Jared DiPane/CNET
If there’s one kitchen gadget I can’t live without anymore it’s my air fryer. We’ve been using them for a few years now and have always liked it more than the Instant Pot for what we prefer to cook. The problem with using air fryers daily is that you quickly learn their flaws and some of them just can’t withstand the test of time. I’ve spent a lot of time looking around for air fryer recommendations, but the one that we ended up trying out is not one we see on many best air fryer lists, but it’s been our favorite to date.
A few years back I picked up the Bella 8-quart air fryer from Best Buy when it was on sale and right now you can score one for just $50 — which is less than I paid — making it an absolute no-brainer, considering it usually sells for over $100. This is definitely one of the best Black Friday air fryer deals.
We’re a family of four, which means that we need to cook a decent amount of food for meals to feed everyone and no one has the patience to wait around for it to cook in batches. This Bella air fryer has an 8-quart capacity, which is large enough for a bunch of chicken strips, a whole turkey breast, tons of french fries or broccoli, and plenty of other stuff. We’ve yet to try to cook something inside of it that didn’t fit — including small frozen pizzas, which is so awesome.
There’s a preheat function to get it warmed up before you start cooking and it has nine other presets available for cooking things like meat, shrimp, fish, bacon and other goodies. You can set the temperature and time using the touch panel on the front with ease. One underrated feature of this model is just how easy it is to clean. We’ve yet to have anything stick to the bottom that required extensive scrubbing to remove, and in fact we’ve recently learned a new trick that’s made cleaning it even easier.
When you’re done cooking, put in a squirt of soap, cover the bottom rack with water, and set it to 400 degrees for two to three minutes. All the tough messes cook off and then you can wash it out and you’re ready to put it away.
Air fryers can be a bit ugly, honestly. Some of them look futuristic, some of them are overly colorful, but this model looks like a proper kitchen appliance with its stainless steel and black exterior.
We already own one of these and a smaller air fryer that we got as a gift, but this Black Friday sale is enough to push me over the edge to order a second one of these to have around instead of the smaller one. I’ve also recommended it to my parents and friends, who have bought it and are already loving it. If you are in the market for an air fryer and want something that looks nice and works really well, this is the option to consider this Black Friday.