But the appealing taste of fried foods comes at a cost. Research links the oils used to cook them to health problems like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and cancer.
Enter air fryers — appliances that promise the taste, texture, and golden-brown color of oil-fried foods without all the fat and calories. But do these deep fryer replacements deliver on their promise?
How Do They Work?
Air fryers are devices that sit on your countertop you put the food you want to fry — chopped potatoes, chicken nuggets, zucchini slices — into a slide-out basket. If you want, you can toss it in a light coating of oil.
A fan pushes heated air — up to 400 F — around the food. It’s a bit like a convection oven.
The circulating air cooks the outside of foods first, which creates a crispy brown coating and keeps the inside soft, just like deep-fried foods. As the food cooks, a container below the basket catches any grease that drops.
How Do They Work?
Air fryers are devices that sit on your countertop you put the food you want to fry — chopped potatoes, chicken nuggets, zucchini slices — into a slide-out basket. If you want, you can toss it in a light coating of oil.
A fan pushes heated air — up to 400 F — around the food. It’s a bit like a convection oven.
The circulating air cooks the outside of foods first, which creates a crispy brown coating and keeps the inside soft, just like deep-fried foods. As the food cooks, a container below the basket catches any grease that drops.
