Best Air Fryers of 2024 | Global News Avenue

We’ve tested over a dozen air fryers so far to compile this list. Each air fryer is evaluated based on its power, consistency, ease of use, design, functionality, and overall performance. In total, we logged over 75 hours of air fryer time.

There are hundreds of recipes you can make in the air fryer, but we stuck to the basics and focused on the most popular foods that people associate with the air fryer. Chicken wings top the list, but French fries, frozen snacks, and dense veggies (in this case, Brussels sprouts) are air fryer staples. Before we started, we consulted each model’s manual for relevant cooking instructions. If the manual doesn’t provide specific instructions, we apply a uniform procedure to every air fryer based on the type of food we’re preparing.

For the chicken wings, we followed a basic air fryer recipe. First, we preheated the air fryer to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and cooked in the fryer basket with the tray for 25 minutes, checking and flipping every 8 minutes. Most air fryers we tested performed well in the chicken wing test, although some, including the powerful Ninja and Cosori Lite models, got the wings a little crispier during this time.

For the Brussels sprouts, we preheated the oven to 375 degrees F and cooked them for 15 minutes. Before cooking, we rinse the sprouts, cut them in half and add a tablespoon of olive oil. In this test, some ovens had difficulty browning the outsides of the sprouts, but most eventually succeeded.

For the French fry test, we chose Alexia’s frozen crinkle chips and cooked 1 cup according to the air fryer instructions on the bag. Tip: Be careful when cooking fries in the air fryer as some types of fries, especially thinner cuts, can easily dry out when super convection hits them. We recommend larger portions of waffle fries, french fries, crinkle fries or potato wedges over smaller portions of fries.

At the end of each test, we check to see if the food cooks evenly, is cooked through, and has a crisp, crunchy, deep-fried texture that’s comparable to frying or pan-frying.

Easy to use

In addition to cooking performance, the air fryer’s ease of operation and intuitiveness of the buttons and controls were also something we observed closely during our testing. Overly complex settings, controls, and presets generally don’t get high marks, but certain features are appreciated. All air fryers have basic controls for temperature and cooking time, although some are digitally controlled while others require a simple crank of a manual knob. From there, you’ll find presets for a variety of foods, such as wings, chips, fish, vegetables, and even baked goods.

how good they cook

To see how well each air fryer in this test group handled, we ran a set of three tests on each model. Each test focused on one type of food: chicken wings, Brussels sprouts and frozen French fries.