The Best Deep Fryer | Reviews by Wirecutter

A deep fryer is not a complicated appliance. It’s essentially a large tub for oil with a heating element submerged in it, which is regulated by an adjustable thermostat. So in choosing which models to test, we were only looking for a few straightforward requirements:

Generous capacity: We preferred fryers with a 4-quart oil capacity, which allows you to fry about two or three servings of food at once rather than having to cook several small batches.

We also learned in our testing that the shape of a fryer is just as important as its capacity. A fryer that is wider versus taller means the oil level will be lower, and often too shallow to fully cover the food when frying.

Large frying baskets: Most 4-quart models come with an option of either one or three (one large and two small) frying baskets. Two small baskets allow you to keep different foods separate while frying at the same time, but we don’t think that’s necessary. If one item finishes cooking before the other, you can use tongs to remove it.

The smaller baskets we tried were too cramped, especially for battered onion rings, which clumped together in our tests. The extra baskets also increase the total price of the machine and take up space in a cupboard.

Accurate thermostat: A good deep fryer will have a thermostat adjustable from 300 °F to 375 °F, which is the temperature range you’ll fry at most often. How quickly the oil heats up depends on the capacity of the unit and the temperature of the oil, but in our tests, it took an average of 13 minutes for 4 quarts of room-temperature oil to reach 375 °F.

We looked for fryers that could consistently reach at least the set temperature, and ideally go a little bit past it, since the temperature drops when you add food to the oil. But many of the models we tested were incapable of reaching 375 °F, even when set to that temperature.

As chef Joseph Simon explained, you’ll get better results if the oil stays hot: “Deep-frying really isn’t that unhealthy. But if the temperature is below what it should be, depending on what you’re cooking, the product can soak in more oil.”

Since it’s normal for the temperature to dip when adding food to the oil, we wanted to find models that had a quick recovery time. However, we found that the temperature of the oil in most models dropped between 50 and 125 degrees after adding frozen french fries, and kept dropping for the next three minutes or so before slowly working its way back up to the preheated temperature.

Spoiler alert: A pot of oil on the stove had the quickest recovery time than any of the fryers we tested.

Simple controls: Most deep fryers have a simple dial control to adjust the temperature, while others have digital controls. Some fryers also feature an old-school wind-up 30- or 60-minute timer that dings pleasantly when the time is up (digital models usually have beeping timers).

A timer is a nice addition, but it’s not really necessary since most people use visual clues (mainly browning) to know when their food is sufficiently fried.

Nearly all deep fryers have a light to indicate that the unit is on. The best models will also have a light that illuminates when the oil has reached a set temperature. Without this feature, you can’t be sure the oil has reached the desired temperature unless you use a thermometer.

Durable materials: We looked for deep fryers that have a stainless steel container to hold the oil. A few models we tested had containers with an enamel or a nonstick coating, but we don’t see the advantage of these materials, which will scratch easily.

Detachable safety cords: All fryers come equipped with a short, detachable magnetic safety cord. If something (or someone) becomes entangled in the cord, the plug will immediately detach rather than risk yanking the whole fryer full of hot oil off the counter.

We looked for models that could disconnect easily but stay attached to the unit while frying.

How we tested

I tested deep fryers by cooking batches and batches of food.

After purchasing a mountain of bagged frozen french fries (which earned me several concerned glances from the grocery store cashier), I cooked them in each model and tasted them to see if they were crispy and not soggy.

Then I made homemade beer-battered onion rings in each fryer to see if the oil stayed hot enough to produce perfectly golden-brown results that weren’t greasy. I was also looking to see if the frying baskets provided enough space to prevent the onion rings from clumping together into an unappetizing glob.

To see how each model cooked raw meat, I used them to fry frozen breaded chicken fingers (not the pre-cooked kind). This test showed me whether the fryers could cook the chicken all the way through without overbrowning the exterior breading.

A good deep fryer should preheat relatively quickly, so I timed how long it took the oil in each fryer to reach 375 °F. I also took the temperature of the oil using a probe thermometer to check the accuracy of the thermostats. After adding the food to the fryers, I monitored the temperature using the thermometer to see how much the oil temperature dipped.

I also took into account the shape and size of each fryer to see how much counter space they hogged. Finally, I washed all of the fryer parts by hand several times and can confirm that none of them are a joy to clean.

It took some serious scrubbing to get every nook and cranny free of oil. Not to mention, the rough fryer baskets shredded several sponges to pieces in my attempt to get them clean. By the end, I smelled like a french fry and glistened like one, too.