fryer I reach for most. Its versatility has earned it a space in my kitchen.
Ninja Foodi Max Health Grill & Air Fryer
Best blow-out multifunctional air fryer
Pros:
Wattage: 2460W
Star rating: 5/5
This is both a pricey and chunky investment purchase that looks more like a pizza oven than an air fryer. However, for the quality of components and cooking results it’s great value for money offering roast, bake, grill and dehydrate functions in addition to air frying.
You always get a good recipe booklet with Ninja products. The one accompanying this product focusses on its grill and air frying features but there’s a comprehensive cooking guide for everything in the box. It’s particularly adapted for roasting meat joints. The integrated digital thermometer meant the gadget alerted us when the whole chicken was full cooked, preventing it from being over-done.
Requiring zero oil, the chips were well-sealed and soft inside. Its grill function didn’t disappoint when it came to grid cooking and if you like a traybake, cakes are ready in 25 minutes.
Wattage: 2400W
Star rating: 5/5
Think of this smart little stainless steel appliance as a new permanent fixture in the kitchen, and watch as you start using it in place of your main oven more and more.
It would be a lifesaver for Christmas and parties, a winner for small kitchens, or a good option for Aga and range cooker owners who donât want to âfire up the beastâ for the sake of a chicken kiev.
Offering pre-sets and functions that can tackle anything from a crumpet or chips to slow-cooked casseroles, itâs so much more than an air fryer.
Also Check: Power Xl Air Fryer Directions
How To Choose The Best Air Fryer For You
Air fryers vary in size, shape, capacity and price. The most expensive ones are solidly built, but not necessarily the best at air frying, nor the most convenient to use.
Here are the five things to consider when shopping for an air fryer. Also, be sure to check out the best air fryer recipes to get the most out of your air fryer and the biggest air fryer mistakes people make.
Size: Most air fryers are not only large, but theyâre irregularly shaped. Be sure to measure the space on your countertop where you plan to keep your air fryer and the machine itself before making a purchase. Donât forget to check how much room you have from the counter surface to the bottom of your cabinets if you want to be able to move the fryer back and out of the way when youâre not using it. If you donât plan on using it often, also consider how heavy the appliance is to see if it will be convenient to lift it in and out of a cabinet or closet.
Type of Controls: Dial controls are intuitive to operate but offer less precision. To set the time youâre basically turning a mechanical timer that dings when time is up. While digital controls can take a little more work to figure out, they are exact and allow for special settings for various types of food so you donât have to guestimate what temperature to use and how long to cook.
Breville Halo Rotisserie Air Fryer Oven
Best rotisserie air fryer for chips
Pros:
- Rotisserie fork for handling hot elements safely
Cons:
- Heat released from the top
Wattage: 2000W
Star rating: 5/5
If you have the space on your countertop for another boxy appliance, Breville’s latest air fryer is a statement multifunctional gadget that, when on, will draw attention from across the room. It holds a small, trussed chicken for easy rotisserie and includes a chip basket for keeping chipped potatoes moving for even crisping.
The rotisserie function must be manually switched on, which may be confusing if you only skim-read the instruction manual. Once activated, you can turn on the internal light for checking in on its contents. One thing about crowd-pleasers is they generate the desire in people to press their nose up to the glass. After 55 minutes, this model’s glass front panel and exterior was warm but not dangerously hot, which is a tick in the safety box for adults and kids. Read our full Breville Halo Rotisserie Air Fryer review.
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Why Trust The Spruce Eats
This roundup was written by Sharon Lehman, a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist who happily makes space for any gadget that makes cooking faster and easier. She has tested and reviewed several air fryers for The Spruce Eats, including the Chefman TurboFry Air Fryer and Emeril Lagasse Power Air Fryer 360.
The Spruce Eats Editor Siobhan Wallace compiled testing data from our official Lab as well as insights from our home tester’s full product reviews to update this roundup.
