Do you love fried food, but you're not a big fan of all the oil and calories?
The Gotham Steel Crisper Tray may be your solution. Not only is it supposed to fry food in the oven, but it is also supposed to be non-stick, so you don't have to use oil and butter.
Sounds like a win to me, if it works. So, we bought chicken drumsticks, potatoes for french fries, bacon, and then pre-fried tenders.
First, the box says it includes 50 free recipes. What they mean is you need to go online for the recipes. So, we did. We followed the instructions for the southern fried chicken drumsticks, using the crisper tray and a regular baking pan. We noticed a little bit of crispiness on the chicken, but not enough to consider it fried.
For the bacon, there was a definite crunch and I like that the oil falls to the bottom. So, this time, the crisper tray impressed us. We were not impressed with our homemade fries. They cooked faster in the Crisper Tray, but they didn't taste much different than the fries in our regular pan.
Also, the recipe did call for oil, even though the claim is that it doesn’t need it. For our pre-fried tenders, the Crisper Tray fared worse than the regular pan. The tenders were actually softer.
So for $19.99, we have to give the Gotham Steel Crisper Tray a ranking of bull. Although the food didn't stick, the main claim is frying food in the oven. That just didn't happen during our tests.
Do you have a better solution? Email me at smartshopper@abc15.com