I grew up in a strictly anti-kitchen-gadget household. My mother abhors anything that isn’t the most basic and utilitarian of appliances, and so while my primary school friends had magical objects in their kitchens like waffle makers! popcorn makers! snowcone makers! jaffle makers! fairy floss makers! and so on, I had…
A kettle. Electric beaters. Mum wouldn’t even allow a toaster in our house, so if I ever I wanted a toasted bagel after school, I’d have to get a box of matches from the laundry and sit down for a good fifteen minutes of tedious toasting labour*.
*Complete lie.
I bet you can imagine, then, the utter glee I felt upon being offered a Philips AirFryer to try out and review on this blog. What? my mind whizzed. You mean I get to play with a gadget that reminds me of R2D2 and is best known for its ability to make healthy version of deep fried snacks, which by all means aren’t a necessity in daily life?
I was in. I was so in.
Behold, the Philips AirFryer! The Philips AirFryer was launched on April 1st, 2011 and is promoted as “a healthy alternative to deep frying”. Its ability to make crispy chips and wedges with only a tablespoon of oil seems to be its primary marketing point. However, the AirFryer is also capable of making deliciously crispy versions of [insert your favourite protein] nuggets, fishcakes, or pastry-fied goodies, can roast capsicums and meatballs, and there’s even a recipe in its accompanying booklet for brownies.
Part of the reason I took so long to post this review is that I really wanted to make the brownies, but I sadly haven’t been able to find a tin small enough yet.
The AirFryer boasts the following:
- “Patented Rapid Air Technology”, whereby hot air and a grill element combine to “fry” food.
- A temperature control, and a timer that allows you to pre-set times of up to 30 minutes.
- An air filter than limits odours (I still remember the time my dad made deep fried chips in the kitchen and the house smelled like oil for days, so I was happy about this.)
- A baby llama to help eat your food scraps*.
*Complete lie.
I thought it best to start my testing of the AirFryer with what the AirFryer ostensibly does best: fries. I followed a combination of the recipe booklet’s basic recipe and the tip sheet that also came in the box, and so cut up a few potatoes’ worth of chips before soaking them in cold water for about an hour. I then dried the chips, tossed them with a tablespoon of oil, set the temperature to 180°C and the timer to 20 minutes, and walked away to read a book. Halfway through, I abandoned my book to shake the pan (and, ergo, the chips), but apart from that I didn’t have to stress at all.
Twenty minutes later, I had my chips.
I have to say, I really liked these chips. While they don’t taste quite the same as deep-fried fries, the AirFryer chips replicate the former’s crispy texture admirably. With a bit of salt and a splash of vinegar, I almost felt like I was back in the Woden Plaza food court on a Friday afternoon in Grade 8, eating Kingsley’s chips with friends.
Wait, no. Kingsley’s chips were always soggy. These are better.
I also cooked butternut pumpkin fries using the above method and, while the nature of pumpkin means that they weren’t as crispy as the potato version, they were Superpants Delicious. The photo, however, is not Superpants Good. That’s what you get for not knowing how to build a lightbox, folks!
I branched out from the potatoes section of the AirFryer recipe book in order to make my parents a light lunch upon their return from a three week trip to Japan. Riffing on the AirFryer booklet’s recipe for salmon croquettes, I made gluten-free salmon croquettes.
Gluten-Free Salmon Croquettes
- I large tin (425g) of red salmon, drained
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- 1/2 bunch of parsley, roughly chopped
- Many, many grinds of the slightly bizarre “Tom Yum” spice-filled pepper grinder you find in your parents’ cupboard
- 100g gluten-free rice crumbs (or bread crumbs, if gluten isn’t an issue)
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- Preheat the AirFryer to 200°C. With a fork, mash up the salmon and mix with the egg, herbs, and seasoning.
- Mix the rice crumbs and oil together, until you get a loose mixture. Shape the salmon mix into 16 small croquettes, and coat them in the crumb mixture.
- In batches, put the croquettes in the basket and slide into the AirFryer. Set the timer to 7 minutes, and let it do its thang ’til the croquettes are golden brown.
Although my photography skills were still lacking at this point, I think you can see that these croquettes surpassed my expectations in truly attaining a crispy fried exterior. Well done Mr. AirFryer. Well done indeed. I applaud your ability to make both my parents and me happy.
The last thing I shall show you today is something that is very dear to my heart. Roasted chickpeas.
I do love roasted chickpeas. I do.
For this experiment, I simply drained and rinsed a can of chickpeas, tossed them with some spices (I here used my homemade for-Dirty Rice spice blend) and a little oil, then roasted them for (I think?) 8-10 minutes at 180°C. Loved ‘em.
