Philips AirFryer

Airfryer – sounds almost magical doesn’t it?  Well it sure did to me, so when I was asked to be a part of their Philips Airfryer Bloggers Challenge, I was delighted.

Philips AirFryer - the healthy way to fry

“No mess or odor” – okay this device was built for me. I dislike both mess and nasty odors (in fairness, I do like many pleasant food odors but fat particulate in the air does not make me or my nose happy.)

What can this magical box do?  Will it be all french fries and doughnuts, all the time? This is too exciting and, quite possibly, too dangerous.

And wait!  “The healthy way to fry” – right on!  Is the Airfryer all fat-free and healthy?  Well, yes and no.

Time to open the box and talk about more than the marketing slogans.

The Airfryer Blogger Challenge one post written when I got the airfryer and one a month later. It has now been much more than a month, so I’ve had lots of time to play.  Here is the post I wrote after our first meal from the Airfryer.

The Airfryer is functionally a small, counter-top, convection oven. It swirls hot air around your food and cooks it quickly and cleanly. The Airfryer does produce results similar to frying, but because it does not submerge your food in hot oil, there are things it simply can’t do.

The design of the Airfryer’s basket lets extra fat drip out and away and leaves even fatty foods better for you.  That means it’s designed for things like frozen fries and chicken wings. But the open wire basket means it’s less than optimal for batters and doughs.

So, no apple fritters because the batter is too loose.  However, it does work on things that are cooked in containers like cheesecake (or so says the recipe book.)

We decided our first test of the Airfryer would be something all the materials imply it is designed to do  – fries.  We also decided to do wings.  Might as well make lunch and put it through it’s paces.

I had done some reading and found some fantastic resources: which said that thinner fries work better (along with some fantastic recipes from Asia that have been earmarked to try!)

So we cut our fries thinner than we would for oven fries and followed the instructions. Soaked in water, drained, dried and Airfried.  They turned out okay.  Some were a little wrinkly and some were dehydrated crisps (very very tasty). For consistency there is likely a better way. I’ll be experimenting.

cooked Fries in the Philips Airfryer

The winner on this meal was the Chicken Wings.  Turns out I had read the recipe wrong in the accompanying cookbook.  The recipe was for chicken drumsticks, so I had to do a little fussing around with time and temperature, but the chicken wings were fantastic!  I would do them again.

Wings in the philips airfryer cooked Wings in the philips airfryer

I did this for us for lunch thinking it would be a quick way to get lunch and get back to work.  However, it wasn’t very fast at all.  The fries took over 15 minutes and the chicken wings took another 20.  The basket is small enough that we couldn’t cook them simultaneously (not that you’d want to) so we ate them separately with lots of sliced vegetables between.

I can’t wait to dig into what else we can do with this machine


The Airfryer Blogger Challenge one post written when I got the airfryer and one a month later. It has now been much more than a month, so I’ve had lots of time to play. I’ll be sharing some of our successes and failures.

Alexa Clark

Alexa is a digital marketer and author with over 20 years in digital & interactive communications in the food and tech industries. Alexa's CheapEats Restaurant Guides, for both Toronto & Ottawa, were Canadian best sellers. She is a recognized authority on social media and has been named one of Canada's 20 Leading Women in Social Media.

2 thoughts on “Philips AirFryer

  • October 11, 2014 at 12:49 pm
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    Michele-Marie sorry for the delay in the polenta post, this had to go up first. working on the polenta tart post now.

    Reply
  • October 11, 2014 at 3:11 pm
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    No worries!

    Reply

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