Cooking expert pits air fryer, oven & slow cooker against each other

WHILE air fryers may be the only thing foodies can talk about today, it often begs the question: are they cheaper than using your regular oven?

There's no doubt that they produce delicious foods in a matter of minutes, with options of chicken, steak, vegetables and cakes alike.

But with the cost of living crisis making people hold onto their wallets a little tighter, it's safe to say we’re all curious if air fryers help or hurt our monthly spending.

Now, Which? has pitted an air fryer, pressure cooker, slow cooker and halogen oven against an oven to find out, once and for all, what the cheapest method of cooking is.

They chose to test a range of different foods, including a whole chicken and chips.

Recording how long each dish took to cook, they also monitored how much electricity it used and how much it cost overall.

Finally, they checked the quality of food from each method. And the results were mind boggling.

Although the pressure cooker was the quickest at cooking the 1.3kg chicken (it was done in just 32 minutes) and 27p cheaper than the traditional oven, the air fryer was the overall winner of the experiment.

Compared to the oven, the air fryer cooked a "perfect roast chicken, and cost only 18p".

"This may not sound like much of a difference," the company explained, "but if you were to cook a roast chicken this way once a week for a year, this equates to a saving of nearly £11".

Despite this, if you were to cook a full roast dinner, the oven would most likely still be the cheapest option.

This is because while air fryer food can be cost-effective, this quickly changes when you batch cook several foods in one night.

Whereas, if you cooked chicken, chips and other foods for the roast dinner, you could utilise the vast space of the oven to your advantage.

Built-in electric oven: Bosch Series 2 HHF113B40B

Air fryer: Morphy Richards Health Air Fryer 480003

Slow cooker: Cookworks 6.5L Slow Cooker 699/2679

Pressure cooker: Ninja OL750UK Foodi Max 15-in-1 SmartLid Multi-Cooker

Halogen oven: TZS First Austria FA-5030-1

The slow cooker, as expected, took 180 minutes to cook and was only 8p cheaper than an oven.

Which? noted that while it cooked well, the skin was only slightly crispy.

And while many claim halogen ovens are cheap, the one they tested used a little more energy. Instead of making a saving, it cost 1p more to run than the oven.

The company also tested chips using the oven, air fryer and halogen oven.

Once again, the air fryer came out on top, but only if you’re not cooking large amounts of it.

It took only 23 minutes and was 19p cheaper than the oven. However, while the chips at the top cooked perfectly, the chips on the bottom were undercooked.

Overall, it appears the air fryer, if used to cook small batches of food, is cheaper and tastes good compared to other appliances.