Overall, I’m very impressed with the Philips AirFryer. I like its dishwasher-safe-ness, although that’s of less benefit at my own place, where there is no dishwasher. The AirFryer is, admittedly, quite pricey at around $300, and so the decision to buy one would depend on your love of fried food, novelty, and baby llamas. I think it would be great for the time-poor among us who sometimes want something crispy and tomato-sauce-dunkable for dinner, but who also want to be able to sit on the couch decompressing while our chips cook.
Oh, and I still want to make the brownies.
I sampled the Philips AirFryer thanks to Philips and Fleishman-Hillard.
Very interesting product. Of course it would be better with the addition of the llama though. You should write the marketing department and request it as a feature for the AirFryer 2.0. I’m telling you, this is where AirFryer technology is going. This is what’s going to keep them ahead of their competitors. Llamas.
You know, Alayna, I’m seriously considering doing that. I don’t know why more companies haven’t cottoned on to the serious selling power of the baby llama. After all, they’re so fluffy and cuddly and home-appropriate!
I want one! They even sound like they aren’t so likely to burn down the kitchen (I know someone who burnt a friends kitchen while making chips). I just wish they came with a free baby llama so I could really fill my kitchen with things I don’t play with much! Yes, sadly I just don’t think I can justify the room for one – will have to stick to the oven for roast potatoes and baked chickpeas (love yours very much)
Hooooooooly moly, that must’ve been one guilt-stricken friend! My dad once exploded chestnuts over my uncle’s kitchen, but I think that’s the worst story I know of in that regard.
And the space thing? I honestly don’t know what I would’ve done if this hadn’t come into my life at the same time that my housemate’s boyfriend’s coffee maker was leaving!
NO GADGETS??? You had a deprived childhood.
I really, really did. Scarred for life. Take it up with my mother.
That thing look SO cool. And I definitely want the baby llama. Duh.
Bahaha! Gosh, I really started something with the llama comment!
i have never heard of this before!!! wow. does this still use a bit of oil though?? and butternut fries look AMAZING.
Only one tablespoon for 800g of potatoes, so hardly any at all! And thank you, the butternut ones were mighty delicious
Like you, I grew up without kitche gadgets. There were a hearth, an oven, and a fridge, and that was it. I also wasn’t used to soft drinks and fast food like McDonald’s. I didn’t even like it because it was so strange, compared to what my mom cooked frashly every day.
However, by now, I have a couple of kitchen gatgets, and I enjoy them a lot! No air fryer, though, but a toast oven, a rice cooker, and a blender. I lover them dearly.
Oh my gosh, a hearth?! I want a hearth! That would make me feel so much like Laura Ingalls Wilder that I’d surely smile for days
Yes, fast food and soft drinks were rare in my house too. We were like childhood twins, on opposite sides of the earth… 
As you know, I’ve got my beloved blender, but I dare you to get into an argument with my mum about rice cookers. She will NOT be swayed!
I’m not quite sure if “hearth” is the right word … I mean a regular stove to prepare food on. But my parents have a cast-iron oven in the library room that my dad fires with waste paper and wood in winter, and we sometimes made roast apples on it.
Can I come to your parents’ place for dessert? I desperately want a cast-iron stove! Also, I’m totally calling my own stove a hearth from now on
Bahaha I saw that on TV a few weeks ago and wanted one instantly. Another perk of it? Highly unlikely that my smoke alarm would go off and not stop when in use…unlike every other tikme I’ve tried to make fried chips
If only I was loaded.
Oh really, there are TV ads? I wanna see Ah, yes, you’re right about the smoke alarm thing too! My smoke alarm goes off when we open the oven! :S
Oh my. Another gadget to add to my list of things I absolutely cannot live without yet will take up all of my counter space.
Roasted chickpeas are so great!
Who needs counter space anyway? Once we have enough gadgets, surely we won’t have to bother with prep anymore
Oh lucky you! I’ve been wanting to play with this air-fryer for a while now.. no special happy chance.. And that croquette looks AHMAHZING… love it.. yum.. and I like chickpeas too so I’m sure I would love them better roasted! yayy
Teehee, trust you to hone in on the non-veggie creation first
Also, you know where you could put this airfryer? On a wedding registry, lalalalala….
This sounds like a whole lot of awesome. Deepfryers are a pain to clean, and what do you do with all that oil?! And they rarely come with baby animals to help eat potato peels. So this air fryer seems like a hands down winner.
I know, right? The llama is totally the clincher. I hope Philips is reading these comments
hey hannah! you make me laugh like no other blogger.=) never heard of an air fryer but now i’m interested!
Oh my golly, Kelli, thank you so much! I’m grinning like a crazy lady right now
No fair! Where’s my free airfryer? This is exactly the kind of thing I need to encourage myself to eat more fried foods. Even if it doesn’t come with a baby llama.
