CHEFMAN – TurboFry Touch 4.5 Qt Digital Air Fryer – Silver – Stainless Steel

I had been contemplating trying an air fryer for a while and the CHEFMAN – TurboFry Touch 4.5 Qt Digital Air Fryer was a great way to start. I was really impressed with the way it cooked meals.
Out of the box, you just get the essentials. You get the air fryer and the cooking basket. The instructions are fairly easy to go through and the cooking controls are fairly intuitive. After cleaning everything out of the box, you put in your food and set a temperature and a time and you are off cooking. It is very simple.
I would have liked for CHEFMAN to have included at least a couple of recipes to try out the fryer. Even though the box shows some amazing looking food that you would like to try, no recipes come with this. As a novice to air frying, I wasn’t sure whether I could just throw stuff in there in be good. So I searched the internet to get some recipes. While there are some books you can order from retailers, there are also plenty of downloadable dishes to meet your needs.
My first meal was chicken and homemade fries. The real problem I encountered here was the cooking area was relatively limited. The pictures for the product show multi-level cooking. Out of the box, you can’t do this. You will need some accessories to do this. The attached pictures are what you get out of the box.
With single level cooking, the big issue was how to prepare everything and keep it warm while waiting for the other items to cook. You can make an entire meal in this as is, but you will have to do it in stages instead of all at once, at least if you want to Air-Fry everything.
As for the size, I was able to tightly fit about 1 pound of chicken tenders on the cooking surface without overlapping. I can see this size being good for probably a couple cooking for themselves. For a big family, this probably isn’t going to work well unless you can cook multi-level.
As far as the cooking quality goes, this works great. The recipe called fro the chicken to be cooked at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. I just set the temperature and go. The machine has a shake reminder which beeps at the halfway point of whatever time you set. So at 10 minutes I opened the tray and flipped the chicken. The chicken was well cooked throughout. There were not pink or undercooked areas. Regardless of where the chicken was on the tray, it was cooked throughout. It also was not dried out. The taste was very good.
The other thing that I wasn’t sure about what how much heat would be put off by the unit. There is an exhaust port in the bock where air is blown away from the unit. Surprisingly though there was not a tremendous amount of heat given off by the unit. You can cook on a counter top and not worry.
As for the homemade fries, this cooking was much the same. The fries came out golden brown and tasted very good. This was my first time making fries from scratch, but with the way they turned out it won’t be my last. I was really impressed.
There is one other point I should make. The cooking basket is dishwasher safe. But as may be present with other nonstick cookers, there was a bit of an burnt odor after the machine was used the first time. This was somewhat expected and should go away after a couple uses.
In the end, I really like the CHEFMAN – TurboFry Touch 4.5 Qt Digital Air Fryer. It was very easy to use. I just wish it would have had multi-level cooking out of the box and included some recipes. While I would have preferred that I could have cooked the meal almost all at once, I really liked it. I recommended the TurboFry Touch Air Fryer to people looking for an good air fryer.

I noticed that Chefman came out with some new models of air fryers, the Turbo Fry Touch, and wanted to try one out. We’ve had a few others in the past and still use one quite often. I didn’t need as large of a one as we have now and thought one for smaller dishes would be nice and the 4.5qt capacity would be pretty nice.
Unboxing:
This is supposed to be a smaller unit and glad we didn’t get a larger one as this takes up a good bit of space “not complaining though” our other air fryer has a footprint double this. Inside the box is the fryer, tray for the bottom of the basked, and some literature with a few recipes to try out. The unit itself looks quite nice on the counter, it’s not that big and the black and stainless body looks really good in our kitchen. The controls are all touch sensitive and unless the unit is plugged I the control panel is completely black.
Setting up and first use:
After unboxing, washing out the pan and tray, the manual suggested running the unit first without anything in it as it may have some residual odor and they weren’t kidding, there was more than plenty of odor and should have ran it outside as it really smelled up the house “oops”. So after running it, cleaning and running again, the odor the second time around wasn’t as bad, “plus I ran it outside on the porch to be safe”. We started using it after the third run, there was still a very slight odor over the cooking smell but it wasn’t bad and it didn’t transfer over to the food. By the fourth cooking the smell had disappeared.
Using:
The touch screen is really nice bright and clear, no mistakes about how to choose and adjust settings.
We tried Mini Egg Rolls first; these came out nice, crisp, and well browned. I used a setting at 375 for 15 minutes “only took around 12”, and that was plenty, these were also fully frozen so that’s not a bad cooking time as our convection oven takes around that much time to cook also and the insides were piping hot, “super roof of mouth burning hot”, so no issues with cooking going from frozen and having the very center being heated.
Then I went on to try out a 1/3lb burger patty, it was cold from being refrigerated long before cooking. I set the time for 10 minutes and started checking it around the 5 minute mark, and at that point it was starting to darken and cook. It did take around 12 minutes to get a very nicely browned burger. I used 400F but the edges came out a little dry, so I think setting it for 350 – 375 would be better giving the center to cook out a little more but so far I was really impressed with how well this worked. And all the fats from it drained into the bottom of the pan.
The next item we tested were some “Bureks” that we had picked up at the international store, “we like to grab something we’ve never had before”, and the instructions said to place in oven set at 375f for 25-30min. I set the fryer to 375 but for 15min, and after 12 minutes “I’m glad I checked”, because they were already done and any longer they would have been overcooked. We’re both really amazed just how fast these cooked in here, and they were frozen too.
Conclusion;
This new air fryer from Chefman really works quite well, it’s a perfect add-on to our current air fryer, that one has a stirring paddle and works really good for cooking items that benefit from constant stirring, but for like Egg Rolls it’s too abusive and breaks them apart. And you really can’t fry up a hamburger patty with it. This Chefman on the other hands is perfect for frying up more delicate things like an Egg Rolls, Dumpling “or Bureks”, where you don’t want to be stirring and breaking things down. So in the end these will end up complementing each other and we’ll be able to fix up a full multicourse meal in no time. On top of that, no oil was needed with any of the items we tried, everything inside is nonstick and a simple wipe of come cooking oil would be sufficient if you are concerned about anything sticking.
Cleanup was really easy, nothing stuck hard to the interior, a simple wash down with hot water and dish soap plus a light scrub with the brush and everything came right off. The tray inside could be put in the dish washer but it’s small and I wouldn’t even attempt to put the basket assembly in there as it would probably mess up the stainless outer surface, but it’s simple enough to clean up without needing the dishwasher.
My only real complaint is how much hot air comes out the back, it’s like a hair dryer set on medium, it’s pretty warm and here in AZ during the summer with 110+F days I don’t want to heat up the house at all. As fast as it cooks it’s not going to be putting out heat for very long, and the simple solutions for us is put it on the patio table and use it there. The great thing about that is the unit is pretty well sealed up so nothing is going to be getting into it ‘Flies”. Plus this model is light and doesn’t take up much room so it’s easily transported. In the winter months when it’s actually cold enough here we’ll be using it inside, won’t mind the extra heat from it at all then.
If you are looking for an Air Fryer to try out, and don’t need a large unit for a full sized family “only two of us”, this one is about perfectly sized, so don’t hesitate in considering purchasing the new Chefman Turbo Fry Touch you won’t be disappointed. And if you need a larger unit Chefman offers these in multiple sizes to fit your needs.

