Since it’s essentially a small convection oven, the air fryer can cook many of the foods you might roast or bake with less fuss. The basket’s wire base helps food to cook evenly on all sides.

It’s true: Air frying turns out crispy fries, juicy chicken wings, and tender chicken cutlets, all with using a fraction of the oil that deep-frying requires. What’s even better, we found that air fryers are far more versatile than you might think. Our air fryer cookbook, Air Fryer Perfection, includes recipes for everything from side dishes like baked potatoes and green beans to full meals like roasted pork chops with butternut squash.

Unlike stovetop cooking, air frying requires virtually no monitoring, thanks to its well-regulated temperature and automatic shut-off. Other than the occasional flip or toss, it does all the work, allowing you to focus on the rest of the meal.

The enclosed basket of an air fryer translates to a clean kitchen—no splattering oil or multiple dirty pot and pans. Plus, the baskets are simple to clean—most are nonstick and dishwasher safe.

On busy nights when we must convince ourselves to cook (even America’s Test Kitchen’s test cooks feel this way at times), not having to turn on the stove can be a blessing. And on hot nights, the air fryer prevents our kitchen from becoming a steam room.

The air fryer lets us skip past the common first step in cooking—heating fat in a pan or heating the oven or grill. This was not only convenient but also shaves valuable time off of recipes.

The ability to crisp up a batch of chicken nuggets or a couple hand pies, or roast carrots, without embarking on a cooking project makes this a lifesaver for busy parents. We found that we could even create make-ahead freezer simple meals that could be crisped in the air fryer on a moment’s notice.

When it’s just the two of you eating (or you’re cooking solo) and you don’t want to make more than you need, the air fryer helps to prevent waste.

Cooking multiple dishes in the oven can be a juggling act. Hand a side dish over to the air fryer and free up valuable space.

All of the previous benefits would be null matter if the air fryer’s cooking were spotty, but throughout all of our testing and air fried recipe development, we continued to be surprised at how good the food tasted. The most common remark we heard at recipe tastings was, “I can’t believe this came from an air fryer!”