Yahoo News Tefal actifry genius+ review: It rustles up top notch chips, but what else can this air fryer do?
Where deep fat fryers once stood, air fryers haven taken their place. This new generation of machine has stepped up to answer our call for crispy, golden food without the addition of too many calories. And frankly, a decent model can be life changing.
These clever pieces of kitchen kit kill, in one fell swoop, the need for gallons of oil to bring you crunchy exteriors on all kinds of tasty treats. And while we don’t mean to brag, we’re not novices at the air fryer game.
We’ve worked hard this year to narrow down some of the top machines you can buy. With one of the best air fryers we tested in our quest to condense the options available out there was the Tefal actifry genius+.
Using hot air and a constantly circulating paddle, the Tefal actifry creates a heat-controlled chamber that simultaneously cooks and crisps your food with pre-programmed settings to give you great results at the press of a button. There’s even an easy to use app with loads of other recipes. But let it be known that it passed our main test – meaning it produced top notch chips – with flying colours.
While we couldn’t be sure enough to quote a solid statistic at you, we are somewhat confident that most meals made in air fryers revolve around chips. Traditionally a greasy lot, chips are given a great makeover with a little help from Tefal’s actifry and come out crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside for the ultimate result.
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But what else can the Tefal actifry genius+ do? Read on for our extensive review of the multi-tasking air fryer.
Tefal actifry genius+
Buy now £209.99, Tefal.co.uk
Capacity: 1.7kg
Dimensions: H 238mm x W 303mm x D 433 mm
Power: 1500W
Weight: 4.08 kg
Guarantee: 2 years
Rating: 9/10
Pros:
Clear viewing panel on lid
Extremely simple to operate
Excellent functionality
Serves 6
Makes healthy cooking simple
Accompanying free recipe app
Cons:
Short cable
Noisy while cooking
Release button gets hot during cooking
Substantial investment
How do you set it up?
Truthfully, the Tefal actifry genius+ takes all of five minutes to set up (and most of that is getting it out of the box). Once you’ve wrestled it out of the polystyrene – which we think we’ll deduct points for given that it’s a plastic – you simply peel off one solitary sticker on the control pad, wipe out the bowl and rinse the paddle for good measure, plug it all in and away you go. We had to double check the accompanying guide, but that really was all there was to it.
How do you use it?
As far as we know all air fryers are operated in a fairly similar way. The Tefal actifry genius+ was, it has to be said, a very simple one to use. There’s a small booklet of basic recipes and a “how-to” on how to use the machine, plus there’s an accompanying free app which has lots more detailed recipes, tips and tricks on it.
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We barely needed instructions however, with a fairly intuitive interface meaning we quickly got to grips with it. While other air fryers – like the Ninja air fryer AF100UK (£94, Ao.com) – add some bells and whistles with dehydration functions and all sorts, this one sticks to just a couple of key functions.
Frying food in the Tefal actifry genius+
Okay, let’s just all level with one another for a second. You want an air fryer for healthy chips really, don’t you? They’re the ultimate food to make in one. But with some poor PR, chips haven’t exactly hit super food status…until now.
You see, chips are such an obvious choice that they’re one of the Tefal actifry genius+’s pre-programmed settings. There was no bar boiling needed here (a gripe with other makes we’ve tried), but instead a quick peel, chop and dry with a tea towel before chucking everything in with a spoonful of oil was all that was needed. Tefal says to salt your chips after cooking, although no explanation for that is offered. Anyway, we heeded the advice and the rest was left up to the machine.
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Because there’s a clear lid, you can see your chips cooking through the course of the half hour programme. At first it looked like the paddle was a bit rough with our beloved spuds, as it crushed a few weak ones in the process. But actually, in the end, this turned out to be a plus point.
The resulting chips were soft on the inside, crisp on the outside, and there were loads of little northern-style-scraps from those that had suffered at the hands of the blade. A big hit of salt and quite honestly we were in heaven – these tasted like the kind of chips your grandparents used to make in their own deep fat fryer (just us?).
Aside from making a stellar batch of chips, we also had a go at one of the one pot recipes from the app, which we have to say we were sceptical about. Turns out it actually is easy. We made a curry, adding chicken first before throwing in the gravy ingredients and a handful of veg. Curries are kind of low maintenance anyway, but this hands-off approach takes things to the next level with no need for stirring or checking while it cooks. In this guise it’s sort of like a slow cooker, but without the need to have it on for eight hours. A surprisingly good result, we thought.
How do you clean it?
Cleaning the Tefal actifry genius+ is very easy. Any detachable bits (ie, the bowl and the paddle), plus the measuring spoon are fine to go in the dishwasher. Both of the main pieces are non-stick, so we didn’t find there was much need to work up any elbow grease, and just threw them in a regular cycle, after which they came out looking good as new.
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The control pad on the top of the air fryer can get a little mucky with fingerprints, and the inside of the lid got a little steamed up during cooking too, but both were easy to clean. We wiped them with a soft, damp cloth and had no problems getting everything sparkling again.
How much does it cost?
Tefal sells the actifry genius+ itself (£209.99, Tefal.co.uk), or you can purchase it from other retailers such as Currys PC world for a similar price (£209, Currys.co.uk).
As with all electronics, it’s worth doing a little bit of shopping around before buying, to check you’re getting the cheapest price. We also like to keep an eye out around traditional sale times like Black Friday or Boxing Day for any bargains.
Buy now £209.99, Tefal.co.uk
The verdict: Tefal actifry genius+
Overall we were pleasantly surprised with how well the Tefal actifry genius+ performed when put through its paces. It had an intuitive interface which took seconds to master, and the chips were stand-out. An unexpected bonus was being able to do hands-free cooking, while the whole thing was quick and easy to clean.
Minor grips included a short cable, the loud whirring noise which it emitted while cooking (although experience tells us this happens across the board) and the paddle being pretty forceful with more delicate foods – cue broken chips which we ended up actually ticking off as a positive when they resulted in lots of little crispy bits. There was also the case of the hot button, which got pretty toasty after cooking, so proved hard to handle.
These tiny little negatives wouldn’t put us off using one of these regularly though, and we think it was one of the best air fryers we’ve tested to date. If needed, there is also an XL size one (£239, Currys.co.uk) which would feed a larger family too.
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For more air fryers to up your chip making game, try our best air fryers from the likes of Ninja and Lakeland
