Lángos at Home: Do You Need a Deep Fryer or an Air Fryer?

It was a cold evening at the inn, and Gerzsi had one word on his mind: lángos. In Hungary it is the smell of summer at the lake and of winter markets: a round of yeasted dough, fried until it puffs and crackles, brushed with garlic and piled with sour cream and grated cheese.

He had a new idea, too. The air fryer on the counter made such good fries, so why not lángos? He stretched the dough. Then he stretched it a little more. Then a lot more. By the time Chef Tamás came in, a golden lángos the size of a beaver was towering over the little machine, and Gerzsi was pushing it down with both paws. Chef Tamás clapped a hand to his forehead and laughed until he had to lean on the counter.

The lángos did not fit. And even a small one would not have come out right, because an air fryer doesn’t fry. So, before anyone buys a new machine for lángos night, here is what the testers actually found.

Deep fryer, air fryer or a pan: what lángos needs

A wide pan. Lángos is fried flat in about ¾ to 1 inch (2 to 2.5 cm) of hot oil in a wide, heavy pan or a Dutch oven. That is how the recipe below is written. The one tool that really helps is a thermometer, because the oil should sit between about 340 and 365°F (170 and 185°C).

A deep fryer works too. It is worth it if you fry often: fries, chicken, doughnuts, and lángos on the weekend. It holds the temperature on its own, keeps the splatter inside, and the better ones filter and store the oil for next time. One catch for lángos: America’s Test Kitchen found that most fryer baskets have only about 50 to 60 square inches of usable space. Shape your lángos smaller, about 6 inches (15 cm) across, so it lies flat in the basket.

An air fryer is a different tool. It is a small convection oven with a strong fan, so it bakes the dough with hot air instead of frying it in oil. You get a soft bread round, not the puffed, crackly lángos. Buy one for fries, wings and roast vegetables, where the testers say it shines, and keep the pan for lángos.

What America’s Test Kitchen found

For deep fryers, ATK fried mozzarella sticks, French fries, fried chicken, vegetable tempura and cider doughnuts in each electric fryer and in a Dutch oven, and cleaned and filtered every machine after each use. Read the deep fryer test.

• Basket size matters more than oil volume. The basket’s surface area decides how much you can fry in one batch.
• The winner kept up with a Dutch oven. The T-fal Ultimate EZ Clean fried every recipe in the same number of batches as ATK’s favorite Dutch oven.
• No electric fryer got really hot. None went above about 385°F, so tempura came out greasier than in a Dutch oven. Chef Tamás fries lángos at 365°F (185°C), which is within the winner’s 374°F top setting.
• Faster to heat. Most fryers reached 350°F in 10 to 17 minutes, the Dutch oven in about 20.

For air fryers, ATK cooked frozen and homemade fries, chicken wings, chicken Parmesan and pork tenderloin with butternut squash in 20 models. Read the air fryer test, or see our full air fryer guide.

The deep fryers worth a look

• T-fal Ultimate EZ Clean (FR7008002). The winner. Big basket, lid, built-in oil filter and storage box. ATK’s catch: lots of parts to wash, and it tops out at 374°F. About $95 at the time of ATK’s test. See it on Amazon
• De’Longhi Livenza. Mostly excellent food, built-in filter and spigot, but a smaller basket. See it on Amazon
• Hamilton Beach 12-Cup (35033). Food came out well cooked and the lid kept things tidy. Small basket and no filter. See it on Amazon
• Hamilton Beach 5-Liter (35042). The biggest basket in the test. The catch: inaccurate temperatures and hard to clean. See it on Amazon
• No fryer at all: a Dutch oven. ATK’s 5 to 6 quart winner, the Le Creuset 5½-quart, or the Cuisinart 7 qt Best Buy. Add a thermometer and you can fry anything. See the Le Creuset on Amazon

The air fryers worth a look

• Instant Vortex Plus 6-Quart. ATK’s winner: four chicken cutlets or two 15-ounce bags of frozen fries in one go. Their one complaint: the basket liner sometimes fell out when they tipped the basket. See it on Amazon
• Cosori TurboBlaze 6 Qt. Highly Recommended by ATK for evenly golden cutlets; a little slower with two bags of fries. See it on Amazon
• Cosori Pro LE. The budget pick, Highly Recommended by ATK and easy to use. It fits three cutlets instead of four. See it on Amazon

In the end, Chef Tamás cut the giant into pieces, and Gerzsi fried a proper batch in a heavy pot, the old way. The air fryer got the fries.

