Air fryers have been picking up steam as the best way to eat healthy without sacrificing the experience [and crispiness] of fried food. I’d never used an Air Fryer before so when I was offered the opportunity to test out the TaoTronics Air Fryer I was excited to give it a try!
The TaoTronics Air Fryer was easy to set up and came out of the box without any trouble. Removed the packaging stickers and gave all the internal parts a wash with hot soapy water. All that was left was to plug the fryer in and we were in business.
As an air fryer novice the user manual was a great resource for understanding the settings and getting a good idea of what to try out first. To ensure food gets to temp quickly you need to first pre-heat the air fryer, but I’ve found since my initial test run that pre-heating doesn’t speed up the cooking process.
The temperature adjusts from 150 degrees to 400 degrees, making it easy to quickly heat up precooked foods like French fries or chicken strips, and even fully cook raw items like hot wings. My favorite thing to cook is chicken tenders, giving them the ideal level of crisp before tossing them onto a salad.
The inside is non-stick so cleanup isn’t hard unless you decide to fry something with batter. I did buffalo cauliflower and the raw batter will get into the holes of the basket, but its still fairly easy to clean even with all the little crevasses. The basket separates and both need to be cleaned between uses.
Size wise the TaoTronics Air Fryer takes up about 1 square foot of counter space and needs to be pulled away from the wall for use. When not in use I keep mine in a closet with other kitchen gadgets and it’s light enough that moving it to and from the kitchen isn’t a bother.
Total capacity is 6 quarts, which is enough to cook food for 2-3 adults at one time. It’s important not to overfill the basket because air fryers require space for air to circulate to create a perfectly crisp exterior.
I’ve enjoyed getting to play with recipes and come up with new ideas. I definitely could make most of the recipes I’ve tried in the oven, but not having to wait for the oven to come to temp is a huge benefit. Air fryers operate as a convection oven, so if you have that setting on your stove it might make sense to save the counter space but its a fun way to jazz up your cooking either way.
You can find the TaoTronics Air Fryer on Amazon.
Disclaimer: I received a product sample of the Taotronics Air Fryer to facilitate this article. I was not compensated in any other way. All photography and writing are my own.
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