Welcome back to Air Fryer Bro. I have done many articles over the years comparing the beloved air fryer to all kinds of other popular kitchen appliances! Today I am doing another one, comparing the air fryer to the George Foreman Grill. Which is best for you? Let’s go over the details together.
You can view any of the kitchen appliances in this article over at Amazon simply by clicking the image.
Before I start any comparison article, I like to clear up any confusion about the exact type of kitchen appliances I am comparing today. So here are my benchmark examples for each one:
Example of a Typical Air Fryer
Today I will be using the traditional bucket style air fryer as my point of comparison. These look like the deep fat fryers they were trying to replace back in the day. The Ninja bucket style air fryer below is a prime example of this.
Example of a Typical George Foreman Grill
The George Foreman Lean Mean Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine or George Foreman Grill for short is a kitchen appliance that is essentially two hot plates sandwiched together. Whatever food you place between these hotplates will be grilled to perfection (with charr lines and all). The George Foreman Grill is slightly angled so that any fat or oil that comes out of the food you are cooking can be channeled away. Therefore, the main selling point of this grill is that it is a healthier and lower fat way to cook your food. It is especially popular for cooking meat such as chicken.
The George Foreman Grill first debuted in 1994. Below you can see the latest iteration of this grill.
Air Fryer VS George Foreman Grill: 7 Points to Compare
1. Cooking Modes
The George Foreman Grill has only one real cooking mode, which is grilling. It does this very well, but the fact it is the only cooking style available to you makes it a much less versatile kitchen appliance than an air fryer.
The air fryer can not only grill and broil but also air fry (obviously!), roast, bake and even dehydrate with some models! This will give you many more options of what to cook when using an air fryer over a George Foreman Grill. It is great to have the versatility to cook your Thanksgiving Turkey and bake a cake in the same appliance! I even use my air fryer to reheat cold takeout pizza, so it really does have many strings to its bow! And my wife uses it for…get this…hard-boiled eggs 🙂
2. Price
The George Foreman Grill is a much simpler and cheaper kitchen appliance than the air fryer. If you want an air fryer for the same price as the grill, you would have to buy the cheapest and smallest generic branded air fryer you can find 🙂
I would expect, with all its extra features and cooking modes, for the air fryer to cost more.
3. Cooking Capacity
The cooking capacity in the air fryer is typically similar to the George Foreman Grill. However, the benefit you have is that you could add an extra layer of food to your air fryer by using an additional wire rack. This is not something you could do in a George Foreman Grill.
With an air fryer, you do have the choice to buy a bigger unit up to 8-10 quarts or so in size. For the grill, you can only go up to what they call a 9 serving version, which is not comparable in size.
4. Size
The form factor of a George Foreman Grill is typically more compact than your average air fryer, so it will take up less counter space. This will also make it easier to move around or store away in cupboards.
Just be aware that the grill is a wider and shorter design than an air fryer, as you can see from the pictures above.
5. Health
Both an air fryer and a George Foreman grill are similar when it comes to the healthiness of the food they produce. An air fryer cooks with hot air, whereas the George Foreman grill uses hot plates, but they both achieve something healthy.
If you cook a chicken breast in both, you would get very similar results in terms of calories etc. Some people may argue that the way that the heavy hot plates on the George Foreman Grill squeeze out more oil when grilling means it will be way healthier. In reality, the difference is not worth talking about.
6. Cleanup
The George Foremans revolutionary way of channeling fat away from your food is great and all, but it does also lead to a rather fussy and over complex clean up procedure. On the other hand, the typical air fryer is simple to clean. You simply take the cooking compartment over to the sink, soak it in soapy water and wipe over the residue with a damp cloth. The only slightly annoying thing to clean on an air fryer is when they have fine wire mesh at the bottom of the air fryer basket, although even that is not as bad as the cleanup on a George Foreman Grill.
7. Quality
The good thing about buying a George Foreman Grill is you are buying from one company that is well established and trustworthy (I mean it has George Foreman’s name on it for a start!). This means you can buy with confidence, and when you see most user’s comments on the grill, most seem to agree that the quality and build of the product is good.
However, the air fryer is made by all kinds of different brands, many of which you have probably never heard before. There are generic brands that have even churned out air fryer for a few years and then disappear. There are good air fryers out there, it just means you need to do more research. A lot of air fryers suffer from non-stick coatings that peel off way too fast, so this is something you need to guard against when choosing an air fryer model.
There are some good air fryer brands out there, such as Philips and Ninja. You just need to make sure you do your research to avoid the bad eggs. This is not an issue when buying a George Foreman Grill.
Would I Buy an Air Fryer or a George Foreman Grill?
I would always go for the air fryer over the George Foreman Grill. It may be slightly more expensive, but I welcome the extra versatility. It simply means my air fryer is one of the most used appliances in my kitchen, which I don’t believe would happen with the George Foreman Grill. I am moving away from having multiple small kitchen appliances in my kitchen to buying one that can take the place of many of them. This is what the air fryer does for me!
Of course, this is my personal opinion and you should look at the points of comparison above, and work out for yourself. The only real use case I can think of for the George Foreman Grill over the air fryer is if you often crave for that more barbequed style grilled meat. The air fryer can get close to this, but it’s not exactly the same as what you would get from the grill.
