Commercial Pressure Fryer

Pressure Fryer Cookers: What You Need to Know

Fast food chicken dynasties have been built on the speed and efficiency of these commercial chicken fryers. Like a traditional fryer, these cook food using hot oil, but they can achieve quicker cooking times with the addition of pressure and steam, which speed up the cooking process. This quick cooking is what makes these so valuable for fast food chains. Before this innovation, chicken couldn't be cooked rapidly enough to be a viable quick-service concept. Though they're mostly used for poultry, their ability to increase pressure – resulting in higher oil temperatures than traditional fryers – makes them useful for cooking other foods, from battered fish to vegetable tempura.

Common Questions About Commercial Pressure Fryers

What is a commercial pressure fryer?

Commercial pressure fryers utilize heat, pressure, and steam to fry food at a higher temperature than can be utilized in normal deep fryers. Because the cooking area is pressurized, the boiling temperature of water is increased, meaning fewer chicken juices are boiled out of food. In addition to their notable speed and efficiency, pressure fryers give food a unique flavor. Their hotter cooking temperatures help them lock in flavor and moisture without saturating the food with cooking oil. Lower cooking temperatures can force food to stay in the fryer longer, which can lead to a soggy product that tastes too strongly of the fat it was cooked in.

What size pressure fryer cooker should I get?

Sizing should be the first factor to consider when shopping for pressure fryers for chicken or any other food. The most common way to describe the size of a commercial pressure fryer is by its oil capacity. Oil capacities range between 48 and 75 pounds; this number should not be confused with how much product can be fried in the unit. That number is smaller, typically around ¹⁄₄ the oil capacity of any given unit. For example, a fryer with a 48-pound oil capacity will cook approximately 14 pounds of product in one batch.

Based on that number, choose a fryer that's large enough to accommodate the volume of food you intend to fry per batch. Sometimes it's better to go with two smaller fryers instead of one large one, especially if you're frying two different recipes or two types of products. Either way, having two fryers will let you stagger your batches for quicker order turnaround. It's important never to exceed the capacity of your fryer. Overloading a pressure fryer cooker will lower the temperature of the oil, slow down cooking, and create a soggy product as a result.

What specialty options are available with commercial pressure fryers?

An automatic top-off feature keeps oil at the ideal level, reducing labor time and preventing you from ever frying in oil that's too low. Low oil levels can cause your fryer to overheat, potentially burning food and damaging your equipment.

Programmable controls enable you to create custom cooking programs for specific menu items. Once they've been stored in the unit's memory, these programs can be recalled at the press of a button. These simplify operation, so training new users to operate the commercial pressure fryer will take less time, and they can bring you more consistent results from one batch to the next.