- Air frying, steam cooking and steam frying in one device
- 9.5L in the MegaBasket or 3L + 6L in separate baskets
- It's on sale for £258.99 (about $350 / AU$500)
If like me you cook for the family, you'll know that air 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 delivering a combined 9.5L of cooking capacity and multiple modes, but neither basket is big enough for me to roast a really big chicken. Philips' solution is what it calls the MegaBasket.
The MegaBasket is making its debut in the Philips Airfryer 5000 Series MegaBasket, which gives you a choice: you can use the single MegaBasket to get 9.5L of cooking capacity, or use split baskets of 3L and 6L respectively.
The 5000 Series also addresses another air fryer irritation: cleaning. Because this cooker has a steam function, you can get it to steam clean itself.
Philips MegaBasket air fryer: key features and price
The Airfryer 500 Series MegaBasket has three kinds of cooking: air frying, steam cooking, and what Philips calls SteamFry. That combines air frying and steam cooking to keep your food nice and juicy in the middle while the air fryer crisps the outside. It's particularly handy for food such as chicken breasts, which can get awfully dry in a normal air fryer if you don't marinade them for a good while first. It also helps vegetables retain their nutrients.
Steam offers another important benefit: it's brilliant for reheating last night's Chinese takeway, 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 the Philips to me, and to differentiate it from the Ninja Foodi FlexDrawer, which has 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 frying, capacity, steam and a small footprint – the Philips is just 49.6 x 32.9 x 35.5cm — makes this look awfully attractive for family meals and entertaining alike.
The Philips Airfryer 5000 Series MegaBasket with Steam has a price of £258.99 (about $350 / AU$500) and it's available from Amazon UK now.
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