Let Wayne Buy It: Power Air Fryer XL

Many of us love fried food, but know it comes with a high number of calories from all that oil.

Air fryers have become very popular. They promise to eliminate the oil, but still give you the crispy crunchy fried food you crave.

We took the Power Air Fryer XL to Maple & Motor in Dallas, a simple counter serve burger joint where they worry about the taste of the food more than the calories inside.

Owner Jack Perkins heard of the device, but wasn’t sold on it and doubted that it could produce crunchy food.

Directions were pretty simple. You put the food in the fry basket, press the power button once, and choose the icon for the food you're cooking.

The machine does the rest.

We used an included divider and cooked Maple & Motor's french fries and tater tots at once.

It took 18 minutes, longer than traditional frying, but when the timer went off the deep fried and air fried versions looked and tasted almost the same.

“You know they are not bad,” said Perkins. “For saving the oil. I don’t know what the caloric difference is, but it got to be significant and got to be better for your heart. I mean, I think it’s worth it. I got to tell you, it’s delicious.”

We decided to up the ante, seasoning chicken thighs. We again used the preset button. We had to flip them over once halfway but when they were done you could hear the ooh’s and ahh’s.

Side by side with chicken cooked in a deep fat fryer, it was hard to tell one from the other.

We agreed the air fryer chicken even tasted better than the deep fried one and it's healthier since the air fryer subtracts oil and the deep fryer adds it.

We paid $99.99 for the Power Air Fryer at Target.

It comes in different sizes, the smaller one is great but we could only make two chicken thighs in it at a time. You may want to throw in an extra $30 for the larger version.

It does take a little bit longer to cook but the results were pretty impressive.