CHRISTMAS is nearly upon us and most of us will be preparing for the ordeal of cooking a big dinner.

But could using an air fryer decrease not only your costs but also your stress levels? We decided to find out.

Air fryers are known for costing very little to run and being often speedier too.

They've soared in popularity since the cost of living crisis hit with families searching for ways to save money on bills.

Under the current energy price cap, the average 1,000W air fryer costs just 7p to run for 15 minutes.

That's compared to 14p for the average 2,000W oven.

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The nifty gadget could therefore be the answer if you're looking to cut costs this Christmas.

But how would a whole Crimbo dinner cooked in an air fryer actually taste?

The air fryer

My air fryer is one of the more basic models with just a single basket, a Tower Vortx T17024.

Shoppers can find one at Currys for £66.99 at the moment.

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It has a capacity of 4.3litres, perfect for two people.

The fryer is said to be faster than a traditional oven and it also comes with eight handy pre-sets.

My air fryer uses a 1,500W in energy, which equates to just 10p for 15 minutes of use.

Cooking Christmas dinner

First things first, I headed to Asda to pick up my ingredients – I opted for all frozen items for ease.

Luckily for me, almost all of them have air fryer cooking instructions on the packaging.

I worked out that in total my cooking time would be two hours and 20 minutes.

After unpacking my turkey breast joint I ran into my first hurdle – my air fryer was ever so slightly too small for the foil tin.

Instead, I wrapped it in tin foil and popped it in at 200°C for one hour.

I found the process a bit stop-start as I was waiting for the turkey to be cooked before I could move on to cooking the other elements.

This is unlike using an oven where you can put the other items in at the same time the turkey is cooking.

As per the instructions, after an hour I went back to the kitchen and removed the foil for the remaining 55 minutes.

That's when I encountered my second hurdle. When I removed the foil, all the turkey juices poured into the fryer basket causing a big mess, which was less than ideal.

After a bit of a clean-up, I popped the joint back in and set the timer.

Once the 55 minutes was up I removed the turkey and put it to one side.

Next up were the parsnips and roast potatoes, I popped those in at 200°C for 25 minutes.

I set a separate timer on my phone to remind me to add the stuffing and pigs in blankets when there were 12 minutes left.

Then I did the same when there were three and a half minutes left for the sprouts.

While the meal was cooking I made my gravy on the hob using a stock cube and a bit of flour.

Unfortunately, it's not possible to make gravy in the air fryer, so you'll need to find another method.

Tasting the Christmas dinner

Once I had everything plated up I was keen to give my feast a go – it smelt great.

I tucked into a roast potato first and found it tasted more like a potato wedge as it was missing the classic crunch of an oven roastie and was quite stodgy inside.

Next up were the parsnips, which I had hoped would have a much crispier outside.

They tasted just the same as if they'd been done in the oven.

The stuffing was definitely the most surprising element of the meal. I'd expected it to be a bit dry as I hadn't tried frozen stuffing before, but it was nice and crisp on the outside while slightly fluffy inside.

Pigs and blankets are a non-negotiable for Christmas dinners in my house, and there never seems to be enough of them.

They tasted just as good as any oven-baked porker, perhaps even better with the enhanced crunch from the fryer.

I was pretty shocked by the consistency of the sprouts, I had presumed they'd be hard and dry but they ended up nearly identical to if they'd been boiled on the hob – still soft and tasty.

Turkey is arguably the key element of any Christmas dinner so I was most excited to give the breast joint a go.

It had a great crunchy layer on the outside which made it look super appealing – but alas I was bitterly disappointed.

The meat was bone dry, to the point where even gravy couldn't help save it.

I couldn't get through more than two bites before I had to put it down – its only saving grace was the tasty crackling which was delish.

How much it cost

I used sust-it.net to crunch the numbers for how much it cost me to cook my air fryer Christmas dinner.

I inputted the wattage of my fryer and the total cooking time and calculated how much the whole meal cost me.

It took 140 minutes to cook everything in total, costing me 95p.

Using the oven would have taken 10 minutes longer – this would have cost £1.36.

Whether you're cooking the dinner in an oven or air fryer, you'll have the additional cost of cooking up some gravy separately.

As I mentioned, I used the hob to make some homemade gravy but you can do it with far less effort using some granules and the kettle.

It costs around 5p to boil a kettle for four minutes, depending on the wattage.

Here are the individual costs for each element of the meal:

Turkey

• Oven – £1.04 for 115 mins
• Air fryer – 78p for 115 mins

Pigs in blankets

• Oven – 32p for 35 mins
• Air fryer – 9p for 12 mins

Stuffing

• Oven – 18p for 20 mins
• Air fryer – 9p for 12mins

Sprouts

• Microwave – 0.01p for 3.5mins
• Air fryer – 0.02p for 3.5 mins

Roast potatoes

• Oven – 20p for 22mins
• Air fryer – 15p for 22mins

Parsnips

• Oven – 23p for 25 mins
• Air fryer – 17p for 25 mins

Gravy

• Kettle – 5p for 4 mins

The verdict

I feel it's important to say that my job on Christmas Day is to make sure everyone's glasses are topped up with Bucks Fizz.

I have very little to do with the cooking process, so the ease of using an air fryer was very appealing.

It was really simple to cook due to having one basket, far easier than having to keep moving things around in the oven to fit it all in.

The entire process took less time than in an oven which is definitely a plus.

There was far less clean up, as you'd usually have various baking trays and dishes to wash afterwards.

It was a decent saving too – with a 41p difference compared to a 2,000W oven.

The biggest drawback for me was the taste of the turkey, which was really quite inedible due to the dry texture.

Also, due to the size of my gadget I could not fit both the joint and the other elements of the meal in the basket at the same time.

This meant it took longer, a difference of 25 minutes.

It also meant that by the time I came to eat the meal my turkey was only lukewarm – of course, you could zap it in a microwave or reheat it in the fryer but bear in mind additional costs.

For these reasons, if you have a smaller fryer like mine, you may want to consider cooking just the turkey in the oven, costing £1.04, it will likely improve its texture and you'll save yourself some time too.

It's important to note as well that I was cooking for just one person, so the 4.3L capacity suited me.

For a larger family, the savings aren't quite as much but still works out cheaper than an oven.

That's because it would be better to use a larger fryer if you're cooking for more people.

With an 8L Salter fryer which uses 1,800W of energy, for example, it would cost £1.13 for 140 minutes.

That's just 23p less than an oven.

But because it's almost double the size you may be able to fit more in the basket at once, which could reduce overall cooking time.

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Meanwhile, we also made toad in the hole in an air fryer, we were shocked by the taste.

Plus,  we also tried B&M’s bargain gadget for making DIY Greggs – it was so easy, tastes like the real thing and costs half the price.

You can also join our new Sun Money Facebook group to share stories and tips and engage with the consumer team and other group members.

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