I helped judge a friendly little chicken wing-cooking competition at Southeast Steel the other day. But the twist was that these wings weren’t deep fried, they were air fried.

And to make it twistier, they weren’t done in one of those countertop air fryers but rather in a “conventional” oven with an air frying element built into it. A representative for Frigidaire explains it in the video below.

It’s made by Frigidaire and it’s the first of its kind. This is different from convection – the range has convection capabilities, too – because convection simply moves the heated air around. The air-fry feature super heats that air to get foods crispy, just like deep frying but without the oil.

To demonstrate the oven, Southeast Steel owners Stu and Spencer Kendall along with Grace Anderson each cooked a batch of wings. Kendra Lott, publisher of Edible Orlando, Ricky Ly of Tasty Chomps and I served as judges. Kendra and Ricky liked the seasoned ribs (Spencer’s) and I liked the plain ones (Grace’s).

But that was just about the flavor profiles. The key takeaway is that they all were cooked just right, and if I hadn’t known they were done in an air fryer oven I don’t think I would have guessed.

You can learn more about the Frigidaire range with built-in air fryer at Southeast Steel’s website.