I have been using the Philips Air Fryer NA120/00 regularly for a while now and one thing that I have realised is that air fryers make the most sense when you stop expecting them to replace deep frying. When you start treating them as convenience machines that make food crispier with less effort, that’s when the experience starts hitting the spots.
Frozen nuggets, I feel, are the best examples of that. I had already cooked a bunch of chicken recipes in the Philips NA120/00 air fryer before I decided to go for the humble nuggets. Since I had tried a bunch of chicken recipes, I already knew that this particular air fryer browns food once temperatures rise beyond 180°C.
However, you can’t treat nuggets like chicken because unlike marinated chicken or homemade recipes, frozen nuggets are already made to work with high-heat cooking. The air fryer is mainly responsible for reheating the inside evenly while crisping up the coating outside. That’s exactly what this air fryer is good at!
The Philips Air Fryer NA120/00 Handles Frozen Snacks Well
The process of cooking nuggets in this Philips air fryer is very easy. I pre-heated the air fryer for a couple of minutes, then threw the nuggets into the basket, brushed it with a little bit of oil, and set the temperature at 180°C for 10 minutes.
What surprised me was not that the nuggets turned out crispy, I was already expecting that but how evenly all the nuggets brown because I spaced them out evenly and didn’t overcrowd the basket.
See, the basket in the Philips NA120/00 is fairly compact, if you overcrowd the basket, the nuggets end up sitting too close together, which affects airflow. In that case, some nuggets will brown faster while some soften slightly because steam starts building between them instead of hot air circulating properly.
Why Airflow Matters More Than You Think
A lot of people obsess over “air circulation” while talking about air fryers and while that might sound annoying but the machine really does rely majorly on uninterrupted airflow to give you that crisp outer texture.
Unlike ovens where heat spreads gradually across a bigger chamber, compact air fryers like the Philips NA120/00 work with concentrated hot air moving rapidly around food in the compact basket. If the airflow gets blocked, you don’t get the desired texture.
That difference will become pretty obvious when you cook nuggets. If you tightly fill in a basket with nuggets and cook another batch spaced out, you will feel a difference both in texture and how it looks.
The Sweet Spot Was Around 180°C
Since nuggets are pre-cooked before they are frozen, they can overcook fairly quickly in the Philips NA120/00. Once this air fryer crosses a certain temperature, it can feel a little bit aggressive on the food.
For nuggets, I found 180°C to be the sweet spot because it gave the coating enough time to crisp properly without making the inside dry or overly chewy.
At 200°C, the nuggets started browning beautifully, but the outer layer also hardened faster than expected if I let them stay in for too long. So, eventually, what I did was preheated the oven for a couple of minutes, then threw in the nuggets at 180°C for 10 minutes, and then ended with a few seconds at 200°C for extra crispness.
A Tiny Bit of Oil Made The Nuggets Look Better
Frozen nuggets already contain oil in the coating, so technically you can cook them directly without adding anything but if you brush it with a little bit of oil then the nuggets will turn out evenly golden and it also improves the texture slightly.
They look closer to the nuggets you get outside visually, just without the greasy finish that usually comes with deep frying. So that’s a win!
That’s probably the biggest difference I noticed overall. Air fryer nuggets still become crispy, but the texture feels lighter compared to when you deep fry them. I haven’t been having nuggets for a while now just because of that greasy after-taste, but I actually preferred the nuggets that came out of the Philips NA120/00. They don’t even feel heavy.
Why Nuggets Work So Well In The Philips Air Fryer NA120/00
After trying nuggets in the Philips Air Fryer NA120/00, I honestly feel like this is one of the best use cases for this air fryer. The compact size helps it heat up quickly, the rapid air circulation crisps the frozen snacks evenly, and the entire process feels much faster and cleaner than traditional frying.
More importantly, nuggets genuinely feel like a low-effort snack, without any mess, leftover oil, and the heaviness that comes along.