Lángos: Hungarian fried bread

Fried in a wide pan here. A deep fryer works too, but you don’t need one: see the note in step 7.

Lángos: Hungarian Fried Bread with Garlic, Sour Cream and Cheese

• Servings: 4
• Prep Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
• Cook Time: 15 minutes
• Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
• Difficulty: Easy
• Print

Yeasted dough stretched into rounds, fried until puffed and golden, then brushed with garlic and topped with sour cream and grated cheese.

Ingredients

For the dough
• 2 1/2 cups (300 g) bread flour
• 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon (100 ml) lukewarm milk
• 2 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• About 1/2 cup (110 ml) lukewarm water
• Neutral oil for frying, such as canola
For the garlic
• 3 to 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 3 tablespoons water
• 3 tablespoons canola oil
For the topping
• 1 cup (about 200 g) sour cream
• 1 cup (about 100 g) grated cheese, such as Cheddar, Emmental or Gouda

Directions

1. Wake the yeast: Warm the milk to body temperature, about 98°F (37°C). Stir in the yeast and sugar and leave for 10 minutes, until foamy.
2. Mix: Put the flour and salt in a bowl and make a well in the middle. Pour in the yeast milk and most of the water. Mix into a rough dough, adding the rest of the water if it feels dry.
3. Knead and rise: Knead for a few minutes until smooth. Cover and leave in a warm place for about 1 hour, until doubled.
4. Garlic: While the dough rises, put the garlic, water and oil in a small jar, close it and shake well.
5. Heat the oil: Pour 3/4 to 1 inch (2 to 2.5 cm) of oil into a wide, heavy pan or Dutch oven, about 11 inches (28 cm) across. Heat it to 340°F (170°C). Check with a thermometer.
6. Shape: Oil your hands. Divide the dough into 4 pieces and stretch each one into a round about 7 to 8 inches (18 to 20 cm) across, with the edges a little thicker than the middle.
7. Fry: Lay one round gently into the hot oil, away from you. Fry for about 2 minutes per side, until puffed and golden. Lift it out and drain on a rack or paper towels. Bring the oil back to 340°F before the next one. In a deep fryer: set it to 340 to 350°F and shape the rounds smaller, about 6 inches (15 cm), so they lie flat in the basket.
8. Top: While still warm, brush or spoon on the garlic, then spread with sour cream and scatter the cheese over the top. Eat right away.

Lángos is at its best in the first few minutes, while the edges still crackle.
Stand back and lay the dough into the oil away from you, so any splash goes the other way. Never leave hot oil alone on the stove.
Let the oil cool completely before you strain and store it.

How Chef Tamás makes it

Chef Tamás makes his lángos dough with boiled potato and milk. He fries it in a heavy pot or cast iron, in sunflower oil at 365°F (185°C), the same temperature he uses for doughnuts, so the dough doesn’t fall apart in the oil.

💡 Chef Tamás’s tricks

• His favorite topping: sour cream and grated cheese, with garlic oil.
• It works sweet or savory, too: with Nutella, with maple syrup, with sausage, or with a meaty ragout spooned inside.
• The most common mistakes he sees: a raw, doughy middle, dough that soaks up oil, and dough that hasn’t risen properly.

🧰 Tools we use

Tamás didn’t name brands for this one. The linked models are America’s Test Kitchen’s picks for the same jobs.

• A heavy pot or cast iron for frying. See the ATK Dutch oven pick on Amazon
• A thermometer to keep the oil at 365°F. See the ATK thermometer pick on Amazon

Recipe adapted from Hungarian Fried Lángos on Krumpli. Cooked our way at the inn.

Sources

• America’s Test Kitchen: The best electric deep fryers
• Krumpli: Hungarian fried lángos recipe
• America’s Test Kitchen: The best Dutch ovens
• America’s Test Kitchen: The best instant-read thermometers
• America’s Test Kitchen: The best spider skimmers
• America’s Test Kitchen: The best kitchen tongs
• America’s Test Kitchen: The best sour cream
• America’s Test Kitchen: The best air fryers
• NBC Select: The best board games for kids