This is review of Chefman Chef IQ 4.5Q model RJ38-SQ-45T.
As unpacking it, it feels light and not that bulky as could be its bigger version of capacity. This is good as can move around without effort for use case in which place aside after usage.
On the cooking and usage, the process is simple as many others have experienced and reviewed with other model similarly with under review model.
Therefore here below list what spot to caught by my wife during cooking and washing it. Any comparing aspect is based on experience of using Gourmia 6.0 2019 model.
1. It felt the cooking process was faster or more powerful. We relates this most probably it is for being newer model and maybe it is called Turbo (?)
2. The basket has design of open slices alike shark has grill for breathing, and suspect it allow efficiently circulate the air during cooking process.
3. The power cord is quite short, about less than 2ft 1/2.
4. It has alarm during cooking process allowing you to shake (or flip side)
5. Simple to wash.
Then among the first impression listed above, below list of what might feel bit annoyance:
1. The basket rack, its bottom side, the border of the edge can potentially create cut alike paper cut during washing process or holding it for cooking prep.
2. In the basket can get sucked little pieces for instance bread crump in between spaces hence need additional steps while washing.
3. Not sure if it is due to its kind of coating, but after wash, doesn’t dry well taking bit longer time. Similar coating used in other appliances does dry immediately after being washed.
4. Doesn’t have preset time by default, nor a comparable recipe guidance at the finger for quick look and have to look for separately.
To conclude, Chef IQ 4.5Q as hardware looks simple, does cook as intended and well based on one cooking experience. Cooked Donkatsu, spread bit of oil, and in couple of minute was done well.
However, had to setup the time and temperature as guessing right number.
Although works as per its intend, feels for the same price or around can get other brand with further functionality and from one time experience using Chef IQ 4.5 couldn’t notice any critically differential function such to say is best.
But if all is needed basic buttons, might be appealing to those users, but still for similar price that can get bigger capacity with various functions, and as comment above, not sure if does justify it.

The Chefman 4.5 Quart Digital Air Fryer is a very good-looking Air Fryer and looks great sitting on our kitchen cabinet countertop.
I read the short instructions that accompanied the Chefman 4.5 Quart Digital Air Fryer, hand washed the basket and basket rack with warm soapy water, wiped down the interior and outside main unit with a damp cloth and made sure the main unit and the parts were well dried.
Started a trial with a handful of frozen French fries, 400 degrees, 10 minutes. We did not use anything on the French fries prior to or during the cooking process.
At five minutes mark the “shake” light and alarm came on, I removed the basket, and gave the fries a little shake, I noticed they were browning quickly.
I re-inserted the basket and the air fryer started back cooking where it stopped when I removed the basket.
After checking the status of the French fries, at the 8-minute mark, I opted to press the cancel button and remove the basket. I have heard complaints/concerns from other people stating fries are crisp but dried out inside. Our fries were crispy outside and moist inside. The fries were exceptional. The next, full basket, of fries took a little longer to air fry, they came out evenly air fried, and were excellent.
Being able to remove the fryer basket at any time and check your food or turn your food, and start back right where you left off, is a great feature.
I tried some large chicken thighs next. I removed the bone, and left the skin on, seasoned them, and placed them in the Chefman Air Fryer. Set the temp to 400 and the time to 20 minutes. The thighs came out nice, the skin was crispy, and meat was tender and moist, however the thighs were a little over done for me. When I removed the thighs from the Chefman the internal temp of the thighs was 180.
Another great feature is the simplicity of, the machine, and its use, and the cleaning after cooking.