Philips NA565: early cooking successes and misses

My first air fryer, a few days in

This isn’t an advert. I couldn’t find a genuinely uncoated air fryer that suited me, so I chose this one with a fluorine-free ceramic coating. That means it has a coating—it isn’t uncoated! After a few days, here’s what I’ve found.

Power, modes and compartments

It’s powerful—2200 W. I need to adjust some recipes from Xiaohongshu because it heats and produces steam very quickly.

It has air-fry, steam-fry and steam-only modes. Steam-fry is quite useful, but it wasn’t good for chicken drumettes: they felt boiled. Air frying worked better for those.

The left compartment is 3 L and the right is 6 L; removing the divider joins them. The left side supports air frying only, while the right supports all three modes. With the divider in, I can air-fry on the left and steam, air-fry or steam-fry on the right. Making a meal together is convenient.

The removable parts are advertised as dishwasher-compatible, but I don’t have a dishwasher and haven’t tried that.

Cleaning and placement

There are steam-cleaning and drying functions. There’s a dedicated descaler for occasional use in the water tank. I think food-grade citric acid could be an alternative. I wouldn’t use vinegar, washing-up liquid or baking soda—could those corrode the internal pipes?

Drying is very convenient. Don’t expect steam cleaning to wash everything clean by itself; I see it mainly as helping with the upper heating area.

It releases steam at the rear. I’d avoid placing it against an untiled wall or beneath wooden cabinets or other things vulnerable to damp.

My cooking notebook

These are my own settings, in °C and minutes, for this air fryer.

Skin-on chicken necks. Score them and work in the marinade for about five minutes. I tried steam-fry at 170°C for 18 minutes, followed by air-fry at 200°C for six minutes, turning during cooking. Without turning, the result was only average and not crisp enough. Air-fry at 180°C for 14–16 minutes is a note for a future trial; I haven’t tried it.

Chicken drumettes, marinated overnight. I scored them and rubbed in the marinade with spring onion. My first notes say no oil in the marinade, then spray oil before cooking: for one jin (500 g) of chicken, “50” of New Orleans-style seasoning and “40” of water, plus some salt. I didn’t record units for those two amounts.

The first trial wasn’t good: steam-fry at 160°C for ten minutes left them very wet. I brushed on diluted oyster sauce, then air-fried at 200°C for five minutes.

For a second version, my marinade notes list spring onion, “40” of New Orleans seasoning, water, salt and oil, again without complete quantities. Air-fry at 180°C for 18 minutes; turn and brush with soy sauce and oil mixed 1:1, then add sesame seeds for the final two minutes. This was acceptable: not very crisp—perhaps because I don’t brush on honey—but tasty and not dry.

Soft crisps. My note records air-frying at 140°C for two minutes, with a check mark.

Peanuts. I sprayed them with oil. Large, fat, elongated peanuts at 160°C for eight minutes were no longer soft, but lacked aroma. Another two minutes at 180°C didn’t improve that. My next trials will be 180°C for ten minutes for large peanuts, and 180°C for six to eight minutes for small ones. Those next settings are untested.

Clams. Wash, spread in one layer and add a tiny amount of salt. I used steam-fry at 180°C for four and a half minutes for small-to-medium clams, or five minutes for large ones, followed by two minutes resting with the drawer closed.

Don’t throw out the clam juices underneath! I like them in soups with cucumber and egg, shredded potato and chives, winter melon or loofah, and with garlic, courgette and meat. Trust me, they’re delicious.

This is my first air fryer. These notes don’t apply to every model; they’re just my experience.