Air fryers have gone from a hot new cooking sensation to a bonafide kitchen staple these past few years.
The compact designs serve up deliciously crunchy food with a ‘fried’ flavour only with a snippet of oil you’d need if you used traditional methods. That means ‘guilty pleasures’ are less sinful and dinner can be on the table in record time - a godsend if you’ve got a crowd of hungry mouths to feed.
Air fryers come in all sizes, from dinky ones that can make one or two portions, to designs with generous baskets that can feed the 5000 (or near enough). When you’ve got parties and family get-togethers on the horizon, you’ll soon see that these larger models are worth their weight in gold.
Family-sized air fryers can be used as a cooking tool alongside the oven and hob as well as on their own. You’ll be stunned at how much time you can shave off making a full roast and they’re also handy for finishing off hot canapes and starters while the oven is busy taking care of the main course. Then there’s the sheer genius of dual basket designs which allow you to separate ingredients and set different cooking times and temperatures so that the various components of your meal can finish all at the same time.
Clean-up is a doddle too, with all air fryer baskets finished with a non-stick coating and dishwasher proof. Can you tell we’re big air fryer fans here at ES Best?
If you’re looking for a capacious air fryer that can handle the gnawing appetites of your friends and family, we’ve spotlighted the very best models to get now. From Ninja Kitchen and Philips to Salter, only the cream of the crop has made it onto our list. These machines may need a dedicated cupboard or a shelf, but trust us - for the convenience, lower bills and the crunchy, crunchy results, it’ll be worth it.
Shop the best large air fryers for feeding families and hungry friends below.
Tefal Easy Fry 10-in-1 FW605840 20L Air Fryer Oven - Black
Tefal's 20L monster takes the biscuit - and cooks it perfectly on its spacious racks. There's space for everything and every appetite here, from healthy fish suppers to a whole chicken with space to add potatoes for crisp roasties too. There are 10 cooking functions in this gadget (Airfry, Roast, Grill, Bake, Pizza, Toast, Dehydrate, Bagel, Warm and Reheat) and three cooking levels with the highest temperature reaching 230°C, so you'll always get the perfect level of crunch, whatever you're cooking.
Portion-wise, you're looking at a good five to six, so it's perfect for large households or to use when you're throwing a party.
The only downside is that it's a pretty large unit by comparable standards, measuring H34.8 x W35.3 x D41cm so you'll need to find a spot large enough to accommodate it. That said, it's good enough to put your oven into permanent retirement and will save you a bundle on energy costs too.
It comes with a two-year manufacturer's guarantee.
Buy now £159.00, Argos
Innoteck Kitchen Pro 12L
The Innoteck Kitchen Pro 12L is an all-in-one air frying oven powerhouse that can fry, bake, and roast pretty much anything you care to throw into its gigantic 12L basket.
It can be hard to know where to start with a machine of these proportions, but luckily this Innoteck comes with eight auto programmes that allow you to do anything from dehydrating food and cooking pizza to perfection, to spit-roasting anything that fits on the rotisserie rack. It may be big but it's also a neatly designed thing, with a touchscreen display and a double glass door with interior light so you can see how dinner is progressing.
What’s more, it cooks at 1800W, meaning it only uses up 1.4kWh which should cost you between 25-35p of electricity for every hour of use, depending on your energy provider.
You'll wonder how you managed dinner parties without it.
Buy now £123.99, Wayfair
Ninja Foodi Dual Zone Air Fryer- AF300UK
There’s no second place here; Ninja’s double-compartment air fryer allows you to cook your dishes in two ways but finish at the same time. Or you can make double the food at once and feed your friends and family all in one go, particularly helpful for parties or summer BBQs. The generous 7.6L capacity can feed up to 8 diners.
This air fryer is just one in Ninja’s line-up: the brand also has multi-cookers that can perform various cooking methods all under one roof - air frying included.
Buy now £149.00, Ninja
Russell Hobbs 27290 Snappi 8.5L - 2x 4.25L Dual Basket Air Fryer
Make sweet and savoury, starters and mains, or snacks and desserts side-by-side in Russell Hobbs' dual basket air fryer. Each one can hold 4.25L which, granted, isn't as roomy as some of the other options out there, but with a shorter cook time (hence the 'Snappi'), cooking in batches shouldn't take too long at all.
