After a lazy Sunday of watching TV at my parents’ house and noticing that my parents were actually interested in this product from a random infomercial, I recently purchased a Power AirFryer XL from Bed, Bath & Beyond. I figured I’d buy my own and if I liked it, they’d buy one for themselves.

The Power AirFryer comes in three sizes: 5.3 quart, 3.4 quart, and 2.4 quart. I bought the latter; I didn’t want a behemoth fryer taking up precious real estate on my kitchen counter if I felt this would be something I’d frequently use to cook up my beloved tater tots.

Unpacking this thing was a breeze – it basically looks like a big egg that can stand up by itself. I favor appliances and electronics that are just plug-and-play, but because I’m inexperienced in operating any kind of deep fryer, and I don’t want to potentially burn down my apartment, I went through the instruction manual before using my AirFryer for the first time. Even if an infomercial makes using a product look relatively fool-proof, it never hurts to check the manual.

Operating the Power AirFryer is pretty simple, I’ll give the infomercial that. I just had to make sure that I left enough space around the perimeter of the fryer to allow for proper ventilation. One thing that that is emphasized constantly, whether in the manual or on the website, is to NEVER PUSH THE RED BUTTON WHEN REMOVING THE FRY BASKET FROM THE FRYER. There is an inner fry basket, and an outer one, and pushing that red button separates them. You don’t want to do that until you’ve completely removed the entire fry basket from the fryer and set it on an even surface that can stand hot temperature.

Before cooking anything in the fryer though, I wanted to get used to removing and replacing the fry basket, and then separating the two with ease, just like in the informercials. I also had to clean both before the first use, so I HAD to separate them. I’m not sure if anyone who has this product ever experienced this, but I had trouble separating the inner fry basket from the outer. I checked online reviews, and I didn’t see anyone writing about having difficulty. The sites FAQ page mentioned that once you do actually push the red button, the two baskets separate immediately. Um, false. At least for me. I kept pushing this darn red button so fervently that I could feel sweat beads forming at the top of my forehead.

WHAT THE HELL? I checked the product site again. Wait, what? One user wrote in that her 10 and 13 years olds use their AirFryer all the time?! Great, now I feel more lame. But I became determined, not only because kids were able to use this easily, but because I wanted this purchase to work out and I most definitely didn’t want to have to pack it up and return it. Especially when I tore through some of the packaging material.

I’m sweating just thinking about how no matter how hard I pushed that red button, the inner fry basket wouldn’t detach. Do I lift? Do I pull? BOTH?! It doesn’t say!! Finally I looked for a quick instructional video on YouTube and after that, it’s a miracle! The inner basket came off! But the victory would be short lived because I had to attach them back together in order for the fryer to work.

The first thing I wanted to try with my new AirFryer was fried chicken. I had already prepped some chicken thighs – bone in, skin on – dredged in just a light coating of flour. The 2.4 quart has space for about 3-4 chicken thighs. I put in four. I didn’t stack them to ensure that the fryer cooks them thoroughly all around. I put them in the basket and slid the basket into the fryer.

The cook screen is super sensitive to the touch. You can choose between preset time and temperatures (represented by images of fries, chicken, steak, etc), or manually choose the time and temperature yourself. I scrolled between the presets a couple times, and left it on the “fries” preset to quickly refer to the manual about something, and by the time I came back (I hadn’t stepped away for more than five seconds), the fryer began cooking my chicken using the “fries” preset. I immediately pushed “power” to stop – and whenever you do push power, it takes 20 seconds for the cooling fan to do its thing, then shuts off. I waited a bit before starting again, this time using the correct “chicken” preset.

My chicken was set to cook for twenty minutes, but I could already smell them “frying” after only five. When the time was up, I put on some oven mitts (because I was warned that the entire unit would be hot), pulled the air basket and set it on a trivet to cool for a minute. Then I removed the chicken from the basket, pleased to hear the slight clinking of my tongs against crispy skin. It smelled like ultimate comfort food. I tried picking up the chicken with my hands to check inside, just like they would in the infomercial, but the chicken was too hot, so I used my tongs to see just how crispy they were.

