- Air frying, steam cooking and steam frying in one unit
- 9.5L in MegaBasket or 3L + 6L in separate baskets
- It retails for £258.99 (approx $350 / AU$500)
If, like me, you cook for the family, you’ll know that deep fryers tend to involve a compromise: when it comes to capacity and flexibility, you can have one, but not both – so for example, my Ninja Foodi Max has two baskets that deliver a combined 9.5L cooking capacity and multiple modes, but neither basket is big enough for me to fry a really big chicken. Philips’ solution is what it calls the MegaBasket.
The MegaBasket makes its debut in the Philips Airfryer 5000 Series MegaBasket, which gives you a choice: you can use the single MegaBasket to get 9.5 L of cooking capacity or use divided baskets of 3L and 6L respectively.
The 5000 series also solves another airfryer annoyance: cleaning. Because this stove has a steam function, you can have it steam clean itself.
Philips MegaBasket Air Fryer: Key Features and Price
The Airfryer 500 Series MegaBasket has three types of cooking: air frying, steam cooking and what Philips calls SteamFry. It combines air frying and steam cooking to keep your food nice and juicy in the middle, while the air fryer crisps the outside. It is especially practical for food such as chicken breasts, which can get terribly dry in a normal fryer if you don’t marinate them for a good while first. It also helps vegetables retain their nutrients.
Steam offers another key advantage: it’s brilliant for reheating last night’s Chinese takeaway, Indian curry or deep-fried pizza (I’m in Scotland) without drying it out. As someone who tends to over-order from the chippy and have leftovers the following day, that’s enough to sell me the Philips, and to separate it from the Ninja Foodi FlexDrawer, which has a slightly larger capacity but lacks the steam function.
This isn’t the biggest air fryer you can buy – the aforementioned Ninja has 2 x 5.2L or 1 x 10.4L capacity – but the combination of air fryer, capacity, steam and a small footprint – the Philips is just 49.6 x 32.9 x 35.5cm – makes this a great family meal and appeal.
The Philips Airfryer 5000 Series MegaBasket with Steam is priced at £258.99 (approx $350 / AU$500) and is available from Amazon UK now.
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