Buy now £120.00, Argos
Philips AirFryer XXL
The name gives it away. This is not a small air fryer, but it isn’t actually as large as some of the others on the market. However, with its hefty price tag, we were disappointed to find that it didn’t come with more instructions on how to set it up.
The model has five digital pre-sets for cooking foods such as fish and meat, so there’s no faff in knowing how long or what temperatures they should be cooked at. One of its standout features is its slide out drawer, which unlike the other clunky drawers feels sturdy and secure when you’re rotating chips or meat. Plus, we were amazed at the speed of the cooking – with very little oil, it took just 20 minutes for meat and 15 minutes for chips.
We weren’t as amazed at the washing up afterwards though – we love that it helps to reduce the fat content of your food, but it leaves a black tar-like residue, which we found pretty hard to scrub from the three parts of the machine.
Was: £299.99
Buy now £159.99, Amazon
Salter Dual Air Fryer
Families come together around a table and with an air fryer taking care of dinner you’ll have more time to catch up and less time slaving over a cooker. This XL air fryer runs on 2400W and is made for a crowd, able to serve up double portions as well as cook food at different temperatures to plate up at the same time.
Temperatures in both chambers are adjustable, giving you complete control over each one and you can sync the cooking times to that they finish together, even if cooking at different heats. Once you master the basics of French fries and chicken wings, there’s a recipe guide to help you expand your air fryer repertoire.
Was: £124.99
Buy now £110.00, Amazon
Tower T17088 9L Dual Basket Vortx Air Fryer - Black
Get ready for 9L of cooking space to crisp up all of your (usually) guilty food pleasures. Using little to no oil, this machine perfectly cooks ingredients up to 30 per cent more quickly than standard ovens, so not only are you eating healthier food, but you’re using less energy to do so too.
The air fryer comes with 12 pre-sets to take the guesswork out of cooking times and each compartment can be operated separately or set to finish cooking together, giving you even more flexibility over dinner time.
Buy now £94.95, Amazon
Instant Vortex 8-in-1 Dual Air Fryer - 7.6L
With a name as impressive as the food it’ll cook for you and your family, this 7.6L capacity machine will make most of your other appliances redundant.
As well as an air frying function, it has seven more cooking modes and you can use two at the same time for each of the baskets. Use the SyncFinish feature to match cooking settings for get both baskets to finish cooking at the same time.
This is machine you want in your corner when you’re planning a big dinner, family event or party - it can make up to eight portions of food at once. Comes with a company warranty.
Buy now £160.00, Argos
Tower Vortx 2000W 5-in-1 11L Digital Air Fryer Oven
The first stand-out feature on this air fryer model is one of its attachments – a rotisserie fork, meaning you can cook a whole chicken at a more efficient speed and quality than in an oven.
As you’d probably already guessed this air fryer is pretty big and comes with three shelves to cook food in. Almost as big as a mini oven, its perfect for bigger kitchens, but you may struggle to find the room in a smaller homes. The three shelves means you can cook your entire dinner at once: we popped in both vegetables and chicken, which all came out beautifully tender and crispy on the outside.
The five digital pre-sets were helpful too (especially for those navigating air fryer cooking times for the first time), while the trays all pull out and are dishwasher proof.
Was: £119.99
Buy now £91.99, Amazon
NINJA Double Stack XL SL400UKWH Air Fryer - White
Best for: double dinner magic
We love our air fryers, but often it's a case of the beauty lying within. Typically offered in black or grey, air fryers aren't usually going to win any beauty contests.
It seems like one of the UK's biggest brands has been paying attention to this, because Ninja Kitchen has released an all-white collection that will fit in more seamlessly with kitchen palettes. What’s more, it’s been given the Marco Pierre White seal of approval, and if it’s good enough for the celebrated chef, who are we to argue?
This double-stack Ninja air fryer comes with two cooking baskets with a combined capacity of 9.5L. There are six preset functions and you can set both zones to finish cooking at the same time, even if they're at different modes or temperatures. It means dinner will be ready at the same time - no letting the chips go cold while waiting for the nuggets to cook.
Sold with a two-year guarantee.
Buy now £269.99, Currys
Verdict
She's a big beast, but if it's capacity that's at the top of your air fryer shopping list, Tefal delivers - and then some. The 20L oven is big enough to see through any en-masse catering situations. That said, the dimensions mean not every kitchen will be able to accommodate it.
What you use in 8L you'll gain in a hardworking device like the 12L Innoteck, which can sit on the kitchen counter, making it a worthy runner-up.
