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From fries and chips to chicken, these are the best deep fryers for perfectly crispy results. commercial induction cooking range
There are few things as delicious as biting into a shatteringly crisp potato chip or French fry hot out of the bubbling oil, but for most home cooks, that's an infrequent pleasure. Deep-frying is one of those techniques we usually leave to restaurants. It's a bit of a project. It can be time-consuming, messy, and liable to cause spatter burns. But it doesn't have to be.
Modern deep fryers are easier to use than ever. Some of the best deep fryers have digital displays, timers, baskets, and overheating alarms that practically automate the process. We tested 22 deep fryers from top-rated brands including All-Clad, Breville, and Hamilton Beach by deep-frying everything from French fries and chicken tenders to whole turkeys.
This machine heats fast, setup is easy, and its cooking presets are very useful.
It cooked frozen French fries somewhat unevenly, and the manual timer is unintuitive.
Whether you're a deep-frying beginner or a disciple of the crispy crunch, Breville's Smart Fryer is a great choice. It's simple to set up and use, and we love that its control panel displays the current oil temperature and time remaining to reach the target. There's an emergency shutoff in case the machine senses too low a level of oil, or if it heats above 410°F; we're not trying to risk a burn for delicious fried foods.
In testing, the Smart Fryer dominated the competition in heating, bringing its full gallon of oil to 300°F in 6 minutes — that's 3 minutes faster than even second place. It made crunchy potato chips and crisp, juicy chicken fingers, though it didn't do quite as well with frozen French fries at 375°F, near the top of its temperature range. Some fries came out perfectly, while others were a bit greasy and underdone.
The Breville's cooking programs are useful and effective, with fresh and frozen settings for common foods like fries, wings, fish, and donuts. Strangely enough, we had the most trouble setting the basic manual timer. It's more confusing to use than the presets, but once you read the manual a couple of times you'll figure it out. It's not the largest machine on the market, but the Smart Fryer has more than enough capacity for a family of four, and we'd recommend it for most kitchens' deep-frying needs.
Dimensions: 16 x 10 x 11 inches | Capacity: 4 quarts | Power: 1,800 watts | Temperature range: 140 - 385°F
Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore
Food and Wine / Russel Kilgore
Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore
This machine delivered top-notch results at a bottom-level price.
It was slow to recover heat after adding food, especially at low temperature.
It may have bare-bones controls and a budget price, but Hamilton Beach's fryer is well-designed and simple to use. All you have to do is set the temperature knob and wait for the light to turn green, and you're good to go. It was one of the fastest-heating machines in testing, and the frozen chicken fingers and French fries both came out delicious. With fresh potato slices at a lower cooking temperature, it was very slow to recover temperature and delivered rather greasy chips.
You get a lot of machine for your money here, as the Hamilton Beach has a 4.7-quart capacity and offers three separate baskets — a full-size one and a pair of half-sized baskets so you can fry two different items at once.
Dimensions: 11 x 13 x 15 inches | Capacity: 4.7 quarts | Power: 1,800 watts | Temperature range: 265 - 375°F
Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore
Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore
Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore
Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore
An automatic oil-filtration system makes this beginner-friendly fryer a breeze to clean up.
It's expensive, especially given its small capacity.
The least enjoyable part of deep-frying is cleanup, but this All-Clad fryer makes the process less unpleasant. All you have to do is turn a handle to drain the oil through an internal filtration system into a removable box for future reuse (and eventual disposal). Everything but the heating element is removable and dishwasher-safe. Plus, the mirror-shiny finish keeps fingerprints at bay and stands out on the counter.
In testing, the All-Clad did best with chicken fingers, which came out crunchy and near-perfect. But its comparatively small capacity didn't offer as much room for multiple items to swirl around in the oil. Potato chips and fries clumped together and cook unevenly; you'll want to make small batches. It wasn't quite as fast to heat as other fryers, though it did so accurately.
The All-Clad is a good compact fryer for all skill levels, with a lot of user-friendly features, but its price is high. It's the second-most-expensive indoor fryer we tested, and it's also the smallest. If capacity and cost are less important than performance and aesthetics, it could be a good choice.
