There are numerous brands of air fryers to choose from, all of which feature a circular design-build, pre-set options, and the promise to deliver your favorite foods without the grease.
While the Cosori Premium Air Fryer also promises delicious, golden, and crispy results, it takes a different approach, offering you an aesthetically sleek appearance, fully-featured and multifunctional use, responsive touch button display, and some minor quality-of-life improvements that other brands don’t, such as a square basket base.
The Cosori premium 5.8-quart air fryer is the subject of this review. The Cosori air fryer has received positive feedback in the air fryer community and on Amazon for its performance, versatility, and low price.
Table of Contents
In this detailed review, I will look at the aesthetic design, the model’s construction, the features included with the Cosori, and a few important areas that air fryer enthusiasts may want to know, such as the model’s specifications and the types of available recipes.
#1. A Sleek Outer Design
Let’s begin with the exterior aesthetic design. The Cosori has a stunning exterior that is black in color with a gorgeous brush matte finish. Despite the outer shell being made of textured plastic, the Cosori has a sleek and professional appearance.
The Cosori 5.8 QT air fryer is unique in that it has a square concept, a square basket, a square base, and a half-moon LED touchscreen panel face.
What is the significance of this? The square basket provides more space for your favorite foods and allows you to cook multiple types of food side by side if the recipe allows. The half-moon touchscreen panel face is designed to be very spacious, allowing you to press the buttons without accidentally pressing the wrong one.
Unlike other air fryers, it is ergonomically angled so that you can view it without bending over.
The LED display has round, circular buttons, an easily distinguishable type font style, and universally comprehensible button icons, and the type font glows a crisp white when in use. Never again will you have to guess which button to press or what the display is telling you.
Finally, the basket’s ergonomically shaped handle is large enough that you can grasp it completely with one hand and pull without having to place your other hand on the air fryer. This makes pushing the basket in or pulling the basket out a breeze.
#2. The Recipe Book Contained
Cosori provides you with a cookbook containing 100 original recipes. These recipes are labeled as simple to prepare and cover a wide range of cuisines, including seafood, fried favorites, desserts, and entrees. Here is a sampling of some of the recipes created by the Cosori kitchen in the past.
Breakfast: Baked Potted Egg, Ginger Blueberry Scones, BBQ Bacon, Stuffed French Toast, Coffee Streusel Muffins, Muffin Breakfast Sandwiches.
Jalapeno Cheese Dip, Chicken Wings, Dry Rubbed Chicken Wings, Prosciutto Wrapped Asparagus, and Homemade Tortilla Chips are among the appetizers.
Air Fried Whole Chicken, New York Style Steak, Santa Maria Ribeye, Steak Sandwiches, and Italian Meatballs are among the entrees available.
Homemade French Fries, Honey Soy Tofu, Avocado Fries, Cajun French Fries, and Sweet Potato Fries are served as sides.
Desserts include cinnamon rolls, chocolate souffle, banana nut bread, mini apple pies, lemon pound cake, and chocolate espresso muffins, among other things.
The dishes mentioned above may not be in your specific cookbook, as the cookbook only contains 100 recipes chosen directly from the Cosori kitchen. You can, however, always find more on the Cosori website or make your own!
#3. Performance
One of my favorite features of the Cosori premium 5.8-qt air fryer is the alarm function, which allows you to set a reminder 5 minutes, 10 minutes, or 15 minutes into the cooking time. It’s extremely useful, but it’s not automatic; you have to program it. Cosori eliminates that extra step with five preset settings that provide a “shake” reminder. Even if you start with the shrimp, frozen foods, french fries, vegetables, or root vegetables preset and change the temperature and/or time, a five-beep and control-panel-blinking “shake” reminder will sound halfway through the cooking time.
This is extremely useful when air frying foods that benefit from a shake/mix while cooking. If you ignore the first warning, it will beep again and display a solid “shake” after one minute of cooking.
I air-fried tater tots, frozen hash browns, plain chicken breasts, tofu, chocolate chip cookies, frozen jalapeno poppers, frozen mozzarella sticks, and grilled cheese sandwiches in this Cosori. Everything turned out delicious and exactly as expected. I found myself selecting the frozen foods preset and using it for a variety of foods (some frozen, some not) so that I could receive a “shake” alert halfway through. Tofu and grilled cheese, for example, require your attention during the cooking process. Tofu, like most frozen convenience foods, requires a shake, and the grilled cheese must be flipped.
