The Amazing Halogen Oven
2022 Update.
Hi, I hope this site (now in its tenth year) will help you decide about these unusual products, without being conned into buying whatever the local store happens to have piled up in stock. You can read the manufacturer’s own glowing descriptions, then when buying it online, you find it just isn’t what was promised. It’s no good after you’ve bought a lemon, Googling it online at forums and finding hundreds of posts complaining about the same thing. So I decided to do some real research into Halogen Ovens and give you my findings… which is the best value Halogen Oven? I have compiled my findings on the review pages:-
AND since starting this site back in 2011, other major kitchen cooking gadgets have come along, I present my findings on those here as well.
- Uk Air-Fryers
- US Air-Fryers
- Uk Dehydrators
- Uk Multi-Cookers
- US Multi-Cookers – coming soon
- Uk Slow Cookers
When I got my first Halogen Light powered Cooker I was very skeptical about the performance of a machine that cost so little against my trusty Gas oven which had served so well over years and years of cooking.
Believe! these little units are extraordinary
- Save money
- Save time
- Save time cleaning afterward
- Get the very best results every time with very little effort
The halogen oven is as cheap as a microwave oven, but cooks like a conventional oven, browning meat perfectly. It is also as quick as a microwave but doesn’t suffer with cold spots , the heat is distributed very evenly. It will also cook straight out of the freezer! No thawing necessary. Plus there is no pre-heating like your gas oven, it reaches top temperature almost instantly.
So simple, a powerful Halogen lamp heats the air,which is blown round the glass bowl with a fan and turned on and off by a temperature sensor and timer to maintain a very accurate temperature for a pre-set time. So it achieves its speed and efficiency in two well proven ways: 1) Convection or fan assisted cooking, which has been used in conventional cookers to give a reduction in heat required of up to 25% and a reduction in the cooking time of around 20% in most cases and 2) The efficient and instant heat of halogen lamp, which cuts your fuel bill.
Advantages
With the glass construction of the Halogen cooker, your food can be seen cooking, easily, without opening an oven door, which of course gives a sudden drop in temperature.
Chef Tony shows off the Fagor Halogen Oven. This is a great introduction to Halogen Ovens if you are new to the technology
Chicken Browns well in a Halogen Oven
Perfect for cakes that need watching carefully so as not to overcook them.
They dont suffer from hot and cold spots like microwave ovens, like me , you’ve probably used a microwave and found a frozen centre when the outside is fully cooked. With the halogen, the food is cooked very evenly and with a speed to match the microwave but with better results and so versatile.
- For Vegetables you can use the Halogen to Steam with the perforated steamer tray
- For Roasting meat use the lower rack
- For Grilling you can use the upper rack
- For frying use the upper rack and with none or very little oil/fat
- It will bake . For example large potatoes on the lower rack
- For the very best chips use the airfryer attachment
- For larger birds like Turkey, use the extension ring to add 5 extra litres of capacity
The design leads to healthy advantages , the fats tend to drain away. Have a look in the bottom of the glass bowl after cooking a chicken, a lot of the fat renders away.
If you cook for a large family, the Halogen is absolutely ideal, for sharing tasks out ,for example, while your large conventional oven is busy with the turkey, use the Halogen for those lovely crispy roast potatoes
What Foods give the best results in a Halogen?
Well it does a surprising variety of different foods very well, but the opinion of a lot of reviews show that Chicken, potatoes, bread, cake, chops, sausages, bacon, steak, oven chips, pies, cheese on toast are the most frequently cooked foods and the best results.
Here is the first tip, if you’re new to Halogen cookers, don’t try to cook food as it is shown on many manufacturers website pictures, with say a chicken sitting in the base of the glass bowl, it won’t work, you need to give the hot air room to circulate under the food – so always use the rack.
