Transcription
During the winter months, can we use an air fryer to cook steak, grill chicken, and do all the things that we would usually cook on the grill? Now, I don't know about you, but when it's below zero and there's a stiff wind, even I, who grill for a living, don't always want to run outside to make dinner. Today, we're putting the ultimate air fryer to the test to see if it's up to the challenge of becoming our new go-to indoor appliance.
Here's how this works. T-fal asked if we would test out their new Dome air fryer, and we agreed. We aren't getting paid for this video, and they didn't even ask for it, but we thought it would make a good video watching us put this unit to the test. They did send a discount code along that you can use as well, and we'll give you all the details on that in a few minutes. But first, let's see if this air fryer is all it's cracked up to be.
The Dome is quite different from most traditional air fryers. Just the look alone is different. Most air fryers are boxy and squarish, but the Dome is curved and sleek, and looks like it comes from the future. The drawer is incredibly wide, just over a foot deep and a foot wide, and that's a standout in the market. Now, what's also different is that the drawer is only 2 inches deep, so there's not a lot of vertical cooking space here. Now, I find that to be a benefit instead of a detriment, since food stacked on top of food rarely cooks well in any air fryer I've ever tested.
Now, the Dome also has a top temperature of 450°, which is 50° higher than most air fryers on the market. Now, does 50° make a difference? We're going to put it to the test with a grilled steak in just a second and find out.
Now, this is the first air fryer we've tested that also has a mobile phone app, and it even enables remote control and notification when you're away from the kitchen. Now, I'll admit that before this test, I'd never gotten a notification from my air fryer that my food was done, but the Dome is so quiet that I appreciate knowing what's going on when I'm not in the room.
Now, we tested how loud the Dome is when running at 450°, and we only registered 59.6 dB at its highest audible level. Now, for reference, a household refrigerator reads at 55 dB, so we're talking just 4.6 dB louder than the fridge that we hear as background noise every day.
So, that's how it's different, but let's answer the question of how it performs. We fired up 11 different cooking tests to see what it was like working with the Dome in real life, and here's how it went.
We started by looking at the app and gathering ideas. Grilled cheese was already a pretty simple recipe to make, but the T-fal Dome managed to make it even easier. We took four buttered slices of sourdough bread and some slices of pepper jack cheese to make the sandwiches and placed them in the preheated 400° Dome for 3 minutes. We flipped the sandwiches over and put them back on for three more minutes, and they were golden brown and, while I hate to admit it, looked way better than my old way of making grilled cheese.
Now, never have I ever imagined being able to cook a 12-inch pizza in an air fryer, but it's almost like this drawer was designed with that specific purpose in mind. We had some par-baked crusts in the freezer from some previous pizza oven testing we had done this past fall, so we pulled one out, added some sauce and shredded cheese, and popped it in the Dome for about 6 minutes at 375°. Couldn't have been easier, and the kids loved it.
Now, we found a recipe in the T-fal app for crispy chickpeas, and since our daughter Addie loves eating chickpeas straight from the can, we thought, "We got to give this one a try." Now, it couldn't have been easier to make. We just drained and dried the beans, and then coated them with some light-tasting olive oil with a sprinkle of our salt, pepper, and garlic blend, and then dumped them in the preheated Dome for 12 minutes at 390°. We shook them around halfway. Now, they came out crispy and delicious, and the kids both devoured them when they got home from school. Now, I have a feeling Addie is going to be fixing this recipe for herself on the regular from now on.
Now, we also wanted to steam some shrimp, and these are the 16 to 20 count variety for shrimp cocktail, and we decided to try it in the air fryer rather than breaking out our steamer pot like usual. Now, I'm glad we did because it only took 5 minutes at 400° in the T-fal Dome, and they were perfectly cooked. It doesn't get any easier than that.
Now, we love roasting vegetables like carrots, zucchini, and asparagus in an air fryer. We took a few carrots and cut them into spears of equal thickness, drizzled olive oil, sprinkled them with salt, and put them in the preheated Dome set to 400° for 5 minutes. We then stirred them around and put them back in for five more minutes, and they came out still firm but fork-tender and delicious.
Now, we noticed that the Dome has a preset for toast, and that got us thinking, could our air fryer replace our toaster and eliminate an additional countertop appliance? We easily fit four slices of bread in at one time, which matches the capacity of our current toaster. Now, depending on the size of the bread, we could even fit six at a time. Now, the preset is set to 6 minutes, but I personally think that may be a little on the high end. We flipped the bread at the 3-minute mark and put it back in for the remaining 3 minutes, and determined it probably would have been more ideal for our family's taste at the 5-minute mark.
