Philips Airfryer review

We all love deep fried food, don’t we? It’s just so unhealthy.  But a new kitchen device promises to give us that deep fried flavour and crispness without all the fat and calories.  Enter the Philips Airfryer.

The Airfryer is a large, food processor-sized kitchen appliance that cooks food as though it were fried. Philips says it uses, “new, unique TurboStar technology” to fry, roast, bake and grill, all in one device.

A sample of the machine arrived to my test kitchen during a heatwave and the timing couldn’t have been better. Turning on the oven heats up my entire main floor, and with the inside the house temperature already hovering at 28 degrees, I didn’t need more heat.

The Airfryer doesn’t require preheating, which is a lifesaver right now. It’s also much smaller than an oven so any heat that might build up is more akin to a toaster oven than a big oven.

How does Philips Airfryer work?

To cook food as though it’s been fried, you toss it first in a light coating of oil; think chicken wings, or other meats. With frozen french fries, I simply sprayed them with cooking oil spray, and with real potato wedges, I tossed them on a bowl of oil and spices before dumping them into the fryer basket. With the machine turned on, air circulates through the basket, which sits above the base of the cooking drawer. IN minutes, food is perfectly cooked and crispy.

The Philips Airfryer has fully adjustable temperature control, preset timer of up to 60 minutes with ready bell and auto shut-off.

Easy to clean

The problem with traditional deep fryers has been that they’re a bear to clean, so I was curious if the Airfryer would be a similar pain.
The Philips Airfryer’s removable drawer and QuickClean basket features a non-stick coating and are dishwasher safe for easy cleaning. Hallelujah! Plus, since there’s not litres of oil in the cooking basin, there’s no need to worry about what to do with all the fluid; no waste, no filtering, no dangerous hot oil sloshing around the kitchen. Genius.

Airfryer has an app for cooking

While there is an app for the Airfryer, it doesn’t make it a connected device.  The app is merely a recipe centre with instructions for how to cook specific items in the unit. You can’t program cooking times or recipes from your phone; you’ll still need to take care of that manually using the dial on the front of the Airfryer.

Cooking with the Philips Airfryer

Step 1: Tossing the wings in oil.

Step 2: Add spices

The finished crispy product.

I made a variety of dishes in the Airfryer. My favourites were frozen french fries, fresh jicama fries and chicken wings. I found the wings cooked very quickly and came out crispy and carmelized.  Plus, unlike using a baking sheet in the oven, I wasn’t left with a sticky mess I had to scrape off the pan. I made dry-rubbed wings and saucy wings and found both tasty. I tossed the wings in vegetable oil, then spices and put them in the Airfryer for about 12 minutes. When the bell went off, I poured them into another bowl with a BBQ sauce, tossed them lightly and then put them back into the fryer basket for another 10 minutes.  They were perfectly cooked and crispy, yet a bit sticky with carmelized sauce. Yum!

Airfried jicama fries

I love the convenience of this device for a few reasons; I like not having to heat up the whole oven, I like being able to still cook enough for a family meal in the device, and I really love how easy it is to clean. Plus, the fact it can get that deep fried texture on foods while still being healthy is a huge plus.

The Philips Airfryer sells for $279.99 – $329.99CAD at Hudson’s Bay and Amazon.ca