The Best Deep Fryer for Crispy Fries, Onion Rings and Crunchy Fried Chicken (2024)

After our jalapeño poppers emerged, we unplugged the machine to let the oil cool down and moved the lever from Fry to Automatic Oil Filtration. The machine is designed to automatically drain once the oil temperature is cool enough. It did take several hours, but we returned to a fryer with filtered oil, ready to reuse in the future, in the oil box and a fry bowl encrusted with remnants of popper batter, but nothing else. The fry basket, bowl, and oil storage container are all dishwasher-safe, so we could enlist some mechanical help in cleaning.

All-Clad products generally carry a hefty price tag, and the Easy Clean Pro is no exception. As of publish time, it cost nearly double what the winning Cuisinart did. Though the filtration system and easy-to-use features are great, they just aren’t double-the-cost great.

Hamilton Beach 3L Professional Grade Deep Fryer

The Hamilton Beach is a good option if you want an in-between size fryer—not party-size, but not compact either. It is deeper than it is wide, which can be an advantage for certain foods, but we find it to be a little less versatile this way. It’d be harder to cook dishes like fried chicken. And while not a deal breaker, it doesn’t include a timer. But at the same price as the Cuisinart, we don’t think it’s as good of a value.

Breville Smart Fryer

The Breville Smart Fryer is a great option. It’s a little deeper than the Cuisinart, but since it has a 4-liter capacity, it’s not nearly as narrow as the Hamilton Beach. Like lots of Breville products, it has configured presets for specific foods like twice-fried fries, wings, calamari, and doughnuts, and is extremely easy to navigate. But it was one of the two most expensive fryers we tried (the All-Clad is the other) and we’re not sure even these details justify the extra cost.

Elite Gourmet Fryer

The Elite Gourmet 4-quart capacity deep fryer is virtually indistinguishable from the Chefman Deep Fryer discussed below, except for the addition of basket options — this deep frying set includes one large basket and two smaller ones, meaning you can cook two different foods at the same time using the smaller baskets at the same time. (Note, however, that the smaller baskets only fit a small amount of food, and regardless of which basket you use, you’ll need to fill up the oil reservoir to capacity in order to reach the necessary depth.) Its temperature range is slightly more limited than our top pick, going from 250°F to 375°F, and it has a 60-minute timer, which functions as automatic shut-off for the fryer once the timer completes its cycle. The Elite Gourmet has a large capacity and is a good option if you plan to cook for a crowd — we could easily fit three to four pieces of chicken into the oil while cooking — but because its design favors width over depth, it requires a surprisingly large amount of oil to fully submerge larger pieces of food. This makes it slow to heat up, but once it is heated, we found it held its heat well. The instruction manual recommends hand washing only (though the dishwasher is apparently fine for its twin, the Chefman). It has a limited 1-year warranty.

Chefman Jumbo Deep Fryer

The Chefman Deep Fryer is a few dollars less than the Elite Gourmet Fryer, owing to it including just one large frying basket, but in every other way it’s exactly the same: It has the same temperature range of 250°F to 375°F, the same 60-minute timer that functions as an automatic shutoff, and the same shape and large capacity that requires an almost alarming amount of frying oil. Like the Elite Gourmet, this is a popular item among buyers on Amazon, with its relatively low price point. It could be a reasonable choice if you will need to deep fry large amounts of food. The brand claims its parts are dishwasher safe, and it has a limited 1-year warranty.

Presto FryDaddy

Some of us (like your product tester!) have a real soft spot for the Presto FryDaddy — loving it for its elemental simplicity, compact size, and quick and effective deep frying of small-sized and small batches of food. However, we can’t make it one of our top two picks because of some of the features it’s missing. There’s no timer and more importantly no temperature dial. Simply plug it in and the oil will come to the target temperature of 360°F. Also missing: a frying basket. Instead it’s just a nonstick-lined bucket and a detachable power cord. To use it, you fill the bucket with about four cups of oil (about 25% the amount of oil needed for larger fryers), wait for it to heat, and place your to-be-fried food in. Then you use a perforated scoop, sized to precisely fit the bucket to its edges, in to remove the food when it’s done.Cleaning is easy — once you’ve removed the oil, there’s just a single bucket to wipe down. The FryDaddy also a lid that allow you to store cooled (and strained) oil in the fryer between uses. At $40 it’s a great value and a terrific option for smaller kitchens and smaller, less frequent frying projects that can be done at standard deep frying temperatures.

T-Fal Ultimate EZ Clean Fryer

Like the All-Clad, the T-Fal deep fryer also has a 3.5-liter oil capacity, fryer basket with retractable handle, and an oil filtration system. Aside from the control panel, it’s practically identical to the All-Clad, but at a lower price point. We actually found the T-Fal to cool down faster than the All-Clad, speeding up the cleanup process somewhat, though still longer than Cuisinart. It also didn’t have as wide a temperature range as the Cuisinart, although it still should offer enough settings for most users.

The takeaway

A deep fryer isn’t an everyday kitchen appliance, but it is a fun, rewarding gadget that can—both metaphorically and literally—enrich your cooking repertoire. And if you’re someone who deep-fries with any regularity, it’s a worthwhile investment. The Cuisinart CDF-200P1 4-Quart Deep Fryer has great features—it’s easy to use, heats up and cools down quickly, has maximally adjustable temperature, is easy to clean, easy to maneuver, and it’s a great value as well. And for a smaller option for less frequent frying, that holds less food but has a smaller footprint, the Cuisinart CDF-100 Compact Deep Fryer will deliver the same crispy-golden thrills, but with a smaller kitchen footprint.