These days, you can’t get away from the topic of air fryers. And so, when the opportunity came for us to try out the new Cosori TurboBlaze air fryer, we decided to give air fryers another shot. Keep reading for our in-depth Cosori Air Fryer review (here, the TurboBlaze 6 L/Quart).
We Began as Skeptics
In all honesty, we went into this review as skeptics. Years ago, we’d tried a few entry level air fryer models and were far from impressed. Like many of you, we loved the idea of the air fryer for its ability to let us enjoy more of our favorite foods without the fat and mess of having to deep fry them. We are talking about french fries, chicken wings, Chicken Cordon Bleu, Mozzarella in Carrozza—to name but a few things we hoped to make with an air fryer.
Unfortunately, our early air fryer experiences drove us back to our messy deep fryer. The metal baskets were hard to clean, the food did not seem to get crispy, and the fryer required constant shaking in order to prevent food from sticking. Recently, our family and friends began singing the praises of their low-end air fryer models, but we still weren’t impressed. Small baskets that serve 2 simply don’t cut it in our kitchen. Plus, our family and friends have a much more liberal definition of ‘crispy’ than we do!
Did the Cosori TurboBlaze change our minds?
► Find the Cosori TurboBlaze on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3S3pvRb
Enter the Cosori TurboBlaze Air Fryer
Cosori Air Fryer Review: Our Criteria
Call us crazy, but if something is calling itself a ‘fryer’ it better be able to produce crispy food. Also, we expect an air fryer offer some major advantages over an oven for the same recipe. Otherwise, we’d just use our conventional oven on ‘fan’ (which is a large convection oven). Finally, the quantities that the air fryer can handle need to be large enough for feeding a family of 4 in less than an hour.
For foods best deep fried, we don’t expect an air fryer to beat deep fryer results—but they have to come reasonably close to satisfy our cravings. And of course, our ideal air fryer absolutely needs to be easy to clean—which is one of our big gripes with deep fryers.
To summarize, our ideal air fryer should:
- Make food crispy and delicious with less fat
- In less time (under an hour for a family of 4)
- Offer advantages over a conventional oven on ‘fan’
- Be easy to use
- and Easy to clean!
Air fryers have become a staple in modern kitchens, offering a healthier alternative to traditional frying methods. Among the myriad of options, the Cosori Turbo Blaze air fryer stands out in terms of both user-friendly features and performance. Here’s a closer look at how it met our criteria:
Make Food Crispy with Less Fat
The Cosori Turbo Blaze uses about 1 tbsp max to make most foods crispy. It’s best to use a spray oil designed for air fryers, or simply oil in a spray bottle. This will almost always be less fat than foods absorb when deep frying.
But, do the foods that we want to be crispy turn out crispy? The answer (which surprised us) is yes! If you follow some basic rules of thumb, everything from potatoes to chicken wings should come out crispy and delicious.
In fact, we cut right to the chase with our Cosori air fryer to determine if it could handle one of our favorite deep fried treats: chicken wings! And you can read our article “The Best Air Fryer for Chicken Wings” for a walkthrough and video on how how air fryer wings turned out compared to oven baked ones. The bottom line? The Cosori Turbo Blaze nailed it. The wings it made were not quite as crispy as deep fried wings, but they actually beat the crispiness of their oven-baked opponent.
Next, we tried air frying some Italian suppli (which are kind of like large arancini). These rice-filled treats are usually deep fried and have a coating of flour, egg and breadcrumbs. Once again, the Cosori air fryer delivered—in a fraction of the time it would take us to deep fry these treats.
Fries? Same thing. Not quite deep fried, but much closer to what we are looking for than an oven ever delivers.
360° Air Flow and the Crisper Plate
One big reason why the Cosori Turbo Blaze succeeds in making foods crispy is that it comes with a crisper plate that elevates the food off of the bottom of the air fryer drawer. This is much the way a roaster pan works, letting any juice fall away from the meat so that the meat skin can crisp.
► Find the Cosori TurboBlaze on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3S3pvRb
Efficiency and Speed (Cook Time)
The Cosori Turbo Blaze boasts a 6-quart (or 6 liter) drawer, large enough to accommodate significant quantities of food. This makes it ideal for both small and large meal preparations.
In the case of our quest to make the best air fryer chicken wings, we discovered that this Cosori model could cook at least 1.5 lbs of wings in half of the time it takes in the oven for the same quantity. We never like to use more than one oven shelf if we are trying to get something crispy, as in our experience, it does not work to do so. So, we were really comparing apples to apples in terms of the quantities that the air fryer vs the oven could handle.
And it’s not just wings. The Cosori Turbo Blaze has consistently cooks food in half of the time it would take us to cook the same food in an oven. It’s not just time we save—but energy.
We were surprised to calculate that this Cosori air fryer is much more energy efficient than our very efficient Bosch oven. It makes sense. The air fryer is small and so takes less time to heat up and is designed to maximize its 5 fan speeds and 360° air flow to cook food more efficiently.
