Meet the new member of my Making-Dinner family.

It’s huge.  It doesn’t look huge in this photo, but it is.

See?

This is a Gourmia 7-quart air fryer.  I ordered it from Kohls one morning before Thanksgiving.  They were having a pre-Black  Friday sale and this was one of the specials.  It was half-price, plus I had a fistful of Kohls cash and a couple of coupons and free shipping, so this monster ended up costing about $3.00.  Or something like that.

I hurriedly looked on Amazon for Gourmia reviews and didn’t find anything negative, so I ordered this baby before the deal ran out.  What I didn’t know was SEVEN QUARTS = a monster of an air fryer and is recommended for “crowds”.

Crowds?  We don’t know nothin’ ’bout no crowds.

Fact:  A 5-6 quart is considered suitable for a family of 3-4.

Last night we cooked a sliced, Panko-coated chicken breast and fresh Brussels sprouts.  And they were both delicious.  The clean-up is the bonus, though.  There’s a pull out basket with a rack inside.  And it washes quite nicely.  No pots and pans or baking sheets needed.

Banjo Man was thrilled.  Especially with the vegetables.  And the fact that the chicken was cooked in twelve minutes.

I even had an olive oil mister/sprayer on hand, which is a necessary addition.

The downside?  It takes up a lot of precious counter space in my small kitchen, so I need to do some rearranging.  Or store it on a shelf underneath the island.

Just in case anyone in my family put “air fryer” on their Christmas list, I did some research yesterday.  There are many brands out there and several review sites, such as Food Network and Good Housekeeping and Airfryer World.  I checked their top picks against actual buyer reviews on Amazon.

Here’s what I learned:

Cosori is a best seller and has its own Facebook page where users post recipes and photos of food.  It also had some fun-looking extras for baking and cooking eggs, etc.  But buyers were not happy with the steam that came from the basket and pooled on the counter.

Instant Pot Vortex 4-in-1 and Vortex Plus:  Some of these had a problem with the plastic smell not going away after several uses.

Ninja:  this brand had good reviews, but the Ninja Max XL 5-quart was pricey at $200.

GoWise:  This brand had trouble with the basket handle separating from the basket.

Gourmia:  Reviewers liked the square basket (holds more) and it was rated well.

Hoepaid:  Not on the review sites, but highly rated on Amazon with positive reviews.

Yedi: on the Oprah Favorite things list, with great reviews on Amazon.

AirFryer World also recommended the Philips Premium XXL and the Tiluxbury 5.8, but I did not research these.

I don’t know if this will be one of those appliances that we use a few times and then ignore or if it will be a vital part of the kitchen just like my crock pots are.  Time will tell.

And it’s going to be a long, crowd-less winter.  So if this monster livens up dinnertime, count me in.