For crispier results than a microwave
Plus: Tame your to-do list
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The Recommendation

September 4, 2025

Our new favorite air fryer is “a breath of fresh air”

Our pick for best air fryer overall, the Ninja Air Fryer Pro.
Michael Murtaugh/NYT Wirecutter

Many air fryers out there are bulky eyesores with a bevy of unnecessary and complicated interfaces. Don’t even get us started on ones with touchscreens that are bound to get smeared with greasy fingerprints.

Which is why, in our latest round of testing, our kitchen experts were so delighted by this minimal, compact cooker. Our new favorite air fryer is pared down in the best way: It has just a handful of physical buttons (and blessedly no touchscreen), it’s easy to use, and it’s an excellent sous chef — with zero preheating required.

In our tests, it made the most crisp-on-the-outside, creamy-on-the-inside French fries. And it crisped up chicken to such a lovely golden brown, one tester remarked: “Now this is how you want an air-fried chicken wing to look.”

For crispier results than a microwave→

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Dana Davis/NYT Wirecutter, Michael Murtaugh/NYT Wirecutter and June Oh/NYT Wirecutter

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Thanks for reading.

You can reach the Wirecutter Newsletters team at newsletters@wirecutter.com. We can’t always respond, but we do love to hear from you.

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