The old air fryer lives in Denton now. I handed it to my mom on Saturday, and by Saturday night she'd texted me a picture of two salmon fillets in it with the caption "perfect size." She's right. A 4-quart air fryer is perfect for two people. It was never going to be perfect for five.
What the 4-quart couldn't do
We bought a 4-quart Cosori in 2021, when Wyatt was six, Eli was two and Rosie wasn't on anybody's calendar yet. It made great chicken strips for three or four people. Then Wyatt became a kid who eats six chicken strips and asks what's next, Rosie arrived, and the basket stayed the same size.
When I wrote about our Lent fish tacos in April, I mentioned that it held four pollock fillets at a time, and that three batches later the first batch was cold. That's the whole problem in one sentence. A small air fryer turns dinner for five into a relay race, and on a weeknight I'd rather just use the oven.
Why before summer
Our kitchen is open to the living room, and when the oven runs at 400°F for an hour in July, the whole area feels it. We keep the thermostat at 76 during summer days, and on oven nights last summer the AC ran without a break from late afternoon until bedtime. I want to cook less in the oven from June through September, and for that I needed something that could make a whole dinner, not one part of it.
I'm curious what each of our appliances costs to run, too, and I'd like to measure that this summer. For now, this decision was about capacity and a cooler kitchen.
What I compared
I looked at big single-basket models in the 6- to 8-quart range and at dual-basket ones. Here's what decided it:
- Two baskets, two foods. Eli's plain chicken strips in one basket, seasoned potatoes or broccoli for everybody else in the other. Nothing touches. In this house that rule carries more weight than any feature on the box.
- Finishing together. The Ninja Foodi DualZone can start the baskets at different times so they finish at the same moment. On the line we'd time a ticket so every plate hit the window together; here it means the fries aren't sitting there getting soft while the chicken catches up.
- Counter space. It's a little under 16 inches wide, and I measured the spot next to the coffee maker twice. It fits with about an inch to spare.
- Price. It's regularly $199. I'd seen it at $169 and kept waiting. On May 2 it went to $139, and that's when I bought it.
The downsides I knew going in: it's wide, and two baskets means two things to wash. Each basket is 4 quarts, so a whole chicken or a pork shoulder won't fit. And it's nonstick, which means it won't last like my cast-iron skillet. The baskets are dishwasher-safe, but I'm hand-washing them anyway in hopes of stretching the coating's life.
The money was a real decision, too. $139 is more than half a week of groceries for us. I justified it partly with the $60 sale discount and partly because it should let us skip the oven most of the summer. Whether that saves anything on the electric bill is still an open question, and I'll report back with numbers rather than hopes.
The first three days
Friday night: chicken strips in one basket, fries in the other, both done at the same moment. Eli looked at me like I'd pulled a quarter out of his ear. Saturday, Matt grilled burgers on the kettle and the air fryer did tater tots and a basket of broccoli at the same time, and nobody had to stand at the oven. Sunday morning I tried bacon. The kitchen smelled wonderful until the smoke alarm went off. Next time it's a lower temperature and a splash of water in the drawer underneath, and Biscuit can come back out from under the table.
Three days doesn't tell me much yet. I'll write again once it has made it through a Dallas summer and I know what it really cooks week to week. The Cosori, meanwhile, is cooking for two again, which is what it was always good at.
