Cosori Premium XXL 5.5L Air Fryer Review

Verdict

A easy, smooth, no-nonsense air fryer that sticks to — and nails — the fundamentals. With a big capability basket for feeding bigger teams and constantly crispy-yet-tender outcomes, it’ll deal with the whole lot you care to throw at it with dependable ease. And due to easy controls and a wide range of helpful modes together with pre-heating, it’s a breeze to function. Better of all? Its drawer and basket can each be simply cleaned due to a formidable non-stick coating, and might even be chucked into the dishwasher on lazier days.

Introduction

Search on-line for an air fryer, and it gained’t be lengthy earlier than you come throughout one from Cosori — a US-based firm that makes a number of the top-selling and highest-rated air fryers on Amazon. I spent the previous month or so placing certainly one of Cosori’s best-selling air fryers — the Premium XXL — by way of its paces, to see if its capacious measurement, options, and appears reside as much as the hype. At across the £100 mark, it’s not the most affordable choice round, nevertheless it’s additionally not up there with the priciest of rivals both.

With 14 cooking modes and a cavernous 5.5-litre capability, it appears to tick all of the containers, together with dishwasher-safe supplies and a smooth design. Having tried all method of things from bread and bacon, to roast rooster, naan bread, and the whole lot in between, it’s time to see if this air fryer lives as much as the hype.

Design and options

• Massive drawer
• 14 cooking features
• Simple to wash and dishwasher secure

So far as practical kitchen home equipment go, the Premium XXL is definitely fairly a looker. Positive, you gained’t mistake it for something aside from a utilitarian gadget, nevertheless it’s a good-looking one nonetheless. Accessible in three colors (purple, black and white), it ought to match most decors, and its mixture of straight strains and rounded edges lend it a heat, natural look.

My black evaluation mannequin has a slightly nice fake brushed steel end, and the basket deal with feels sturdy. Its mechanism is strong too — urgent down the discharge button on high of the deal with detaches the perforated frying basket from the drawer, and it’s straightforward to do one-handed. Each the basket and drawer are dishwasher secure, however the non-stick coating is so good {that a} fast handwash simply will get the job carried out. Total, I obtained the impression that it’s constructed to final, and the truth that there’s nothing to assemble out of the field is a welcome bonus. 

Measurement-wise it’s comparatively tall, however comfortably narrower than a microwave, so by way of countertop footprint, it gained’t dominate the area. It’s gentle too, which, mixed with two hand grooves on the underside, make it straightforward to maneuver round if required.

The basket has a big 5.5-litre capability, which is in the direction of the bigger finish of the air fryer spectrum. Whereas it technically has much less total area in comparison with some bigger dual-drawer fashions, the truth that you get all 5.5-litres in a single drawer means you could match bigger single gadgets like small/medium chickens for roasting. Should you want much more area, then you definitely’ll want the Ninja AF400UK, which has two 4.75-litre drawers.

Right here, I discovered that the Cosori was massive sufficient. The truth is, I usually discovered ourselves cooking a number of meals gadgets on the similar time. So long as you’ve obtained no qualms about mixing meat and veg collectively, you would simply throw in some rooster goujons and veg in order that they’re each carried out on time. This solely works when you’re feeding round two to a few folks, thoughts — in any other case, you’ll must prepare dinner one set of meals earlier than the opposite. 

Once I was cooking new potatoes and beef kebabs for 5 folks, for instance, I needed to air fry the potatoes first, earlier than transferring on to the kebabs. Given the quicker cooking instances an air fryer supplies in comparison with a traditional oven, this wasn’t an excessive amount of of a difficulty, however I’d be mendacity if we stated we didn’t want for a second air fryer for much more handy decadence. That’s the place the Ninja AF400UK’s twin drawers come in useful, as two completely different gadgets could be cooked on the similar time.

Measurement apart, there are a complete of 14 cooking modes on provide. These embrace presets for bacon, chips, bread and fish, in addition to a pre-heat operate, preserve heat operate, and a regular guide cooking mode. As with different air fryers it runs slightly loud, however nothing too obnoxious, and you’ll nonetheless have a dialog comfortably.

As for cleansing up, it’s a mercifully easy affair, merely involving detaching the basket from the drawer on the press of a button, with a easy rinse with some dish cleaning soap simply cleansing off the non-stick surfaces. After greater than a month of near-daily use, we’ve by no means as soon as resorted to having to make use of a dishwasher.

Efficiency

To begin with, Itested out a number of the preset modes, together with those for chips and bacon. I’m happy to report that they work properly. Some preset modes, equivalent to those for chips, have computerized shake reminders that, unsurprisingly, remind you to shake the contents of the basket. The alarm could be a little grating at instances, nevertheless it does the job. Outcomes for each chips and bacon have been moist, but satisfyingly crunchy.

After utilizing a couple of preset modes, I discovered myself spending 99 per cent of my time with the Premium XXL manually cooking meals as an alternative. I desire the thought of tweaking issues, particularly given issues like chips the place one bag of skinny french fries will take much less time than thick crinkle-cut chips. Total, no matter mode you go for, the controls are clear, intuitive, and very straightforward to make use of, even when you skip studying the guide.

Earlier than every prepare dinner, I used the helpful pre-heat operate, which helps you to set your most well-liked temperature, earlier than routinely stopping when it’s reached. The longest preheat time for the max temperature of 205 levels Celcius is 5 minutes, which isn’t too shabby.

When it got here to cooking meals, I caught to the usual air fryer rule — particularly, cooking at 20 levels celsius decrease than a regular fan oven, for 20 per cent much less time. Sticking to this served us properly, and Cosori’s fryer produced nice outcomes from nearly the whole lot we threw at it.

Sausages and bacon are delightfully crispy whereas retaining their juice, and chips, with two or three shakes, come out crispy and fluffy. Even filling the basket up with a pile of child potatoes in cajun seasoning works properly, although it will take a bit of longer than chips resulting from their thickness. Shaking issues is simple too — merely come out the draw for the occasional examine, give issues a shake, pop it again in, and the fryer will immediately resume with out having to press a button. Typically I’ll skip the oil spray in a bid to be more healthy, and the outcomes are, fortunately, nonetheless scrumptious.

More difficult gadgets like pies and pasties additionally come out completely golden, and frozen fish can also be prepared a lot faster than in a conventional oven. The most important merchandise I cooked was half a rooster, with deliciously tender outcomes, mixed with crispy pores and skin as an added bonus. Desert was unbelievable too — ready-made churros from M&S, which got here out insanely crispy and completely fluffy, trying and tasting like they’d been correctly deep fried.

Considered one of my standout meals turned out to be pork stomach strips. Following the -20/-20 rule, we cooked them at 140 levels for 48 minutes, versus the everyday 160 levels for an hour. Cooking at that low a temperature gave me some doubts, however when it was all stated and carried out, the stomach turned out to be the perfect I’ve ever made — crispy on the surface and soften–in-your-mouth tender on the within.

The one actual unfavourable expertise I had was making an attempt out a modified air fryer garlic naan bread recipe. The top end result, whereas scrumptious (the quantity of garlic butter sorted us properly), was extra flatbread than naan. Whereas this could possibly be all the way down to the recipe, I feel it’s honest to say that there’s not fairly sufficient room or direct warmth in an air fryer to provide one thing like naan bread. Examine the 2 makes an attempt under, and also you’ll see the far superior outcomes obtained on a forged iron skillet. Nonetheless, no less than the top end result was tasty.

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