Nuke 'Em

If you haven’t heard, the airfryer has made quite an impact with home costs. As it should: it promises you can do some serious deep-frying with little to no amount of oil which is a come-on in itself in this day and age of “healthy eating.” Utilizing technology that combines fast-circulating superheated air with an optimal heating profile, it fries, grills, bakes, and roasts as well. You just have to pull out the basket, pop in your food, and set the timer and temperature to get going. It’s great for health buffs and people who aren’t too great at the kitchen. We wanted to see what we could do with the Philips Viva Collection Digital Airfryer, and this what we found out.

Spam

The airfryer boasts that it can make french fries with 80% less fat. We get that fries minus the frying is a dream—so we played it up a bit by replacing potatoes with Spam. It works: these Spam fries are crispy and chewy, made with just a coating of oil. Pair with an aioli sauce or a Sriracha honey dip.

Steak 

Eleven to 12 minutes at about 360 degrees will sear an entire slab of steak, to a decent medium-well doneness. If you want a fast, edible slab of meat, this is will do. The downside is that it doesn’t come with the seduction of that smoky, charred flavor, or grill marks.

Portobello Mushrooms 

Stuff these mushrooms with some feta cheese and tomatoes, sprinkle with a little bit of olive oil, and roast them in the air fryer until the cheese starts to bubble. The roasting this machine does on veggies is pretty good, and uses less power than an electric oven.

Siomai 

For fun, we threw in some frozen dim sum, hoping to get crunchy siomai. Unfortunately, although the airfyer does have the capability to cook basic frozen goods, frozen siomai isn’t one of them.

Cookies 

Probably the most versatile thing you can do with the airfyer: bake. Just get some ready-to-bake dough from the market and pop them in. The airfryer works just like an oven in this case, and the cookies come out soft and chewy, pretty close to the real thing.