Air fryers have become a big thing lately with lots of buzz (or maybe healthy heat) around them. In this post, we're going to take a good look at what an air fryer is, the best air fryer we've come across and what makes it stand out from the pack.

What's an air fryer?

Air fryers are the latest in home kitchen gadgets. Specifically aimed at giving you the great taste of fried food but using much less oil. The trend for healthier frying has been around for a while. Predated originally by George Forman and his very Lean, mean Grilling machines (note that was grilling not frying). Devices like the Tefal Acti-fry appeared on the market in 2007. But since then things have moved on quite a bit. Acti-fry relies on mechanics to turn the food in the fryer around into the oil. Thus using less. But with Air frying the oil does the work and is instead vapourised and sprayed all over the food. This means things like batter and coatings are more likely to stay intact as the food stays static.

Why would I want one?

Well, that depends really. If you're a fan of fried food but want to avoid 80% of the fat that's probably a pretty good reason. Equally, if you're a student and you're looking for a versatile and easy way to cook food fast then they're probably worth considering too. Also for anyone living with their family, it's possibly the best way to doll out a portion of chips very fast as there's very little oil involved they heat up fast and give a crisp chip in around 15 minutes.

One thing that can't be stressed enough is the versatility, while they are primarily for frying, they can also be used for baking, grilling or roasting. There are whole hosts of recipe sites cropping up on the internet that can show the full breadth of the offering. Take this site from Philips for example.

Air fried chicken drumsticks anyone? - Easy

Chicken nuggets? - simple as pie

Chocolate cake for the family? - yep they can be used for that.

Oh and speaking of pie here's an apple pie recipe for air frying too.

Depending on the brand you choose there's a range of models available to meet different portion sizes and some come with recipe books to help you out if you're in need of some frying inspiration.

What's the cool curation top pick?

Well if you've clicked any of the links above you probably can guess the brand which we think makes the best air fryer. Philips. The Netherlands based company has really excelled themselves in this area with some great tech and great design. They even won a red dot award in 2017 for their VIVA Air fryer.

The best air fryer for most people

The best air fryer for most people has to be the Philips Airfryer Viva. Coming in at less than £100 it's a screenless wonder that can serve up to three portions of many great meals. These use simple dial-based controls (like those good old fashioned microwaves that went PIIING). They use Philips patented turbostar technology which means things cooked in them are much more evenly cooked than alternatives. And have an absolutely tiny footprint (which is a must for anyone in a small home or a student). Another great benefit of these is their quick clean removable basket and dishwasher safe parts. You can also buy extra bits for grilling and baking should you get super into airfrying.

With a capacity of 0.8kg of fries. And outside measurements of 287 x 315 x 384 mm (LxWxH) the Viva will fit nicely into any kitchen. Also for a kitchen gadget its rather good looking.

Buy it from amazon to get the best price as it's often on offer.

The best airfryer for families

At the other end of the scale and for those who want to air fry a whole chicken there's the air fryer XXL. These are super cool for products that get so hot inside as (a bit like the lean mean grilling machines of old) they drain the fat from your food (without drying it out). And present it in a lovely little tray at the bottom for you to be delighted about not ingesting. They do this using Philips Twin TurboStar technology. Which sounds like something that came from space and literally promises a "torando of hot air" to melt away fat. Here's a handy little gif from the philips website.

In addition to Twin TurboStar the XXL has all the benefits of the viva range plus a digital screen for more control. Oh, and did I mention you can literally fit a whole chicken inside it? With 1.4Kg of space for fries inside (I don't know why Philips measures size in fries but I like it) it's double the capacity of the Viva. It will also take up more space on your worksurfaces at 322 x 433 x 316 mm (LxWxH) At the end of the day it depends if you prefer your air fryers girthier or not.

Again the best place to get these from is amazon as... as per usual they often have offers on them. They are quite a bit more pricey though, clocking in at just under the £400 mark.

That's it for this airfrying post. We hope you enjoyed it and it helped you decide upon whether you think an air fryer is for you or not. Remember to comment your thoughts below and share the post if you found it useful.