By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla
Fried food is awesome. You get that crispy texture and that browned-in flavour while the core remains tender and soft. The problem with frying food is that it usually requires unhealthy amounts of oil to get it done right and there's the biproduct of smoke and an oily mess. The Philips AirFryer offers an oil-reduced alternative that can prepare fried food without the fuss.
I'll admit that I was skeptical about the AirFryer. The best fried food, after all, is made with a deep fryer soaked in bubbling hot oil and in wire baskets, right?
You can always use a deep pan, throw in oil and set your burners high to try and replicate this at home but be prepared for the smoke and the oil fallout that follows. If you're in an apartment, you'll likely set of smoke alarms, not to mention all nearby fabrics and surfaces might smell like fried food.
Using hot air that is circulated within a specific area, the Philips AirFryer offers the following features
- Adjustable temperature control up to 390 degrees allows you to cook a variety of food
- 30-minute timer with ready signal and auto shut-off
- Dishwasher-safe parts for a quick and easy clean up
- 1.8lb cooking basket capacity
- Recipe booklet with more than 25 delicious recipes created exclusively for the Philips Air fryer
At first glance, the AirFryer looks like the sort of simple kitchen implement that's ideal for students who want to heat up frozen meals, make French Fries and onion rings.
Controls are extremely simple with only two knobs and a surprisingly easy to take apart setup.
I didn't waste any time. I've been dying to make Fried Chicken in my apartment using an old family recipe but was put off by the smoke and the smell. Coating chicken lightly in oil and seasoning, I popped the pieces into the AirFryer for roughly 20 minutes and was quite amazed that I ended up with nicely crisped, completely tasty and delicious fried chicken flavour.
I extracted around a quarter-ramekin's worth of oil (which would have been largely absorbed into the chicken pieces if fried on a pan). The smell of the cooking chicken was tolerable although the exhaust of the Philips AirFryer did set off my smoke alarm, the smoke generated was less than I expected.
Skin was crispy, meat was tender and best of all less oil to ingest. In this respect, the Philips AirFryer won me over.
The clean-up, however, wasn't as straightforward as frying chicken in a pan. A lot of the oil and salt tends to get trapped in the basket. This requires some work to clean up. The inside receptacle is made from Teflon, so it is generally easy to clean.
French fries are also extremely easy to cook in the Philips AirFryer, simply toss cut-up potato in a bit of oil, salt and seasoning and you can simply just set-it and forget-it (although do shake them up so you get an even crisp.)
One of the other treats that we enjoyed making were kale chips. These are so expensive in stores going for up to $6.00 for a small packet. Get fresh kale, wash and spin-dry, tear away the kale leaves, stir in light oil, salt and seasoning and toss them into the AirFryer for 5 minutes (again, with some shaking for evenness) and you get awesome tasting, perfectly crisped Kale chips for really cheap. These are amazing to serve when entertaining and best of all, you made them yourself.
The only issues I have with the Philips AirFryer is that you can't see what is going on so you need to force the timer to turn off the AirFryer to check on how things are progressing. It always feels to me like your'e forcing the timer against the mechanism like it would break.
It would be great if there was a way to see what's cooking, just like in a Turbo Oven, and it would be awesome if you could pause cooking to check and reposition the food for better and even cooking.
Despite this, the Philips AirFryer is easy to use, yields well-fried food and reduces oil by 80% which is huge. Is it worth the $279.00 SRT? That depends on how much you are going to use it. Novice cooks who want a healthier way to enjoy fried food can definitely create impressive meals with the AirFryer but more advanced cooks who want more control and the ability to tweak controls (and see what's happenning) may be left wanting for more.
Rating: 4 out of 5