They looked great. They smelled great. They sounded great. But how did the chicken taste? I let them cool a little bit longer for fear of burning my mouth. In those few minutes, I surveyed the fry basket. Do I need to wash this after every single use? (Pain.) On the infomercial, it looks like you could just wipe the inner basket clean with a damp towel, which is nice so you could use it immediately to cook something else. But part of me wondered about cross-contamination if going from chicken to something like french fries or whatever, so I think as nice as “just wipe it clean” sounds, I would probably wash both the inner and outer basket between immediate uses, especially if cooking different foods. After a few more failed attempts at separating the inner and outer baskets by pushing the red button (and remember, both are still hot so I’m fighting this thing using oven mitts), I successfully lifted the inner basket away. The outer basket contained a lot of chicken grease that had dripped from the inner basket. Therein lies the “guilt.”

I almost forgot about the actual chicken. It had been at least twenty minutes since they had finished cooking (yes I struggled that long with removing the inner basket from the outer, don’t judge me!), so I sat down to eat. THE CHICKEN WAS STILL HOT. I thought for sure the crispiness would’ve disappeared, but when I took a bite, I heard and tasted the crispiest, juiciest, most tender homemade fried chicken I’ve ever had. IT WAS DELICIOUS! And it was cooked throughout! This was the best fried chicken I had ever made, even better than the last time I fried chicken on my stovetop (which by the way, resulted in some bland tasting chicken).

A few days later, I tried making a burger and fries. Apparently you could cook two different items at once using a divider that comes with the fryer, but I didn’t want to try that. What I did want to try was cooking frozen foods without defrosting them (which apparently, you can also do). I cooked the burger first:

I cooked the burger for fifteen minutes, then rinsed and wiped the burger grease clean using three paper towels. I have a feeling I’ll be using a lot of paper towels with this appliance, which is a downside for me. There was a lot of grease left, which was great to catch. However when I ate the burger, I didn’t feel the same jubilation as I did when I ate the fried chicken. The burger didn’t have much umph to it, and kinda tasted boring.

I think I’ll stick to cooking my burgers on the stovetop. Next up to try were frozen fries, which cooked for eighteen minutes at a higher temperature, using the “fries” preset:

The fries unfortunately turned out a little burnt, but definitely better and quicker than trying to bake them in the oven or deep fry them on the stove. With fries, I think I’ll need to figure out the right time and temperature by trial and error before I reach the crispy, golden goal.

I also tried cooking frozen tater tots (sorry, no pictures or video because I completely forgot to document the process, was really hungry). Instead of using one of the presets to cook a dozen of them, I entered in a temperature of 360 degrees with a cook time of ten minutes, pulling the basket out after five minutes to give them a shake. I was really, really hoping to get the tater tot taste that I miss from my college dining hall, but they ended up tasting with the same crispiness and taste as they do when I cook them in my toaster oven. That’s a bit disappointing, but perhaps also requires more trial and error. Conclusion? Potatoes might be a challenge with this AirFryer. Frozen potatoes at that.

So overall, I’m pretty happy with this purchase. I do still have trouble detaching the baskets using the red button, but am actually practicing and getting quicker with it. I’m sure over time it won’t be a problem. I like that using the Power AirFryer XL is carefree cooking; I’m not worried about anything splattering or popping like I do with the stovetop method. Cleanup is pretty easy, the fry basket is non-stick, with the inner basket being dishwasher safe (although the outer basket is not dishwasher safe, you have to clean by hand).

There are plenty of other foods I could try cooking using this thing. I’m currently entertaining the idea of making biscuits with it. I’d love to try using it to bake a small cake or quiche, but I don’t have a baking pan small enough to fit in the fry basket. An appropriately sized cake pan would’ve been a nice accessory to include, but there isn’t one. I’ve also tried searching online to see if other users have used foil in lieu of a pan, but have yet to find anything.

For cooking for one, the 2.4 quart size is just right. For 2-4 people, the 3.4 quart would be ideal, and of course, the 5.3 quart is the largest you can get when cooking for more than four people. It sounds like a quiet portable fan when in use, so it’s not too loud, although when the food is done, there is a series of loud beeps. The unit comes in black or red, but I wouldn’t be surprised if growing popularity and success causes the makers of the Power AirFryer XL to launch an updated line with trendy colors.

It definitely does feel guilt free when you see the amount of grease separated from your food after cooking. But of course, I highly advise (and I laugh as I’m typing this because it’ll be hard to follow my own advice) good portion control when it comes to using ANY air fryer. You know, moderation and what not.

To sum up, when you see this infomercial on TV – they aren’t lying!