GEAR REVIEW: Butterball XL Electric Fryer

Butterball XL Electric Deep Fryer

Butterball


Putting health aside for a minute let’s talk about good-tasting food. If you can come up with something that tastes better than deep-fried anything (fried chicken, turkey, shrimp, crab cakes, etc) then I’ll happily listen to what you have to say but you should know that I’ll never change my mind. Fried chicken is and will forever be in the Top 3 best-tasting foods on the planet.

Air Fryers are all the rage lately but that’s just a fad. Fads come and go. You know what’s here to stay? Fried chicken. And do you know what doesn’t count as authentic fried chicken? Any chicken that’s been ‘fried’ inside of an air fryer. You can use a cast iron pot and fry on your stove using oil but wouldn’t you rather use a device that’s built specifically for deep frying, and one that’s easy to clean?

Today, I want to introduce you all to the Butterball XL Indoor Electric Fryer (it’s also a steamer and can be used for boils!). Don’t let ‘electric’ in the name of this product throw you off, it’s a straight-forward deep fryer. You might already be familiar with the Butterball XL Electric Fryer because it’s probably the best selling indoor electric deep-fryer on the market but I’ve only been cooking with the XL for a couple of months. In that time, I’ve made fried chicken, Nashville Hot Chicken, deep-fried shrimp, coconut shrimp, and more.

Butterball XL Electric Deep Fryer

Cass Anderson


fried chicken

Cass Anderson


For Christmas, I asked for a deep fryer but I wanted one of the propane burner fryers that sit on a stand. I didn’t think there was any possible way that an electric fryer would be large enough to cook a lot of food. I was wrong. the Butterball XL Indoor Electric Fryer is more than large enough to fry up a full turkey up to 20-pounds. There’s a basket that hooks on the inside so that you can easily dip chicken, shrimp, etc. into the oil. The Butterball XL Indoor Electric Fryer also doubles as a steamer so you can use the basket for steaming. I cooked two 2.5-pound lobster in it using the Steamer function for Valentine’s Day this year and they came out pretty darn perfect:

steamed lobster

Cass Anderson


Because it’s electric, you don’t have to worry about testing the oil temperature with a thermometer. You just turn the temperature gauge to the desired temperature and when the light turns green you are ready to go. Heating up the oild only takes 10-15min depending on how much oil you’re using which I found to be incredibly fast. If you’ve ever done any deep frying on your countertop then you know how obnoxious it is keeping track of the oil temperature, and you NEVER want to put in your food before the oil’s reached the desired temp. With the Butterball XL you won’t have to worry about that at all.

Having worked with other types of deep fryers in the past I’d say that the Butterball XL Indoor Fryer is superior to the competition in three major ways. Firstly, it’s extremely easy to clean. When you’re done cooking and the oil has cooled all you have to do is twist a valve and drain the cooking oil back into the container you poured it out of. Then, all of the parts from the Butterball XL Fryer other than the heating mechanism can go straight into your dishwasher. Scrubbing a deep fryer can be a major pain but this way you skip past all the annoying parts.

Secondly, the fact that this item is built to be used indoors is incredible. This means you can use it all year long regardless of where you live. Even in the dead of Winter.

Lastly, the built-in safety features of the Butterball XL Indoor Deep Fryer are clutch. There’s a rip away mechanism with the power cord to prevent any catastrophes. If anything ever goes wrong you can just pull the magnetized power cord and the fryer will shut down immediately. The fact that you aren’t working with combustible gas makes this the safest deep fryer option on the market.

Another thing I’ve been loving about the Butterball XL Indoor Deep Fryer is how many tutorial videos there are on YouTube. Anytime I’ve been unsure of a step I’ve popped on over to YouTube and the Butterball channel is filled with helpful tutorial videos.

Features:

— Fries a turkey up to 20-pounds
— 1,650 watt electric heating element
— Electric thermostat/temperature control
— Aluminum basket for dipping food into the oil
— Built-in safety features like a magnetic power cord
— Extremely easy to clean with drain valve
— Over 460 reviews on Amazon with a 4.4 out of 5-Star rating

Butterball XL Electric Deep Fryer

Butterball


I’ve certainly got a lot to learn when it comes to perfecting recipes and cook times. Which spices to add and the best overnight buttermilk brines. But I cannot recommend the Butterball XL Electric Fryer enough to anyone looking for a safe and affordable (and LARGE!) deep fryer.

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The BroBible team writes about gear that we think you want. Occasionally, we write about items that are a part of one of our affiliate partnerships and we will get a percentage of the revenue from sales.