All 13 presets provide a general guideline for air frying that specific type of food, but the reference guide and cookbook provide more information on how to adjust the preset temperature and cooking time-based on your specific needs.
For root vegetables, for example, the preset is 400 degrees F and 12 minutes. For Brussels sprouts, the reference guide and cookbook recommend cooking them for 8 minutes. Surprisingly, the cookbook recommends 12 minutes for carrots, while the reference guide suggests 10 minutes.
There are also differences between zucchini (the reference guide says 6 minutes at 350 degrees while the cookbook says 10 minutes at 300 degrees), and tilapia (the cookbook says 10 minutes at 300 degrees) (350 degrees for 6-8 minutes in the cookbook, 370 for 8 minutes in the reference guide). These inconsistencies are regrettable.
#4. Capacity
The large square size of Cosori’s basket appeals to me. I believe the Amazon listing that it can fit a six-pound whole chicken. There’s a lot of space inside, measuring 9 inches by 9 inches by 3.75 inches. I could easily fit two grilled cheese sandwiches on a single piece of Dave’s Killer Bread, which is a large loaf. Unless you want to go big with a toaster oven-style air fryer like the Emeril Lagasse Power AirFryer 360, I think the Cosori is ideal for a medium-sized family.
Also, according to the photos on the Cosori website, the difference in external size between the 3.7 quarts and the 5.8 quarts Cosori is negligible when it comes to countertop space. So, if you’re sold on the Cosori’s features and functionality, go for the 5.8 quarts. You won’t be sorry for the extra cooking space.
#5. Utilization Ease
Cosori is all about preheating the air fryer; every recipe in the 100-recipe cookbook calls for it. But the best thing about this Cosori air fryer is that preheating is still optional and completely under your control. Preheat is a one-touch function that allows you to quickly heat up the unit while you prepare your food. When it beeps to indicate that it is ready, you can load your food and use one of the preset functions or manually program the time and temperature. Preheat is set to 400 degrees F by default, but you can change it to suit your recipe.
You cannot change the time manually; it will be determined by how long the machine takes to reach the temperature you specify. For example, 400 degrees take five minutes and 370 degrees takes four minutes.
There’s also a Keep Warmly preset that lets you leave your food in the air fryer after it’s cooked (or put external food in to hang out in a warm space if necessary). The temperature is fixed at 170 degrees F and cannot be changed, but the time can be adjusted as needed.
#6. Cleaning Ease
Cosori’s nonstick coating is one of my favorites. It made clean-up a breeze, especially since I don’t have any air fryer parchment liners that fit this size basket. I used it several times, but it only took a few wipes with warm soapy water to remove crumbs and oil before drying to be ready for the next use.
Some considerations when using a Cosori air fryer
Cosori advises keeping the Smart Air Fryer at least five inches away from walls and cupboards to avoid damage from the steam it emits. To ensure safety, the machine will shut down after three minutes of inactivity or if it begins to overheat.
Cosori recommends doing a test run before your first use to learn how to use the air fryer, ensure it’s working properly, and clean off any residue. The company recommends pressing the Preheat button (which defaults to 400 degrees for 5 minutes), then removing the baskets and allowing them to cool before placing them back in the machine, pressing the Steak button (which defaults to 400 degrees for six minutes), and letting it run until it’s finished.
Instead, I went straight for the potato wedges. I probably shouldn’t have skipped the test run because the machine emitted some smoke the first time I used it, which was a little alarming. Fortunately, the user manual states that some white smoke is normal when using the air fryer for the first time. This can also occur when cooking greasy foods or if the baskets have not been properly cleaned, which is also possible when cooking in an oven.
I used a Pinterest recipe to air-fry potato wedges at 400 degrees for 16 minutes, shaking halfway through. I couldn’t believe how quickly they cooked and how crispy they got with only one teaspoon of oil per pound of potatoes.
It’s worth noting that after about a month of regular use, one of the screws connecting the handle to the basket came loose and landed in my food. Fortunately, I caught it before I ate it or chipped my tooth, and I was able to easily screw it back in. To avoid this, I recommend tightening the screws on a regular basis if you notice them becoming loose.
Cosori air fryer’s best features (Pros)
- Powerful 120V/1700W heating element for crisp and delicious cooking. This voltage is only applicable in Canada and the United States.
