I Almost Gave Up on Home Cooking Until I Found This Air Fryer

For about eight months after I moved into my studio apartment on the east side of Portland, I cooked exactly four things: pasta, scrambled eggs, reheated soup, and whatever fit in my single, sad skillet. My oven was the kind that takes 25 minutes to preheat and still burns one side of everything. My counter measured maybe 18 inches of usable space. And after working a full day, the last thing I wanted was to turn my tiny kitchen into a construction zone just to make a decent dinner.

So I stopped cooking. I started ordering delivery three or four nights a week. It tasted fine, cost too much, and left me feeling vaguely defeated every time I tossed another bag into my recycling bin. Cooking was something I used to actually enjoy. I had cooked in tighter kitchens than this one. But something about the combination of a bad oven, no counter space, and a long commute had ground me down.

My neighbor Petra changed that. She had the same floor plan I did, and one evening I walked past her door and smelled something that stopped me cold: roasted garlic and something crispy. She was making chicken thighs and broccoli on a Tuesday. In a studio apartment. In about 20 minutes. I knocked.

She had a Cosori TurboBlaze Air Fryer sitting on the corner of her counter, right where I had a cutting board that I mostly used as decoration. It was maybe the size of a large toaster. She told me she had gone through two cheaper air fryers before landing on this one, and that the difference was noticeable: it preheated in about three minutes, cooked evenly without her having to babysit it, and the ceramic-coated basket was easy to clean. She had paid more than she initially wanted to, but she had stopped second-guessing it after the first week.

She was making chicken thighs and broccoli on a Tuesday. In a studio apartment. In about 20 minutes. I knocked.

I went home and looked it up. The Cosori TurboBlaze is a 6-quart, 9-in-1 machine with a temperature range from 90 to 450 degrees Fahrenheit, which means it can dehydrate herbs or blast a batch of fries in the same basket. The PFAS-free ceramic coating was something I cared about, because I had just thrown away a cheap non-stick pan that had started flaking after six months. The footprint on my counter would be about the same as the large Dutch oven I rarely used. I ordered it that night.

The first week I made four meals I had not cooked in months. Crispy salmon. A whole batch of roasted chickpeas I kept eating out of the basket before they made it to a bowl. Chicken thighs with skin that actually crisped, which my oven had never once managed to do without setting off the smoke detector. Frozen brussels sprouts that came out tasting like I had paid attention to them. None of these took more than 25 minutes. Most took less.

What I did not expect was how much the cleanup mattered in a small kitchen. With my skillet, even a simple weeknight dinner left me with a splattered stovetop, a grease-coated hood fan, and a pan that needed real scrubbing. With the air fryer, the basket came out, went into my sink with a little dish soap, and was done in two minutes. No splatters on the wall. No smoke. No 25-minute preheat that made my tiny apartment feel like August in a parking garage.

I will be honest about one thing: the Cosori TurboBlaze is not a small appliance in the same category as a rice cooker or a hand blender. It takes up a real footprint. In my studio, I ended up moving my toaster oven to a shelf in the closet because I realized I was using the air fryer for everything the toaster oven used to do, and the toaster oven was bigger. If your counter space is truly at a maximum, you are making a trade. For me, it was the right trade. But go in with that understanding.

The thing that surprised me most, though, was not the food. It was the feeling. Cooking something from scratch, even something as simple as crispy tofu and sweet potatoes on a Wednesday, made me feel less like a person who was just getting through the week. I started looking forward to dinner again. I started buying fresh ginger and keeping it in the crisper. I started using the phrase 'I made this' in conversation and meaning it.

What I'd Tell You If We Were Sitting at My Kitchen Table

If you are cooking for one or two in a small apartment, you do not need a full-size oven to eat well. You need one appliance that is fast to heat, easy to clean, and actually does what it promises. I put off buying this because I thought I did not have room and because I had convinced myself the cheap air fryers would be just as good. Both of those things turned out to be wrong. If you are curious, go read the full long-term review I put together after three months of daily use. Or if you want specifics on technique, the guide to getting crispy results every time walks through what I have learned. But honestly? The biggest thing I learned is that the right appliance in the right spot changes the whole equation. For me, this was that appliance, and that spot was the corner of my counter where I used to stack mail.