Dimensions: 17 x 10 x 14 inches | Capacity: 3.5 quarts | Power: 1,700 watts | Temperature range: Up to 385°F
Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore
Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore
Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore
An integrated oil spout and fully dishwasher-safe parts allow you to set up and clean up quickly.
It takes a long time to heat up and performed especially poorly with potato chips.
Similar to the All-Clad above, the DeLonghi Livenza has a built-in way to drain oil when you're done frying. But this model is significantly larger and a little cheaper. A simple filter/spigot hides behind the door in front, and then it and most of the other pieces come apart to go in the dishwasher. There's next to no scrubbing or spilling to worry about.
A unique benefit of the Livenza is its lard setting, which provides gentler heat to keep animal fats from burning. You can add incredible flavor by frying in lard, tallow, duck or chicken fat, or ghee (AKA clarified butter), and this setting ensures better results than most competitors can offer.
This fryer earned lots of points for cleanup and versatility, and it did a pretty good job with both chicken tenders and French fries. However, it took a long time to heat up and didn't maintain temperature well when we added fresh potato slices. Our chips came out limp and stuck together.
Dimensions: 18 x 11 x 12.5 inches | Capacity: 4.8 quarts | Power: 1,800 watts | Temperature range: 248 - 374°F
Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore
The Breville Smart Fryer is our standout choice for its capacity, ease of use, and effective presets. If you're looking for a no-frills workhorse under $100, the Hamilton Beach Professional-Style Deep Fryer is an excellent option for cooks of all skill levels.
We chose a total of 22 deep fryers to test side-by-side in our lab, including 16 indoor models and 6 outdoor turkey fryers. (One of the indoor fryers was also large enough to handle a turkey.) We evaluated the design and setup as we assembled each fryer, and then performed a series of identical tests.
When we finished the tests above, we revealed the retail prices of the fryers to consider value for money. At the time of testing, the indoor fryers ranged from $27 to $299, with an average of $110. The outdoor models ranged from $70 to $289, with an average of $134.
Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore
The indoor fryers we tested can hold anywhere from a single quart to more than a gallon of oil. More oil means you can fit more food at once, and a larger amount of oil will also hold its temperature better during the cooking process. On the other hand, oil is expensive and you don't need a huge machine to fry a single serving at once. For best results, you want whatever you're frying to have enough room to float freely without individual pieces sticking together.
It's also important never to overfill your fryer! Check the manual for details about proper oil fill levels and how much food can go in at once. (If you're frying a turkey, you should do a test run using water to determine the exact correct amount of oil; turkey-fryer overflow can cause a serious fire.)
Deep-frying requires extra care in the kitchen: A vat full of hot oil is no joke, and you want to be sure that you're set up for safety — especially if you're a beginner. Many deep fryers have magnetic cords that automatically disengage when something yanks them to prevent accidentally tipping over. Handles and exteriors are often heat-resistant, and there are also commonly sensors that cut off the heat if it gets too high or if the oil level gets too low. Lids that cover that oil during cooking can be helpful, especially if they have a clear lid to let you observe your food. However, some of these are difficult to open and close, and others are poorly ventilated and can trap and condense steam to cause spatters.
Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore
If you fry many different things frequently, you might want a unit with more bells and whistles. Fancier fryers not only let you set a temperature and timers but also have preset programs designed for specific foods, plus a screen that displays all the info you need. Simpler ones have an on switch and...not much else. Multiple baskets can also be helpful for multi-course meals (or a house with picky eaters). These let you remove one batch from the oil while another continues cooking — and ensures that the fish folks and chicken folks don't have to have their proteins mingling.
Working with oil is always going to be messy, so finding a fryer that helps to mitigate excessive scrubbing is important. The worst part of cleanup is usually getting the oil and crumbs out of the machine; a few models have a drainage spigot and filter, while many others have a removable oil bowl you have to dump out on your own. The more pieces that disassemble, and the more of them that are dishwasher-safe, the easier it is to clean your machine.
