8 BEST AIR FRYERS, ACCORDING TO OUR TESTING

I've been testing air fryers since before they hit the U.S. market more than 10 years ago, and I still use mine at least a couple of days a week to make a quick meal. They're great at reheating food and cooking frozen ingredients, like fries and chicken nuggets, but I particularly like using mine to make proteins like salmon and chicken. Both come out juicy and flavorful with barely any effort.

In the Good Housekeeping Institute's Kitchen Appliances Lab, my team and I have tested more than 50 air fryers for performance and ease of use. When we test them, we use them to air fry common foods people would air fry at home, like frozen fries and fresh chicken wings. We also use them in our daily lives, survey our consumer testers and correspond with our Test Kitchen editors, who use them to develop the most delicious recipes, to really understand what makes an air fryer "the best." Our findings prove that the best air fryers are quick, powerful and easy to use.

Our top-tested picks:

• Best Overall: Ninja Air Fryer Max XL
• Best Value: Instant Vortex Plus ClearCook
• Sleekest: Cosori Turboblaze Air Fryer
• Best Small: Ninja AF101
• Best Dual-Basket: Ninja Foodi 6-in-1 8-qt. 2-Basket Air Fryer
• Best Air Fryer Toaster Oven: Cuisinart Convection Toaster Oven
• Best with Rotisserie: Instant 10-qt. Air Fryer
• Best Smart: Dreo ChefMaker Combi Fryer

How do air fryers work?

Air fryers work by heating food at a high temperature and using a large fan to circulate the air, much like a convection oven, to cook foods quickly and make them crispy. The size, speed and placement of the fan are what make them different from convection ovens. The fan is typically large, operates very quickly and is located on the top of the air fryer where the powerful heating elements are. Traditional convection ovens have smaller, slower fans that are usually located on the back or side of the oven. This design, paired with a small cavity, makes for a sizzling cooking environment. Plus, they require little to no oil and the grease falls to the bottom away from your food.

How we test air fryers

In the Kitchen Appliances Lab, we've tested more than 50 air fryers. When we test them, we cook an assortment of foods that someone would most likely cook at home.

• We air fry chicken wings and frozen fries to see how quickly and evenly they cook. We score the timing and evenness as well as the crispiness and how juicy or dry they turn out.
• We also air fry grilled cheese and frozen mozzarella sticks to test how powerful the fan is — some are so strong they can blow your food around or cause cheese to ooze too much.
• We assess the functionality of the control panel and the cleanability of the various accessories.

What to look for when shopping for the best air fryer

✔️ Type of air fryer: Basket-style air fryers, like the Ninja Max XL, are our favorite at Good Housekeeping. They’re standalone appliances that feature a cooking basket where you place your food to cook. They pull out like a drawer and allow you to easily shake foods to toss them.

There are two common types of basket designs to keep an eye out for. Most of the basket-style air fryers we’ve tested, especially the newer ones, consist of one basket with a removable, perforated tray. (These trays have gotten better at staying put when you turn the baskets over to serve the food.) Some basket-style air fryers instead have a perforated basket that sits inside a drawer. We prefer the removable tray version because they’re less bulky — imagine having to put two large pieces in the dishwasher. Some people, however, like the basket-in-drawer design because you can remove the basket and leave behind the grease-filled drawer.

Oven-style air fryers, like the Instant Vortex Plus 7-in-1 Air Fryer, have numerous trays you can spread your food onto. They’re ideal for foods with larger surface areas, like chicken cutlets, fish and other proteins, that benefit from flipping versus shaking. These models are also better for dehydrating since they offer more surface area, and they often come with rotisserie features. Their downside: the trays need to be rotated during cooking because the top trays get more browned than the bottom ones.

Air fryer toaster ovens, like the Cuisinart TOA-70, are among the most popular air fryer styles. These have an air fryer function built into a toaster oven so they can air fry and truly toast, bake, roast and more. (Many air fryers say they can perform all of these functions but they’re not actually built to do so.) Air fryer toaster ovens sound like dreamy multifunctional appliances, but few can air fry as quickly or as well as standalone air fryers; we’ve also found their cleanup to be a little cumbersome since the baskets are often made of stainless steel, which is hard to clean.

✔️ Size: How many people are you cooking for at one time? A compact size (around 2 quarts) is good for one to two people, while a bigger size works better for three or more.

✔️ Price: Digital air fryers tend to cost more than mechanical air fryers, as do stainless steel options versus plastic. And models that provide more functions, like steam cooking or slow cooking, will also cost more than those that are focused solely on air frying.

Are air fryers healthy?

"Air frying uses significantly less oil than deep frying and pan frying, so it can provide a lower-calorie and lower-fat alternative that still delivers a crisp texture," says Nutrition Lab Director Stefani Sassos, M.S., R.D.N., C.D.N. "But air fryers are only as healthy as the foods you choose to cook in them. They won’t magically remove saturated and trans fats from your meals.”

To get the most health benefits out of your air fryer, Sassos recommends using it as a way to add more veggies and lean proteins to your diet. One of her favorite uses is air frying frozen veggies. "I couldn't believe how easy it was the first time I tried it," she says.

Can you put aluminum foil or parchment paper in your air fryer?

Air fryers work best when you put food directly on the air fryer tray. If you use aluminum foil or parchment paper, the air may not circulate as well, resulting in less crispy food. If you want to use aluminum foil or parchment paper because you're worried about food sticking to the bottom, oil your food well before cooking and remember that most air fryer baskets and trays are made with a nonstick coating. If you're concerned about ease of cleaning, try parchment paper liners. They're less reactive than aluminum foil and, since they're pre-cut, there's less of a chance of them accidentally touching the heating element and catching fire.

The best way to clean an air fryer

It's important to clean your air fryer after every use. After serving your food and once all parts are cool, carefully empty the grease into the trash and place the basket and/or tray in the dishwasher. You can also wash the pieces by hand with warm, soapy water. I like using a bottle brush for the best and easiest results — they're great for getting into all the nooks and crannies. Allow all pieces to dry completely before placing them back into the air fryer.

Use a damp cloth to wipe the bottom of the air fryer and the control panel as needed. You can also follow our tips for a deeper clean.

Why trust Good Housekeeping?

Nicole Papantoniou is the director of the Good Housekeeping Institute Kitchen Appliances Lab. She has worked at kitchen appliance companies, where she helped develop some popular air fryers as well as many recipes for them. Since joining Good Housekeeping, she has had her hands on all of the new air fryers that come through the Lab (whether testing herself or overseeing testing) and has tasted food that was made in almost all of them. She's an avid air fryer user at home, too, where she has at least three to choose from on any given day.

Sarah Wharton is a deputy editor with the Good Housekeeping Institute. She has tested many air fryers and contributed to versions of this story.

2024-04-03T19:16:46Z dg43tfdfdgfd