On trial: Tefal Dual Easy Fry & Grill
Air fry, grill, cook a complete meal from scratch, feel smug and tuck in
What is it?
The Tefal Dual Easy Fry & Grill is a two-in-one behemoth that can roast a whole chicken (deliciously), bake you a cake and grill an excellent cheese toastie. It has two sections – the larger drawer has an air fry (oven) function or a grill function; the smaller drawer is air fry only but really handy if you’re cooking for one, or doing a side dish to go with whatever’s cooking in the big drawer.
Quick view
- Two zones in one machine with two differently sized drawers
- Single or double portions – in fact the combined 8.3-litre capacity feeds up to eight people
- Cook faster, save energy – 40% faster than in a conventional oven, while saving up to 70% energy
- More than an air fryer – roast a 1.4kg chicken and vegetables, sear steak, bake cakes and even dehydrate fruit for snacks
- No preheat needed thanks to extra crisp air-frying technology
What makes the Tefal Dual Easy Fry & Grill special?
There are eight preset cooking programmes – think roast chicken, chips, cake, fish – and a manual option. There’s no need to preheat for air frying, which saves me 15 minutes’ frustratedly waiting around for my ancient conventional oven to get going. That’s a lifesaver after work when I’ve lost track of time and suddenly realise I’m starving and must.eat.asap.
A portion of chips lightly oiled and ready to air fry, perfectly cooked eight-minute teriyaki salmon and one of several hundred cheese toasties
How do you use a Tefal Easy Fry & Grill air fryer?
Put your food in the drawer, close it then press manual, hit + or - to set the temperature and + or - under the clock to change the timer from its default of 20 minutes. Press the start button and bingo, your food starts cooking at the precise heat you asked for. Any time you want to check on progress, just open the drawer and the timer will pause. It’s a good idea to toss roast vegetables or chips to get even results, just as you would in a conventional oven. Close the drawer and the timer will resume. Easy.
What about the grill in drawer 1?
Not only is drawer 1 size XL and able to roast a 1.4kg chicken to golden, succulent deliciousness (I speak from experience), it also has a grill function. The ridged tray adds flavour-packed charring to steak, cheese toasties and vegetables. Preheat the grill then pop your food on the tray, close the drawer and let it work away. Turn food halfway through so both sides get those lovely char lines.
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Preheating drawer 2’s grill for a toastie and, right, using the roast chicken preset for the Sunday dinner of dreams
How does the sync function work?
The drawers work independently, so you can have, say, vegetables roasting slowly in the smaller drawer 2 then get drawer 1 roaring away to cook marinated salmon fillets to perfection in eight minutes. Take the pain out of it by programming the drawers at the start, guaranteeing both parts of your meal are ready at the same time. Put the food in drawer 1 and set it, do the same with drawer 2, then hit the sync button – the machine will work out which drawer to start first and when to start the other one. You can programme different temperatures in each drawer, which is a real gamechanger.
Once the chicken was cooked through, I took it out to rest for 15 minutes and used the juices to make gravy while air frying potatoes and carrots
Is it worth it?
Can you put a price on delicious food cooked at speed? Well, if you can, the Tefal Dual Easy Fry & Grill comes in at a shade under £200 and saves you money on your energy bills – partly because you don’t waste time preheating, but also because the differently sized drawers give you the option of only heating as much space as you need to. Heating up my (slow) large conventional oven for one little salmon fillet or jacket potato never made sense and now I have a solution that isn’t simply ‘eat toast again’.
The metrics that matter
Easy to cleanI’m often put off fancy kitchen contraptions because sometimes the convenience they offer is cancelled out by the pain of washing up the different little parts afterwards. But this is a dream – both drawers still look as good as new and you just lift the non-stick shelves to clean them by hand or in the dishwasher like any other baking tray or grill.
Intuitive to useAt its most basic level, this is like a regular oven. On manual, you just pick a temperature, set a time, and you’re off – instant cooking at the right temperature, no preheating. The presets make things like roast chicken even faster though do check your food every so often, as recommended in the Tefal instructions.
Top drawersUsing the smaller drawer when I’m cooking for one is great for day-to-day convenience and energy use. Being able to roast a whole chicken in the large drawer while my sides cook at a different temperature in the small one and using the sync function so everything is ready at the same time, well… high fives all round.
