Low Fat Air Fryers vs Other Hot Air Fryers

If you are new to hot air fryers or just interested in finding out more, welcome. If you already own one from one of the many air fryer brands out there, you may still find this site useful as there are several decent recipes and ideas that will help you make the most of your new kitchen aid. This could never be more so than if you are trying to cut down on the fats in your diet. Whether this is to lose weight or for other medical reasons (both apply to me!). So, you may have guessed, there are two types of air fryer – a combination more ‘standard’ type and then the low fat air fryers such as the Philips Air Fryer or the Tefal Actifry which are rapidly gaining a lot of support.

Where traditional deep fat fryers will require you to submerge the food in hot oil, air fryers circulate very hot air heated up to 200c to heat the food and provide a crispy outer layer. The air is pushed around the food, albeit chips, fish or chicken to brown them off making this type of frying a much healthier option. Food is cooked quickly and cleanly with handmade thin cut chips taking from as little as 12 minutes depending on the model and frozen oven ready French fries taking a little less time as they are partly cooked.

Philips Air Fryer

An air fryer is also useful for people who are nervous of traditional chip pans and fryers which are well known to be the start of many a fire in our homes (including my mother-in-law who walked off and forgot it resulting in a hefty insurance claim). In fact, there are around 12,000 chip pan fires every year in the UK alone and, as a direct result of these fires, about 50 people will die. They are also useful for people who find it difficult to grip pan handles or who tend to shake a lot, as they will not be involved in dealing with boiling fats.

Where the low fat air fryers differ is of course in that they use much less fat when cooking. This can be as much as over 80% less fat than conventional types of fryer require to cook and brown your food. In fact, if preparing your own fries, you can get the fat level down to 1.5% with some low fat air fryers. Although the jury may be out on that one, it’s not rocket science to realise that there is an enormous saving in terms of the amount of fat you put into your body!  It has been estimated that in the UK, where chips are particularly popular, that we get through approximately 240 thousand kilos of this type of hidden fat each and every year.

If you happen to be trying to lose weight, then chips and chocolate are probably high on your cravings list. Obviously, air fryers can’t do much about the chocolate side of things, but by their very nature, they can allow you to still eat ‘proper’ chips and deal with that particular craving. So, if you have a dislike for the cardboard taste of some oven chips, this may be your answer as manufacturer’s claim they taste just like the more fatty variety.

You can put fresh or frozen products in hot air fryers which of course work independently of any oven, so you can get a meal on rapidly if you’ve been out all day. A bonus for many!

NOTE.………..  And The Best News – The Tefal Actifry air fryer is NOW REDUCED TO £119 if you follow the links on this page for the Tefal ActiFry FZ700015 Low Fat Electric Fryer. The Philips AirFryer (pictured above) is currently priced at £138

NOTE………… For the United States ONLY, you can get this Tefal fryer by  CLICKING HERE. You also have an alternative, although not the Philips – this is with the Secura Infrared Convection Countertop TurboFry Low-Fat Fryer.

The Tefal Air Fryer

Enjoyed by more than three million households world-wide, the Tefal Air Fryer is claimed to be the best-selling air fryer in the UK. The ActiFry is a revolutionary product which allows you to enjoy tasty, traditional, home-cooked chips, but at the same time stay healthy and feel good about what you are eating.

The ActiFry is part of the Nutritious & Delicious range from Tefal, which aims to produce innovative products for people searching for healthier ways to cook, without compromising on taste.

Healthy, perfect chips with just three per cent fat. And The Best News – Looking to buy cheap Actifry? The Tefal ActiFry FZ700015 Low Fat Electric Fryer     Still heavily reduced and back to £149. Keep an eye on the Philips though, at £149+.  Trying to keep up but it seems these prices can fluctuate within days…. trying to keep up……….!

By using just one spoonful of oil, you can make one kilogram of golden, crispy home-made chips, which is enough to feed a family of four.

That one spoonful is 100 times less than a traditional deep fat fryer, which not only means that your food is substantially healthier, but cooking is also more economical and 100% safe.

Tefal Actifry UK

Simply load up to one kilogram of freshly-cut chips into the Tefal fryer, drop in a measure of your preferred oil using the spoon provided and set the timer, the ActiFry does the rest. Just wait for the timer to end and the alarm to sound.

The steam-free lid and viewing window means that you can always keep an eye on your food, although with the food being constantly, but gently stirred by the mixing arm, all you need to do is add you ingredients and let them cook.

The automatic lid opens at the push of a button for your convenience.
When opened, the ActiFry will automatically stop until you close the lid again. An easy grip handle means you can safely remove the pan and serve your food.

Once your food is cooked, the cover and pan can all be removed and are the necessary parts can be popped in to the dishwasher. The non-stick coating on the pan also means any leftover food comes off easily with no fuss. That’s everything you need to wash up taken care of quickly and simply. See above for the cheapest Tefal Actifry links.

The Tefal air fryer is endorsed by Ellie Krieger, MS, RD who is a registered dietician, New York Times Bestselling author, TV personality, and former professor at New York University’s Department of Nutrition and Food Studies. Ellie has created some recipes that are to be included in the recipe book that comes with the Actifry.

The Actifry does not seem as easily available for our friends in the United States, but if you are visiting from there, you can find at least one US specific model by  Clicking Here  for more details. You also have an alternative, although not the Philips – this is with the Secura Infrared Convection Countertop TurboFry Low-Fat Fryer.

In the meantime, watch how to prepare Chicken Tikka Masala in your Actifry air fryer below!

The Philips Air Fryer

The new Philips Air Fryer works using a unique combination of air circulation and a top grill known as Rapid Air Technology. What this does is to provide a uniform combination of heat and air to all areas of the food resulting in a dry crispy outside with a normally cooked inside. The current cheapest available price is £138 for the white finish Philips Viva Collection Airfryer HD9220/50  if you follow any links on this site  for this model. The black one is around £150 (currently £138 HERE!)  but this changes almost as fast as I get in and out of the shower in the morning so you may be lucky and get it for less!

Moving on, there have been claims that the Philips Air Fryer will work without oil, but to get any decent taste they have now admitted that you do need a little.

There is a food separator accessory for the Philips which means you can happily cook different foods at the same time. The air filter deals quite effectively with any smells which avoids your kitchen smelling like the local greasy spoon café.

Philips HD 9220/40 Viva Air Fryer

As for cleaning, the basket, divider and pan are all dishwasher safe. In addition if the you have the HD9225, you can put the baking tray in as well.

When in use, the outside of the fryer will mostly be just warm to the touch, but there are some external areas that will become quite hot. Obviously, the machine should be keep well away from little hands.

The recipe book even provides a way to bake muffins and brownies as well as the savoury recipes you would expect. While vegetables that can be grilled, such as zucchini, corncobs or peppers, can be prepared in the Air Fryer, those that need to be steamed or boiled such as broccoli, beans and carrots cannot. Pre-baked bread can be put in the fryer to crisp up fast, foods prepared for a barbeque and frozen foods defrosted all adding to the machine’s versatility.

Philips Air Fryer

To give you an idea of how long things take to cook let’s look at one of our favourites, chips!

If you are using frozen chips they will already have oil on them, so you don’t need any more. 300-700 grams of thin chips will take 12-16 minutes and thick frozen chips 12-20 minutes. 300-800 grams of home made skinny chips take 18-25 minutes while wedges will take 18-22 minutes. Don’t forget to add on the three minutes warming up time and the fact that you have to shake the basket half way through.

Where the Philips Air Fryer differs from the Tefal Actifry is that you can bake in it as well (although you can’t do stir fries). You can put pre-baked rolls etc., in the pan to brown off and make yourself some muffins which take 15-18 minutes. If you fancy a quiche this will take 20-22 minutes.  There’s a recipe for Risotto Balls HERE, watch out for more!