Air fryers became popular on the promise that you could make “fried” food with less oil. That’s technically true, but it also undersells what makes the appliance so useful. The real appeal is speed. The pod-like appliances use a form of convection baking, in which powerful fans circulate hot air, to quickly heat and crisp food. They not only cook efficiently and can turn out crisp vegetables, juicy meat and genuinely good leftovers without requiring you to preheat the full-size oven, but they also keep you from dirtying half the kitchen in the process.
One of our editors swears by his for simplifying the process of making flaky salmon consistently, while another uses his for everything from fried rice to baking deep dish chocolate chip cookies. It seems like once you start using one, you can’t stop.
The only real drawback is that an air fryer occupies valuable countertop space, which means you should choose one that suits the way you actually cook. A simple basket model is compact and dependable. A dual-zone machine lets you prepare two parts of dinner simultaneously. And a full-size countertop oven can replace several appliances altogether. We compared a handful of standout models to determine exactly what you gain as you spend more.