Paula Deen 5.3 quart Air Fryer

MKR14 · ‎03-09-2010

I received my Paula Deen air fryer yesterday. It has easy to use dials and the basket and unit is well made. Not very noisy for the 1700 watts. It has a nice booklet with it and a 1 year warranty. If you bought this there is a few things to know about it. When you take the basket out you may get some flecks of non stick coming off in between the air holes. I was concerned about this but after washing the basket and container I put them inside the airfryer and set for 20 minutes at 400 degrees to do the first start up burn. This gets rid of the strong smell you have when you first get a new air fryer. After it cooled down I rewashed the basket and holder. Less flakes came off. I then put a layer of French fries in it and shook them around with a spritz of olive oil. I put in the fryer to cook for 15 minutes and shook them really hard several times while cooking. I did this several times and when they were done there was no specks on the food or in the container underneath so the problem is solved. Many things you buy could have a little residue from production still on them. It is a beautiful air fryer. I purchased a 4 pound chicken I am going to make in the next few days in it. If anyone bought this -here is another hint- when you take the drawer out of the air fryer "push the clear slider forward towards the basket". Comes out easily and fits back in easily also.When taking out slide the clear button forward and push down on the black button.The basket then will release easily. The black button is simple to push down on also. I included a photo of my Emeril's air Fryer on the right next to Paula's air Fryer on the left so you can judge the size of the two. I am very pleased from what I have seen so far.

hoosieroriginal · ‎03-04-2012

I like that the basket on her new air fryer is square. I really wanted to buy this, but too much money for me right now. I'm still using my "Big Boss" cooker from Evine which drains every speck of oil out of the meat - it has a fan just like the air fryer. Very similar - think I'll keep mine and save the money. I can cook basically everything you can in the air fryer..

JeanLouiseFinch · ‎10-03-2011

Glad to read your review, @MKR14. I bought one for myself and a few as gifts. They just arrived on Wednesday. I'm looking forward to trying mine out soon.

MKR14 · ‎03-09-2010

@JeanLouiseFinch I think the hints I found will help you when you use it. Maybe not all pans will have the flaking but they still need a good cleaning and the burn off 20 minutes many forget about. It is in the book but sometimes when we get something new we just want to use it now. Let us know how you like it.

SHOPR · ‎04-17-2013

I searched and found this 3-month old thread which is relative to the air fryer I'm now considering. I hope it's ok that I reply to it, and if not, I suppose the mods will delete it.

My question: Would you say that the Paula Deen 1700 watt 5.3 quart air fryer cooks noticeably hotter and faster than the smaller 1400-1500 watt air fryers that you also have used? While not one of my favorite things, a common food example would be frozen crinkle fries. I find that they take around 15 minutes at highest 400* setting in my PD 1400 watt 3.5 quart air fryer to get crisp. I would hope that the larger more powerful unit would speed things up a bit. Is it true?

JeanLouiseFinch · ‎10-03-2011

@SHOPR wrote:
I searched and found this 3-month old thread which is relative to the air fryer I'm now considering. I hope it's ok that I reply to it, and if not, I suppose the mods will delete it.

My question: Would you say that the Paula Deen 1700 watt 5.3 quart air fryer cooks noticeably hotter and faster than the smaller 1400-1500 watt air fryers that you also have used? While not one of my favorite things, a common food example would be frozen crinkle fries. I find that they take around 15 minutes at highest 400* setting in my PD 1400 watt 3.5 quart air fryer to get crisp. I would hope that the larger more powerful unit would speed things up a bit. Is it true?

@SHOPR I can't reply according to use comparison as my PD air fryer is the only one I've used. I can tell you, however, that it does cook faster than I expected. I haven't made fries in it but mozzarella sticks are done in about half the time of package instructions.

SHOPR · ‎04-17-2013

@JeanLouiseFinch, Thanks.

Have you had any sticking or peeling of the nonstick yet? I understand that this model is a different basket with a copper finish, but I'm on my third basket in under a year for my original PD 3.5 qt fryer due to chipping. Just curious as that is another of my concerns with purchasing any other nonstick item.

JeanLouiseFinch · ‎10-03-2011

@SHOPR wrote:
@JeanLouiseFinch, Thanks.

Have you had any sticking or peeling of the nonstick yet? I understand that this model is a different basket with a copper finish, but I'm on my third basket in under a year for my original PD 3.5 qt fryer due to chipping. Just curious as that is another of my concerns with purchasing any other nonstick item.

No problems, @SHOPR. I did do the "prep" before using it the first time.

Ilovetea · ‎05-02-2010

I did the prep because there were issues with the finish flaking off during unwrapping. Not any problems after the prep heating. The larger PD unit was purchased because I liked the fact there were no presets and higher wattage and someone wanted the CE smaller unit I had so I got some money to put toward the larger one. I found I missed the presets, but after some experimenting I am very happy with the larger size and higher wattage of the PD unit. It would be nice if the QVC CE brand came with some pans to go with it but ease of use is never an issue with either of the ones I have had.

SHOPR · ‎04-17-2013

Looking at the outside dimensions on the website, the two PD air fryers are basically identical in size. I still don't know how they were able to make the 5.3 quart basket fit into the same space as the 3.5 qt but they did, unless those dimensions happen to be wrong.

I was concerned about just how much bigger the basket itself would be until I finally watched the video, and I then saw that 4 pieces of bread would fit perfectly into the larger one, and I know that with my smaller PD fryer, two pieces won't even fit side by side unless they are crammed. This larger unit seems to have the power and size properties that I'm looking for.

@Ilovetea, Thanks for your reply which I found helpful. :-)