Progress by WW EK5314WW 3.2 L Air Fryer, Removable Non-Stick Cooking Tray, Hot Air Circulation, Healthier Meals, Little/No Oil, 30 Minute Timer, Power/Ready Indicator Lights, Adjustable Temp, 1300 W

Product Information

As touched on previously, air fryers use convection heat, much like a fan oven, but they have plenty of qualities that set them apart. The most obvious difference is their size – air fryers are a countertop appliance and therefore, have a smaller capacity than a traditional oven. This compact size, combined with a powerful heat source and fan, means they can cook food much faster than a traditional oven, often with more even results. Additionally, many air fryers require little-to-no preheating time, making them a convenient way to speed up meal prep, particularly for busy families. While most air fryers use a cooking basket that resembles that of a deep-far fryer, some air fryers, such as the Tower Xpress Pro Combo 10-in-1 or Proscenic T31, mimic the shape and set-up of a counter-top oven.

It’s hands-on. Even browning requires you to remove the basket or tray and shuffle the food around every few minutes. Potatoes: Any time you’d put a potato (or cut-up potatoes) in a regular oven, your air fryer will easily outperform the oven. If you do a like-for-like comparison of chips cooked in a deep fat fryer to those cooked in an air fryer, the latter absorbs significantly less oil and therefore, has fewer calories. So if you’re swapping deep frying for air frying, you’ll definitely be making a positive change to your diet, with a significant reduction in the amount of fat you consume.

How to choose the right air fryer for you?

The capacity of basket-style air fryers is measured in quarts, whereas oven types can be measured by pounds, slices of bread, or cubic inches. The number you need will depend on how many you plan to feed from your air fryer. A three quart air fryer will serve two people, while those that can fit six quarts or more would suit a family of four or more. But remember, you can always cook in batches, so it’s not the end of the world if you can’t fit everything in. Chefs who like to have a lot of control over the cooking process will love the NuWave Brio 6 Quart Digital Air Fryer. In addition to 100 preset programs, it offers multi-stage cooking, features a sear function, comes with a probe for cooking to exact temperatures and a basket divider for cooking two things at once. However, all this functionality makes it very complicated to operate. Before you even begin cooking, you need to read the manual carefully and then keep it nearby to use as a reference.

Whilst air fryers are often advertised with food cooked to the brim of the basket, this isn’t the reality. To effectively cook in an air fryer, most foods will need to be spread in a single layer across the basket, with space between each item for the air to flow. So don’t be guided by the pictures alone when it comes to judging what size you need; instead focus on the capacity specification. Input all of the ingredients listed at the bottom of each recipe post then calculate how many points per serving it is.Basket style with heating elements: tall, slim air-fryers feature a main unit with heating elements and fans. These have slide-out baskets or trays that slot into place inside. As they tend to have a smaller cooking area than oven-style fryers, in testing we found even results were more likely if the cooking was paused occasionally to rearrange or toss the food around. Some fryers will cut out automatically when you do this, some will need to be paused if you want accurate timings.