One part of an indoor deep fryer that is usually the most complicated to clean is the heating element. This part is submerged in oil during cooking, but it's also connected to a plug and has to stay away from being submerged in water. Check your machine's instructions for the exact procedure, but you'll generally have to wipe this piece down with a soapy cloth or sponge, then rinse and dry carefully.
"How long you fry depends on the temperature of the oil and the weight of the food," says Gabrielle Littleton, a fourth-generation restaurateur in Chicago. "The sweet spot for frying most foods is typically between 350 and 375 degrees. Some foods should be blanched at a lower temp and fried at a higher temp. French fries are typically blanched low, at like 250 degrees, and then cranked to 375 degrees, or in some instances higher.
A good rule of thumb is to look for crispy golden brown. The minute black edges start forming you should pull the food and take its temperature; you can always finish in the oven if need be. It's very important for meats like chicken that the internal temp is 165 degrees, and it should be measured with a meat thermometer."
"I am a big fan of using tallow," Littleton says. "Animal fats that come in a solid state are easy to use and are more stable at high heat. Commercial blended fry oils like clear liquid shortening, soybean oil, canola oil, corn oil, or other high-performance oils are full of trans fat or polyunsaturated fats, which can oxidize and create harmful compounds in a fryer. Olive oil has a low smoke point and is not recommended for a deep fryer." If you don't want to use animal fats, look for a vegetable oil with a high smoke point, like peanut, grapeseed, or avocado.
Yes, absolutely! When you're done frying, let the oil cool down and filter out any solid bits with cheesecloth or a coffee filter, then store it in a sealed container until next time. You can reuse a batch of oil at least three or four times; stop using it if it gets very dark in color, starts to smell fishy or rancid, or smokes at normal frying temperatures.
You should never pour large amounts of oil down the sink. This can clog and damage pipes, not just in your home but for the whole sewer system. Instead, let the oil cool, seal it in a disposable container, and throw it in the garbage. Another option is to use a product like FryAway, which stirs into oil and turns it into a solid that you can dump into a trash can. Some municipalities also have recycling programs that let you drop off used cooking oil to be turned into fuel; check your city or county website for local details.
*Editor's note: The Cuisinart CDF-500 Extra-Large Rotisserie Deep Fryer was previously on our list as the best large-capacity deep fryer. It has been discontinued and is no longer available.
Presto FryDaddy Deep Fryer (Amazon)
An icon since 1977, this tiny fryer stood out in testing for its quick heating, overall heat retention, and low price. It is no-frills, however, with no internal thermometer or ability to adjust the frying temperature. It does the basics well at an extremely low price, but it's very small and pretty tough to clean.
Presto Dual Basket ProFry (Amazon)
Presto's larger model is still impressively inexpensive, and it includes dual baskets for frying two foods at once. It took a long time to heat up, though, and all of our test foods came out a little greasy. Plus, none of the parts are dishwasher-safe. There are simply better basic machines in the same price range.
Cuisinart 4-Quart Deep Fryer (Amazon)
Where many of the other models we tested fought to maintain or recover temperature, the Cuisinart retains heat possibly too well, racing past the desired temperature in our tests. An experienced cook with an accurate thermometer would have no problems adjusting to the temperature variations, but this is otherwise a very standard machine at a somewhat below-average price.
The strongest feature of the T-fal is its automatic oil filtration and storage setup, something usually found only in more expensive machines. Its major downfall is the thermostat calibration; it ran several degrees cooler than it claimed to. It was never able to reach the 375°F needed to make frozen French fries.
Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore
4 zone hob The main problem we found with poorly performing machines was lack of power: They simply didn't heat the oil quickly enough to keep food from winding up limp and greasy rather than crisp and crunchy. Many models include a lid to help hold in heat, but some of these caused an additional issue by trapping steam that dripped back into the oil and caused spatters. Cleaning was another important consideration: A few models had okay cooking performance but were pushed off the list for being a huge pain to disassemble and scrub.