Now, we also successfully toasted bagels in the Dome and again pulled them before the 6 minutes were up. But overall, I'm pretty sure we may be giving up our countertop toaster before long with confidence that the T-fal Dome has us covered in that department.
T-fal has a preset on the Dome for bacon, which I have to admit, I never even really thought about making bacon in my air fryer before, but it makes sense when you look at the dimensions of this tray why it would work. So, we put that preset to the test, and we were able to fit seven full slices side by side in the tray. The preset was right on the money because we pulled out the most beautifully cooked bacon I think we've ever seen. In fact, you can even hear Melissa when she pulled the drawer out for the first time. "Oh my gosh, gorgeous!"
The T-fal Dome also has a preset for wings, so we went ahead and gave it a try. However, if I'm being honest, they turned out a little underdone for our preference. The preset called for cooking the wings for 14 minutes at 380°, and while the chicken was cooked to a safe temperature, the skin was limp and lacked any crispness. So, we gave the wings another run a little while later, cooking them for 18 minutes at 400°, and they were both crispy and delicious.
Melissa and I cooked up some chicken breast for lunch, and we started by preheating the Dome to 375° for 5 minutes. We put our seasoned breasts into the tray, and after 11 minutes, the internal temperature of the breasts was reading done, and we removed the breasts to rest. Now, they were both moist and flavorful, and it made a super simple lunch for us both.
Now, we love to make pork belly burn ends on the smoker outside, but pork belly is also really, really good in the air fryer. We cubed up some pork belly, drizzled it with some olive oil, and seasoned it with some all-purpose rub, followed by a barbecue rub, and then placed it in the preheated Dome for 6 minutes at 400°. Now, at the 6-minute mark, we flip the pieces over and cook them for another 6 minutes. After 12 minutes at 400°, we decided to go ahead and put them in at 450° for a couple of minutes to get them nice and crispy, how we really like them. They were just absolutely delicious.
Now, next, we grilled some steak, and for this test, we used an accessory called the Sear and Sizzle from GrillGrates. It's a hard anodized aluminum circular grill panel that helps us get grill marks even in an air fryer. We preheated the air fryer, put the steak on the hot grilled grate, and cooked the steak at 450° until we reached an internal temperature of 125°. Now, who knew that grill marks was something that you could get in an air fryer?
Now, if you'd like a Sear and Sizzle for your air fryer, be sure to use the code BBQ Lab 10 to save 10% on your purchase. I'll leave a link in the description if you want to check it out.
Like most air fryers, the drawer and tray are both dishwasher safe. However, it takes a lot of real estate in the dishwasher, so we usually opt to just hand wash when we can, so we have more space for all of our other dirty dishes. It hand washes very easily, as T-fal designed it with a specially designed non-stick ceramic coating.
The real ace in the hole, though, for us, is the fact that T-fal has a self-cleaning cycle to clean all the buildup that we can't visually see up inside the base unit itself. The self-clean cycle can be run for either 1 hour or 2 hours for a deeper clean and can be started from the mobile app. T-fal recommends running the cleaning cycle once a month. Now, I would imagine that this feature will have a great impact on the longevity of this appliance, but only time will tell for sure.
The T-fal Dome comes with a three-year warranty, which really stands out in the air fryer space. Most air fryers are only covered for maybe around one year. Now, additionally, T-fal also has a 30-day money-back guarantee. If you're unhappy with your purchase, you can try it out and experience it yourself.
So, I have a confession. We went into this relationship with the T-fal Dome as skeptics. Now, who does this air fryer think he is, costing three to five times more than all the other air fryers? Well, I'll tell you who he is. The Dome is a premium air fryer that excels in all things air fryer related, and then some. We have continually been blown away by the truly impressive results with such minimal effort on our part, and trust me, we were looking for flaws. If you have the budget for premium products like this, you won't be disappointed with the T-fal Dome.
However, I do have some good news for all of us. T-fal has agreed to share a discount code that will enable you to save a significant amount of money on the purchase of a Dome. Type in the code BBQ Lab at checkout on Amazon or the T-fal website, and you can save 20% on your purchase. However, with the holiday sale going on starting today through the 17th, you can stack our code for a total of 30% off your T-fal purchase, which brings the price down quite a bit.
If that's still too salty for you, we totally get it, and we've got you covered. Make sure you're subscribed to the channel because we've got an air fryer head-to-head coming out this Sunday with seven different units, most of which are considerably more affordable. So, be on the lookout for that coming this weekend.
We've got all the links and discount codes down in the description for any products you've seen us use in this video, and if you click our links to make a purchase, it helps support our channel, and we're incredibly grateful when you do.
Now, if this video was helpful for you, be sure to give us a thumbs up and leave us a comment. I'm David Gafford, and behind the camera is Melissa, and we both can't wait to see you next time.
[Music] Every