In some parts of the world, energy is still relatively cheap. In Italy where we are cooking, it is not. So energy savings matter!
Easy to Use
Even though the Cosori Turbo Blaze has 5 fan speeds, they are all automatic and the air fryer determines how to use them based on the cooking pre-set you select. In total, the air fryer features nine predefined cooking settings and five fan speeds, which work in tandem to ensure uniform cooking. The 360° air flow facilitated by the non-stick plate is essential for even cooking, regardless of what you’re preparing.
If your recipe requires a different temperature or cook time, it’s as easy as pushing those arrows up and down to reach your desired setting (see below).
‘Air fry’ represents just one thing you can do with this machine. We are particularly intrigued by the proofing pre-set, as we do a lot of baking and struggle to maintain a consistent proofing box temperature with our oven. The Cosori claims to be able to maintain a very accurate temperature, so we are looking forward to testing that feature out.
Easy to Clean
Though we might sometimes miss that extra little crunch we could get with a deep fryer, we will not miss the mess of cleaning up surfaces covered in grease.
Unlike some air fryer models with metal baskets and shelves, this Cosori air fryer has just 2 parts that need to be cleaned after use. They are both nonstick and dishwasher safe! Though frankly, the parts are so easy to clean by hand, we’ve thus far never had to resort to the dishwasher.
Advantages Over the Oven
We’ve already discussed a few of the advantages that the Cosori Turbo Blaze has over a conventional oven (energy savings, shorter cook time). But there’s one you may not have considered: all-season use!
It gets so hot in Italy during the summer that there are several months in which we don’t even think about turning on the oven simply because of the amount of additional heat it will pump into our homes. Air conditioners are not that popular here due to the aforementioned cost of energy.
But the air fryer does not pump heat into the room. Unlike the last convection oven we used, it’s not even hot to the touch while in use. This advantage opens up a world of possibilities like baking and roasting during those warm months.
► Find the Cosori TurboBlaze on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3S3pvRb
A Few Caveats (Tips for Using the Cosori Turbo Blaze)
Don’t Rely on the Cosori Recipe Booklet
The cooking time charts that come along with the Cosori recipe booklet are useful. However, the recipes in the booklet are not only limited but pretty unreliable. As an example, we were surprised that the chicken wing recipe included in the booklet didn’t explicitly mention the need to spray the wings with oil, though it did mention adding oil to other meat recipes. Chicken wings will never get crispy as most expect without the addition of some oil.
One Shake is Still Needed
The elevated crisper plate and efficient fans do do an excellent job of cooking evenly. However, we’ve noticed with several foods that the underside will not get as golden/crispy/cooked. In our experience, it’s a good idea to still shake (or flip) your food at least once halfway through the cook time. This is not a big deal, especially compared to the repeated shakes required for many air fryer models.
Another obvious reason why the underside (if not flipped) tends to get slightly less crispy is that it lies closer to any moisture/juices that drip into the bottom of the fryer basket. If we could give Cosori one suggestion it would be to provide some ‘feet’ that could elevate the crisper tray even further for those recipes that might benefit from more air flow underneath.
Use Air Fryer Common Sense
You can’t expect to have zero knowledge of cooking and expect super crispy results with an air fryer—even one as good as the Cosori Turbo Blaze. What causes foods not to get crispy in the oven will work against you in the air fryer as well. So, here are some tips to get the most crispiness out of your air fryer:
- Choose the right ingredients: If you want a crispy roasted potatoes in an air fryer, you still have to choose the right potato (one with high starch). A creamer potato will never get crispy due to the level of moisture.
- Moisture is the Enemy of Crispiness: Always pat dry any ingredient (meat, vegetables) that you want to crisp up. You can’t rinse off a zucchini, cut it into slices and throw it breaded directly into the air fryer and expect crispy results.
- Always Preheat: The manual says to preheat, so we do so.
- An extra spray of oil never hurts: If something isn’t crispy enough, an extra spray of oil won’t hurt. The result will still be much healthier than deep frying.
Cosori Air Fryer Review: The Verdict?
Yes, It Delivers!
While our test with chicken wings showcased the Cosori Turbo Blaze’s ability to produce crispy and juicy results, this air fryer is much more than a one-trick pony. Its large capacity, efficiency, advanced technology, and user-friendly features make it an excellent choice for a wide range of cooking tasks. Whether you’re preparing a quick meal or experimenting with gourmet recipes, the Cosori Turbo Blaze is a reliable, versatile, and energy-efficient companion in the kitchen.
The Cosori Turbo Blaze 6-quart air fryer finds a sweet spot in the air fryer market. It offers more advanced features than low-end models, like digital controls and efficient cooking technology, without the steep price tag of high-end models.
While it lacks some of the smart technology features of the more expensive air fryers, it provides a robust set of functionalities suitable for a wide range of cooking needs, making it a solid choice for most consumers.
We’ve been very happy with it so far and look forward to testing it with even more recipes.
Learn more about this air fryer! ► Find the Cosori TurboBlaze on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3S3pvRb
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