I don’t think Philips has any idea how many more sales they could make if they only added the llama. *shakes head forlornly*
P.S. I was so flabbergasted – I never get contacted for things like this!!
Waw.. healthy deep-fried foods? I wonder if I’ll get the same sore throat after eating these oil-free fries the same way I do with normal fries.
NB: do the baby llamas spit?
No, baby llama only dance jigs, nuzzle you when you’re crying and sing about rainbows.
P.S. Boo sore throats!
Whoa, that’s crazy! I’ve never heard of that. I’m too scared to fry because I fear oil splattering all over my kitchen, haha!
I’m less scared of hot oil splattering over my kitchen than of hot oil splattering all over me!
Very impressed with the homemade chicpea blend! I usually just buy them pre roasted/ made…..looks better done in your own kitchen!
Thanks for commenting, Jayme! I must admit that I’ve never managed to get my home-roasted chickpeas quite as crunchy as the store-bought kind, but there’s something to be said for the freshness of the home-made ones!
I grew up in a no gadget household too!! No microwave until I was in year 9. I still don’t know how to use it hehe. The butternut pumpkin fries look ridonculous!!!!! As do the chickpeas – whenever I make them they go soggy :S
Heidi xo
Oooh, I think you beat me! We did have a microwave, although I almost broke it once by setting it to 30 minutes and pressing “start” with nothing in it… I meant to put it on timer while I did my piano practice! Got in so much trouble for that….
My chickpeas have never been *as* crispy as the store-bought kind, but pretty close!
Wow, that is amazing! I love chips, and the chickpeas… yum.
Hi Sarah!! So lovely to hear from you again
Yep, I’m still tossing up whether I prefer the chips or chickpeas… I’m leaning to chickpeas!
I didn’t know such a cool gadget existed! I’ve been meaning to buy a deep fryer just because my bf’s house has no fryer at all and deep frying anything is a pain. Maybe I’ll give this a try! Healthy anything is good right now since I’m always eating so much!
I think eating a lot *is* healthy eating
Deep-frying properly is a pain, I agree. This definitely makes it less of a hassle!
Oh I want one, I want one, I want one! The only issue is where to hide it from my husband, he wants me to remove one old gadget for every new gadget I bring into the kitchen. I’m sure even he couldn’t argue with the health benefits of this one though?
Oh, absolutely! Maybe you could promote the health benefits of this so much that, in the end, he decides it’s worth getting rid of one of *his* gadgets so that you can have this?
AIR fryer? I have never heard of such a thing! How cool that they sent you this fancy appliance to try. I don’t do deep-fried stuff (usually) so this is a “fryer” I could actually use.
PS – you used the word ‘ostensibly,’ yay! <3
Me too – deep-frying isn’t something I’m normally interested in at all, so this was quite the novelty!
P.S.
(I actually had to search through my post to find that word, as I didn’t use it consciously/deliberately, if that makes sense! 
)
Congratulations on being such a fancy pants famous blogger that kitchen appliance manufacturers now lob their stuff at you. I hope you get to keep it…. The salmon croquettes looked really good. That little plate of three looks like it could come out on a trolley at yum cha! The roasted chick peas look fabulous too. I’d want to make the browines too. But do you have to buy a special tin to cook them? And it certainly is R2D2 for 2011!
Thank you Louise, but I’m still about a million miles behind the real fancypants food bloggers who get dozens of offers like this every week! It was certainly nice, though, to get to play with this
And yes, I believe I get to keep it! It’s not so much a special tin I need for the brownies as a tiny tin – it needs to be only 15cm across and not high, and I haven’t yet found one of that size!
Hannah oh Hannah! You make me wanna buy the air fryer too. My household is slightly different from yours on this. My mom loves trying out new stuff, and sometimes she ends up buying stuff that we don’t use. Such as sandwich maker, takoyaki pan etc. This air fryer seems pretty wonderful though. I don’t like how chips are often oily, so this might be a good option. But for now, I’m saving up for a vita-mix:)
Yay Vita-Mix! Perhaps you could get that, but convince your mum to buy the AirFryer? Seems like she might be easy to convince
Oh my gosh – I need one of these in my life IMMEDIATELY!!
I love your sense of humor! Thanks for the great post!
Aw, thank you!!
“I almost felt like I was back in the Woden Plaza food court on a Friday afternoon in Grade 8, eating Kingsley’s chips with friends.”
Thank you so much for writing that sentence! It brought back so many memories!
Aw, I’m glad!! Did you used to be a Canberran yourself, or just had similar chips-food-court high school experiences where you grew up?
Yeah, 19 years chum. Can’t beat Kingsley’s chips, every time I go visit my mum a grab some!
