If you just want to see what air frying is like, and if you do not care about digital controls, BB will sell you a basic air fryer with analog controls for just twenty-six bucks. Problem is, for that air fryer they charge you eleven dollars for shipping!
So you might as well buy the air fryer featured above for just a few dollars more, which they will ship to you for free, and get the digital controls. Course if you opt to pick up the analog fryer in person, at the store, it’s a different story.
I have a different one, and it works well. Not the same as deep frying, but close enough (and without the grease mess). And dont diss mechanical controls verses digital, that just means there’s less things to break.
Problem is, it’s only effective to cook for one, maybe two people. I can make a dozen chicken wings for myself, but a second batch takes another hour. So it’s not very family friendly.
Thus, I’ve ordered one of these so we’ll have two available. Looks like Walmart is selling the same model for $80; I dont need or even want the fancy digital controls, but $40 beats even their lowest price options. (Yes, Walmart and their liberal return policy is always used as my value baseline)
But BB has a couple of other similar air fryers for the same price. At least they did last time I looked. I didn’t realize how quickly these might be bought up. Should have posted a warning in the OP.
They essentially are just a small convection oven. The volume of heat being generated is smaller, so it’s more easily regulated(?). And I dont know if the circulating fan is stronger, or if the smaller volume makes it seem more efficient.
My results for things like fresh fries and chicken wings are definitely different in the air fryer than in the convection oven. Frankly, I’m not exactly sure why.
Oh, no. A good 45 minutes when completely thawed, over an hour when frozen. And that’s cranked up as high as she’ll go.
Compared to deep frying them, the wings arent floating individually in oil. In the air fryer they’re laying against each other, where air and heat doesnt get between them. Obviously they dont have ‘sides’ and it isnt a distinct “cook, flip, cook”, but to get a nice consistent crisp you need to essentially cook one side, then expose the hidden areas and cook it again. Only cooking 3 or 4 wings probably would cut the time to a half hour or less.
I’ve found that generally the air fryer takes about 3x the time as oil.
I recently got the Cuisinart TOA-60 (was $140 at Target), which I think is closer to the top of the line for these things (DW had been talking about it for a few months so who am I to argue). Cooked drumsticks in about 25min, so I figured wings would be faster.
Another very similar air fryer, with identical basket capacity, has become available for the same money. This deal, like the one in the OP, also offers free shipping:
