Straight to the Point
The deep-fryer that delivered the best experience in terms of usage, clean-up, and efficient, successful frying was the All-Clad 3.5-Quart Deep Fryer. However, given its reasonable price tag, we would also be happily frying at home with the Chefman 4.5-Liter Deep Fryer.
There’s nothing quite like a chicken wing pulled straight out of the fryer, when the battered exterior is golden and crunchy, and the interior is steaming and tender. “A fryer provides a really consistent, dry cooking method that makes things crispy and also keeps proteins moist,” says chef Ricky Arias of Manhattan’s Bar Lula. Sure, you can achieve that effect with a couple of quarts of oil heated until sizzling in your Dutch oven on your stove. But there’s good reason to introduce an electric deep fryer to your home kitchen to accomplish this specialty job.
“I use deep fryers over Dutch ovens for capacity and control,” says chef Shannon Bingham of New Orlean’s Devil Moon BBQ. “With a good fryer, I don’t have to worry about hot spots or constantly having to futz around with the flame on the stove as I would with a Dutch oven.” With its lid, handled basket, and built-in thermometer, an electric deep fryer has one job to do: fry things correctly. It frees up your other cookware, preserving it for the braising, roasting, and sautéing you probably do far more frequently.
If you get the right fryer, it’s a lot of fun to use; you’ll feel like a short-order cook, dropping the basket in and watching your French fries bubble to perfection. And with a design that allows you to fry with the lid closed and then hook the basket onto the side, so that the excess oil can drip from the fresh-fried food back into the container, it helps keep your kitchen cleaner than it would be when you’re frying in an all-purpose pot.
In fact, the key to successful frying is cleanliness. As Bingham advises, “Be sure to filter your oil after every use to get more longevity out of it and remove any bitter burnt pieces leftover.” As it turns out, our favorite model made filtering the oil and cleaning the machine the easiest.
The Competition
- Breville Smart Fryer: This compact fryer took a long time to heat up, and then our external thermometers temperature careened upwards, as the fryer heated to far greater than its dial was set for. That’s a scary scenario. Also, the heating unit is pre-programmed, and changing the temperature and time from those settings is not intuitive.
- Cuisinart Extra-Large Rotisserie Deep Fryer: Not only does this model guzzle oil and time, taking too long to come up to proper temperature, but this huge, unwieldy fryer has some design problems that make safety an issue. The basket has sharp metal parts. The container does not sit flush on a counter or fit in the average home kitchen sink. And the plastic tube that attaches to the drain spout is ill-fitting and falls off easily. All of that makes it difficult, and potentially dangerous, to drain and clean. The rotisserie attachment might be nice for deep-fried turkey aficionados, but that doesn’t make up for its shortcomings.
- De’Longhi Livenza Deep Fryer: We liked the snug lid, the LED display, and the drain spout on this unit. Unlike the Cuisinart, the spout did not require an external tube for draining, and that made the task fairly easy. But, the temperature settings only allow for 9-degree increments in Fahrenheit, so programming it for exactly 350°F or 375°F is impossible.
- Secura Triple-Basket Deep Fryer: This unit looks nearly identical to the Chefman, but the difference is in the heating unit. The Secura’s took a ridiculously long time to come up to temperature—so long, in fact, that were we not testing but, instead, trying to fry for our culinary pleasure, we would have abandoned it long before it heated and ordered out instead for our fries!
The Best Electric Deep Fryer for Frying at Home
FAQ
Is an electric deep fryer better?
Is propane or electric deep fryer better?
Is it worth having a deep fryer at home?
Does a deep fryer use a lot of electricity?
Are electric deep fryers better?
Though you can deep fry in a heavy-bottomed pot on the stove, electric deep fryers are simpler to use and allow for hands-off temperature regulation. Consistent temps translate directly to golden brown, crispy and even cooking from batch to batch of chicken, french fries or donuts.
Which deep fryer is best?
The FryDaddy is a fan favorite: It’s currently the best-selling deep fryer on Amazon, and it’s easy to store with its minimalist design. It holds up to 4 cups of oil and can fry up to 4 cups of food. It has no controls — you simply plug it in and wait for it to come to temperature.
How much does a deep fryer cost?
Countertop deep fryers generally cost between $50 and $200, with the more expensive models featuring the aforementioned built-in oil filtration system. We considered whether the pricier models could justify their higher prices.
Is deep frying a good idea?
Deep-frying food is a unique thrill as a home cook, and an undeniable delight as an eater. With apologies to even the best air fryers, there just isn’t any other way to cook food that can achieve what a vat of hot oil can in terms of textural contrast.