If you hate dragging out the deep fryer, with all it’s grease, but still enjoy the great fried food taste, you may have considered purchasing your first air fryer. But are they really worth it? Is it just for frozen foods?
Today I’m sharing my personal review of my favorite small kitchen appliance – my Nuwave Brio Air Fryer. I’ve had my 6 qt Brio for a few years now, so I definitely have some thoughts on the product.
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About the Nuwave Brio
The Nuwave Brio Digital Air Fryer works by combining hot air with high speed air circulation to perfectly cook you favorite fried foods quickly. This method of cooking allows you to get crispy foods without added oils – resulting in fewer calories. The Nuwave Air Fryer has up to 1800 watts of power, with a temperature range of 50 – 400 degrees Fahrenheit. The wattage settings can also be adjusted to 900 and 1500 degrees.
The Nuwave Brio has electronic controls. You can adjust the temperature and cook time manually using the digital thermostat control and digital timer control. This air fryer also comes with some preset cooking functions like frozen fries, chicken nuggets, and steak.
Nuwave Brio’s Digital Temperature Probe
This is an added tool to help ensure the internal temperature of the foods you are cooking – resulting in less over and under cooking of foods. You set the desired internal temperature of the food you are cooking, and once the probe registers that exact temperature, the air fryer cuts off.
Full product details can be found here on the Nuwave site.
What can you cook in the Nuwave Brio?
You can cook a wide variety of foods in the air fryer. Everything from frozen foods to healthy foods, like roasted chicken and vegetables. Did you know you can even cook hard “boiled” eggs in it? Here are my favorite foods to cook in the air fryer:
- Meat – whole chicken, tuna steaks, bacon, pork chops, etc.
- Vegetables – potatoes, green beans, broccoli, corn on the cob, etc.
- Bread Products – garlic toast, toasting tortillas, pita bread, buns
- Frozen Foods – any type of frozen foods – onion rings, pizza, mozzarella sticks
- Baked Goods – muffins
Nuwave Brio Air Fryer Product Review
As I mentioned earlier, I have had my 6 qt Brio for almost 3 years. We use it almost daily – sometimes twice a day. I use it to heat frozen foods, reheat previously cooked foods, and cook fresh meals.
I have cooked everything from frozen pizza to our favorite meals, like chicken stuffed poblano peppers in the air fryer. Here are the things I love about it, and then the things that aren’t my favorite:
Pros of the Nuwave Brio:
- You are able to cook a wide range of foods in it with little oil and fewer calories. You can make healthy delicious food from scratch or just reduce the amount of oil you need to prepare other foods.
- It has held up to almost daily use for several years now without any issues. Seriously – we are air frying something all the time. The writing on the outside has rubbed off some due to the frequent washing, but that doesn’t affect the functionality of the product.
- The digital controls make for easy use. I especially love the preset cooking functions and use them frequently.
- Food that was once crispy doesn’t reheat well in the microwave. But I can reheat things in the air fryer and bring them back to their original crispy-ness (is that a word?) and great taste. Things like crispy chicken wings or roasted potatoes. This has been a game changer for leftovers.
- If I want to roast something – say a pork tenderloin – I can do that in the air fryer without heating up my entire kitchen. I don’t know about where you are, but the summers are hot here and turning the oven on just adds to the workload of my AC.
- The 6 qt air fryer has been the perfect size for our family of four. The fry pan basket can hold a couple extra large chicken breasts at one time and about 12 Bagel Bites (hey, my kids like their Bagel Bites, okay?). It even comes with a divider to split the basket in to 2 smaller chambers. Think you may need a bigger Nuwave Air Fryer? Check out these other sizes:
Here is the 8 qt digital air fryer from Nuwave. It’s slightly larger, but overall, pretty similar to my 6 qt.
If you’re looking for a lot larger, check out this 15.5 qt. It has the largest capacity of any model from Nuwave. It’s a slightly different set up than the 6 qt I have, so I can’t speak to the functionality of it.
Cons of the Nuwave Brio:
- This is probably true of all air fryers – but I don’t feel like you get the same results when cooking foods with a wet batter as you would if you deep fried the food. There are some exceptions to this, like using breadcrumbs or cornmeal to batter your food in versus flour. I’ve found those recipes to work okay. If you need to cut out all deep fried foods from your diet, know that these foods aren’t necessarily bad – just different. So, if you are planning to wet batter a lot of foods to cook in the air fryer, you may have to play around with the recipes some before you get perfect results.
- Sometimes it can be a pain to clean, especially if you use it all the time like we do. The grate at the bottom of the basket can have food stuck on that just does not want to come off and scrubbing it can be hard on your dishrags or sponges. Be prepared to put a little extra effort in to the scrubbing process at times. Sometimes if I’m cooking something really sticky – maybe a recipe that has a lot of cheese or something like that in it – I’ll line the pan with foil for easier cleanup.
- If you have a larger family, or want the ability to cook more at one time, you’ll need to size up. Like I mentioned earlier, the 6 qt works well for our family of four, but I do see where a larger size could come in handy.
That’s it – that’s all the negatives I have to say.
I feel like the price of the product is well worth it considering how much use we’ve gotten out of it. When the time comes to replace it, I’ll absolutely be going with another Nuwave Air Fryer.
Let me know your favorite air fryer recipes down in the comments!
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6 Qt. Nuwave Digital Air Fryer
8 Qt. Nuwave Digital Air Fryer
15.5 Qt. Nuwave Digital Air Fryer Smart Oven
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