Philips Airfryer XXL review: good things come to those who wait

I have to make one thing clear right from the off. Some products are just a big deception. I’d include air fryers in that category. Frying with air instead of grease is just as pointless as filling your car with water rather than petrol or wanting to turn water into wine. That’s why I won’t be mentioning fried food in this test – it’s simply not accurate. That’s something I worked out the last time I put an air fryer to the test.

Air fryers are small convection ovens that reach temperature very quickly, which is how they manage to heat food. It’s quite a low fat way of cooking, as any excess fat simply drains off instead of staying on the baking tray. Now you can cook things in the air fryer that actually taste like they’ve been fried. For instance, oven chips or fish fingers. But that’s because they were actually fried in the factory before and not in the air fryer.

With all that in mind, let’s get into testing the device.

Fryers

Philips Airfryer XXL HD9860/91

478

Fryers

Philips Airfryer XXL HD9860/91

478

The Airfryer XXL is huge. In theory, the basket holds 7.3 litres, but because you’re not meant to fill it to the brim, it’s actually less in practice. According to Philips, it should give you 1.4 kg of crispy chips, which is about half of the basket and enough for a family with three kids. The amount it can make is also reflected in the size of the device. I can’t actually store the thing anywhere because I don’t have space. While I’m putting it through its paces, it splits its time between my kitchen table and the stove. Essentially, the Airfryer isn’t suitable for small kitchens.

Once it’s plugged in, the appliance is very simple to use. You pull out the large basket that’s attached to the handle, lightly grease the sieve, put your food in, close it, set the heat and time in manual mode and away you go. There are also storage options for your own programmes, which you’ll never use as setting the time and temperature manually is much faster. There’s also a feature for keeping food warm. So far, that all sounds standard for an air fryer. The manufacturer has also included an automatic feature for different kinds of food. When brainstorming for names on the whiteboard, the marketing department most recently landed on «Smart Sensing Technology». But I’ll stick to automatic feature. The sensors are supposed to measure when the food is ready to be cooked, meaning that your chips, chicken wings or fish are always done to perfection. But how exactly the device manages it is Philips’ well-guarded secret.

Automatic, practical, good

And it’s true, the automatic feature does work. I put it to the test with 200 and 400 g of chips. Once you press the button, the oven takes about a minute to measure the food before showing you the time remaining. This then updates as it cooks. 200 g took 13 minutes, while 400 g was just over 15 minutes. At about the half way mark, you need to give the basket a quick shake. Both portions of chips were perfectly crispy, and I didn’t notice any difference.

As you’d expect from oven chips, the individual bites tasted more like grissini, but most still had a soft core. So, Philips isn’t to blame. In fact, chips not only cook faster but also better in the Airfryer when you compare it to the oven. But no one buys an Airfryer just for chips.

Chicken in a basket

If all the YouTube cooks are to be believed, the second supreme discipline of the Airfryer is chicken, or more precisely chicken legs and wings. This plays to my culinary strengths as I don’t eat chicken breast.

In the retail business, you can now get packs of organic chicken «without breast». I season it with salt and plenty of curry powder and choose the automatic chicken setting. The display shows almost 20 minutes at 180 degrees. My gut feeling is that’s too long. The device seems to be set to overbred steroid poultry. My organic chicken would have been charred well before the 20 minutes was up. That’s why I decide to take it out after about 12 minutes, and the result is perfect. Crispy fried on the outside, juicy on the inside and not too greasy. You can get the same effect in a convection oven by on an oven grate, but then you have to collect the grease drops with a tray. In the air fryer, on the other hand, the grease drips into the lower part of the container, which is comparatively much easier to clean.

What else?

The automatic fish mode also has difficulty with my miso-glazed salmon. Seven minutes before it was meant to be ready, the salmon was totally glassy and slightly browned on the outside. Meanwhile, I used the manual programme to make roasted cauliflower. It came out perfect at 180 degrees for 15 minutes. This is where the small convection oven comes into its own. In a traditional oven, it can take ten minutes more. As long as the basket isn’t overfilled and the hot air can still circulate through the food well, it’ll end up cooking quicker and more evenly. The grilled Tomme from the convenience shelf also worked really well. After seven minutes at 200 degrees, the cheese was perfectly cooked.

I should also mention that Philips treated its air fryers to a very well-organised recipe app that’s packed with inspiration. The marketing department probably got their ideas from Michael Ende. After all, «NutriU» sounds like Atreyu’s little brother from the never-ending story.

Verdict

The Airfryer XXL marks a reconciliation with air fryers for me. The last time I put air fryers to the test (article in German), I had no time for them. But the Airfyer XXL is fun as long as you set your expectations. If you have a convection oven, you don’t really need an air fryer, as the latter take up a lot of space in the kitchen and the benefits turn out to be quite negligible. Oven chips, fish and chicken work a bit better in the Airfryer, but buying an expensive, bulky device is rarely worth it. That being said, if you have the space and budget for it, then the Airfryer XXL is the absolute cream of the crop.