Oh, how fantastic! Next time you come for a visit we should grab coffee… Kingsley’s optional
Forget the food. I want to see a Youtube trailer using the thing as a character in a SciFi movie. That might finally be dialogue I could write.
*gasp* Forget the food? Forget the food? Oh, Phil, as much as I’d love to see your dialogue for AirFryer: The Movie, I’m simply confused by your first sentence.
What a wonderful review!! I’ve never heard of an air fryer before, but it’s great to know that it works so well!! I’d love to try it myself. I’ll have to see if I can find one. Thanks again and have a happy Fourth of July!
Thanks Sheila! I hadn’t heard of it before I started seeing it on blogs – it’s very new! Happy 4th to you too, although I’m an Aussie so that day doesn’t mean anything to us
Hehe cute review Hannah! I’ve been playing around with mine too and made similar things!
Oooh, I can’t wait to see what you got up to! I know you’ll blow my test outta the water
Well aint that a wicked cool product. I love it. Your such a lucky ducky being gifted such wonderful gadget. I’ve never heard of such a thing before, can we trial cooking a bunch of things in it, WHEN WE FINALLY CATCH UP?
Can you get a car this week? I could head southside if ya want?
Yes we can!! Fries fries fries, and then maybe we could make crazy dipping sauces? Like BUFFALO RANCH BLUE CHEESE SATAY dipping sauce. All at once.
Eeek, this week after work is a bit hectic! Friday might be possible but a friend might be having farewell drinks – I will let you know asap if that isn’t happening though, I promise!!
Why not make regular brownies and then use this gadget to fry them?
Also, pumpkin fries = genius.
(I just had an insecurity attack about the spelling of genius, but am too lazy to look it up right now, even on the interwebs. It has probably now taken me longer to write this comment than it would have to do the initial looking up, but you know what Calvin says: “It isn’t work unless someone makes you do it.”)
Oooh, I like the way you think! My other big plan is to somehow do airfried candy bars, like mars bars and tim tams, but haven’t had the time to play around yet!
Never fear, “genius” is right. I’ve been having insecurity attacks over spelling more and more often, but I always wimp out and, instead of looking it up, use a synonymous word instead.
And now I’m anxious that synonymous isn’t the right word.
Don’t worry, it is. You’re safe, this time.
While I see no proof of aforementioned llamas, the machine looks space-agey enough to be able to birth li’l egg dumpling cutie wootie baby animals in mere minutes (when set to 180° C of course).
However, I love love love deep frying foods. And I love love love the lingering smell of oil (mmm), so I would likely likely likely overload this monster with too much tastiness. AKA fattiness. AKA artery-clogging oiliness.
I want to play-act Laura Ingalls Wilder with a hearth too, but if I met my own Almanzo, I’d never call him Manny.
TAMAGOTCHI BABIES!!!
*ahem*
I’m sorry, that was my inner 11 year old bursting out at the mention og egg dumpling cutie wootie baby animals.
Bahaha, Emma, I think you’d kill this thing if you tried to make it produce a lingering smell of old oil! It specifically tells you to not fill the insides with oil. (I mean, the instruction booklet tells you. Not the machine itself. It’s not really a tamagotchi.)
Ack, I know, right? How is it that “Manny” is so unmanly/emasculating? Seems antithetical, but there you are.
I think it’s much the opposite. It always seemed too manly for me!
Waaaahhhh I never got a Tomagotchi. Waaaaaaah tears unhappiness loneliness lack of cutie wootieness:(
I’m over it. Obviously.
Oh, Emma. I think I’m going to have to somehow write a post about my own Tamagotchi experiences now…
absolute success also with,Steaks,Chops,Sausages,(never had a failure and the taste is terrific)Roast turkey in alum foil,roast chicken pieces,bread dinner rolls (3mins) hardly ever use the oven anymore.One complaint…..even though I am a single pensioner, I find the capacity needs to be increased.
Wow, you’ve been far more experimental than me, Jim! You put me to shame
But yes, there isn’t a whole lot of space inside, unfortunately, particularly if you’re trying to cook several components of a meal at once.
@ Hannah: I loved your roasted chickpea recipe.
@Others: I have recently bought my airfryer and is loving it so far.
Also, I’ve picked it as a case study for my product-design course, and I’ll appreciate if some of you can spend few mins sharing your experiences so far with the Airfryer–less than 2 mins for sure. Your few answers will be of immense help to me (plus its a good karma). The questions are at- http://abhinavjain.polldaddy.com/s/airfryer
Thank you all for your help,
Best,
-AJ
Pingback: Counting Down to My Great Big Gallivant, with Koko Black and Polly Pockets - Wayfaring Chocolate