- Safe Auto-Shut-off Mode: This prevents the air fryer from overheating and turns off when the basket is removed. Other air fryer models I have still heat the basket when it is released, which is dangerous. When the basket is pulled, the Cosori turns off.
- Simple to use Interface with pre-sets: as previously stated, this is effortless to use.
- Food cooks and crisps in an even manner. The basket is just a little deep, which is good because it keeps you from overfilling it. For even cooking, keep food in an even layer when air frying. If it’s piled on too high, you’ll need to stir and toss more frequently to ensure that the food on the bottom cooks as evenly as the food on top.
- Divide the inner and outer baskets: This is a great feature because all of the oil/fat drips into the outer basket when you cook the food in the inner basket. When you separate the inner and outer baskets, all of the oil drains away from the food, making it less greasy.
making it less greasy - Extra metal holder with 5 skewers included ideal for air-frying kebabs!
- 5.8 qt capacity cooks more food: This is the size for a family of 3-4 people. In one basket, you can cook up to 4 servings of chicken breasts or other meats/veggies. It’s also ideal for making a large batch of vegetable side dishes.
- Cooks both frozen and fresh foods beautifully! I tried it with frozen and fresh foods from my recipe archive. All of the outcomes are excellent.
- Reminder to shake: It has an alarm to remind you to shake/toss the food. This is useful so you don’t forget to shake/turn the food and end up with food that’s burned on top but uncooked on the bottom.
- Square basket: This is critical! After testing about 10 different brands, I discovered that square baskets simply have a larger footprint. What I mean is that the corners provide extra cooking space and make it much easier to fit square baking dishes into them. A small square baking dish is more difficult to fit into a round basket of the same quart size. A square basket expands the overall cooking footprint, allowing for greater flexibility when using baking dishes or placing food in the basket.
- Nonstick basket: food does not stick as much as it does in wire baskets (I dislike wire basket air fryers). The nonstick lined basket makes it safe and simple to clean with a dishwasher. All you have to do is soak the basket in hot soapy water for about 10 minutes, and all the food debris will wipe cleanly off. Simple!
- Recipe book and User Manual Included: This model includes a recipe book to help you get started quickly with your first air fryer meals. The manual is also excellent, as it walks you through all of the steps and safety precautions to be taken when using it for the first time.
- Accessory Set: They create their own accessory set to cook a variety of foods. Because of the square shape of the basket, other brands of accessories will also fit.
- Customer Support Community, communication, and support. I ranked this as the highest value for Cosori because they have an excellent support structure. I place a high value on customer service because I want the manufacturer to stand behind their product if there is a problem. They provide an email for support, an email to their chefs for recipe questions, a support phone number, and links to all of their social media in their user manuals. If you have any concerns, there are several ways to contact them.
Cosori air fryer features could be improved (Cons)
If you have a small kitchen with limited counter space, this air fryer will be quite dominant. It would be ideal if you had another area of the kitchen with a cabinet or table to store it. If you’re not using it, you can free up counter space.
The screws on the basket release button that hold the inner basket can become loose from time to time. I tighten the screws on a regular basis to ensure that the connection remains tight and the inner basket “snaps” tightly to the outer basket.
I wish the inner basket was made of ceramic because ceramic baskets do not wear as easily in the washing machine. Ceramic baskets are fantastic! So far, both of my Cosori nonstick baskets look good and don’t stick because I soak them first before washing them. Alternatively, you can use perforated parchment sheets to prevent food from sticking and to extend the life of the nonstick inner baskets. However, if you are a strong scrubber, you will eventually begin to scrub away the nonstick coating.
Evaluation by Users Other
In addition, for your convenience, I have compiled some user comments from a variety of websites such as Reddit, Twitter, and others to provide you with a more objective perspective.
- https://www.reddit.com/r/airfryer/comments/u19mls/i_just_ordered_this_cosori_because_it_had_good/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/airfryer/comments/vcfvx3/cooked_this_one_in_my_cosori_58qt_air_fryer/
Before purchasing the Cosori premium 5.8-quart air fryer, I watched some YouTube videos about this air fryer and found some very good ones. I strongly recommend you watch these videos because they are extremely useful.
See more:
Conclusion
The Cosori Premium 5.8 Quart Air Fryer cooks food evenly and quickly, even in large batches. It’s simple to use and clean, so I highly recommend it if you’re looking for a larger-capacity air fryer.