If you are on your own, cooking for one can be expensive with conventional ovens and microwaves are fine but don’t suit all foods, the Halogen cooker is impressively fast, easy to use and you will soon find that you get more adventurous with your menus, when you discover how easy some of the more ‘difficult’ meals are to prepare. One great advantage that saves time, is the ability to cook meat from frozen.
In the vast majority of cases reviewers comments indicated that they had noticed a reduction in the electricity bill ( where the Halogen was used to replace electric cookers of course! ) Whilst you have to take some as subjective, in my own tests and calculations cooking on a regular basis with these cookers, will definitely reduce the bill. Because the oven reaches its working temperature so quickly, there is no need to pre-heat it, which you see in a quite a few recipes done in the conventional oven, this alone saves a good amount of your energy needs
I grew up in the sixties and lived in a world where dad came home at the same time every day week in week out, year in…….. so despite much time consuming steaming, roasting or boiling , mum could have dinner on the table at the exact right time every day. However reheating was difficult and would ruin a meal very quickly. That world that has given way to one of convenience and quick cook foods, in such a busy world you can still maintain healthy living easily and not give in to fish fingers every night ( although the Halogen does Fish fingers perfectly ! ) or expensive and nutritionally suspect, ready meals
Top Tips!
*Every time you remove the lid during use, wipe it with a damp cloth, saves a lot of work with hard baked on food.
*Maximum Heat: make sure you choose one with a top temperature of 250 degrees, some only reach 200 degrees and that is a little short of the heat required to cook some recipes.
MANY THANKS FOR THE INFO, I THINK I WILL GET ONE
Just basic instructions please! How to use each bit, what goes where. Clifford James instruction book is useless! We oldies given one for Christmas and are lost.
Ive purchased the andrew james digital oven and the instruction manual and recipe book says you have to pre heat the oven i didnt have to do this with my old one as it is instant heat so could you tell me why i have to do this with andrew james
My guess would be that it is a recipe transcribed from one using a conventional cooker. I’ve used Halogens for a few years now and never needed to preheat. The halogen lamp gets the oven, which is a very small space, up to full working temperature very very quickly, in a matter of seconds.
You say to purchase one with a top heat of 250 degrees. Just got a VonShef 1300 Watt Halogen Oven 2 days ago that shows their heat range as 32-480F degrees. Another site had the same comment as you. Both are UK sites and am American. Also, I heat up already prepared frozen food from Schwan’s food delivery. They don’t have recipes for the Halogen, just microwave, steam, deep fryer and oven. Any suggestions on heating this kind of stuff up? Also, they have frozen fries to heat in a regular oven, Do I use the Halogen with the same settings and on the top rack? Thanks.
Hi William,
I wish it was simple, but foods and especially prepared foods do vary a lot, but after a little experimentation I’m sure you will find your Halogen perfect for the job.
Go initially with the settings for a conventional oven, if they have instructions for a fan oven, even better. A halogen closely resembles a fan oven, but because it cooks with IR
and with radiant heat as well as air convection it does the cooking much faster, so simply reduce the time by say 10% and test it. If cooking from fresh ingredients you can make small changes, such as making a cut or two into the stalks of your vegetables which will make cooking more even, wrapping cauliflower, broccoli, etc in foil with a little water sprinkled inside then sealed, cooks perfectly.
I’ve done a few posts on fries ( chips UK ) . They cook well in a Halogen, I use an air fryer attachment and find that the very best method, but on the top rack is fine, just experiment with the cooking time a little.
Hi Jennfier, first of all great site 10/10
I have a bit of unusual question, do halogen ovens produce any smoke or smells while cooking? Currently I use a frying pan to cook meat but I find it fills the room up with a strong odour that lingers for days! thanks
If the food that you are cooking is fatty, it will eventually coat the lamp of a halogen or the element of an airfryer with splatter. This then starts to burn and will make white smoke. So the solution is to keep on top of it, after every use.
To clean see my cleaning article its in the “Halogen & AirFryer Tips” section
i quite like the look of this!!im looking forward to explore all the function available!