Red Copper 5 Minute Chef is a nonstick cooker that prepares food in minutes. Does it work as advertised? Here is our Red Copper 5 Minute Chef review.
About Red Copper 5 Minute Chef
Red Copper 5 Minute Chef is a lidded cooker with two deep wells that feature nonstick coating and anti-scratch technology. The official website is buy5minutechef.com, with a registration date of May 2017. The screen capture below was taken of the product website in July 2017.
Claims & Features
- Evenly cooks food (does not require flipping)
- Copper infused
- Coated with nonstick ceramic
- Scratch resistant
Cost
Red Copper 5 Minute Chef costs $39.99. It comes with a spatula and recipe guide. There is an optional double offer which costs $69.98 for two units, a spatula, recipe guide, and a Red Copper Flipwich. In addition to these two offers, there are two deluxe offers which feature a double coating of the nonstick ceramic coating. The single deluxe offers costs $49.98 and comes with the spatula and recipe guide. The double deluxe offers costs $89.96 and comes with spatula, recipe guide, and Red Copper Flipwich. Shipping is free on all offers.
I picked up Red Copper 5 Minute Chef at a local Kmart here in Las Vegas for $40 in October 2017.
Red Copper 5 Minute Chef Review
Cathy Mitchell is back, pitching another As Seen on TV kitchen device, this time known as the Red Copper 5 Minute Chef. This is an electric cooker that heats food from the top and bottom, thus preparing meals in half the time.
To use the 5 Minute Chef, you simply put your ingredients in the oval “well” as they call it, and close the lid. Your food will cook on both sides at once, and can be easily lifted out when it’s done – thanks to the nonstick coating. Basically, it’s a like small oval George Foreman grill that doesn’t allow fat to drip away from the food. Another unique feature is that you can flip the entire unit over for dishes that require even cooking on both sides. The comparison to the Foreman product could be one potential drawback. For some foods where grease is not a problem, like eggs or cake, Red Copper 5 Minute Chef will perform beautifully. Cooking a hamburger or chicken breast, however, could get messy as all the grease collects inside the well alongside your burger. Plus when you flip the unit over, grease could spill out from the sides.
The other potential problem that I see for some consumers is that this item is very small. While the advertising hypes that it is “smaller than a toaster,” the actual well that holds your food is about the size of the palm of an average hand. Thus, I don’t see this as being used to cook meals as they state in the advertising. I’m not even sure if it’s large enough to make a single side dish that would feed a small family. The chicken breast I prepared in the video below needed to be trimmed down in order to fit in the unit.
One odd feature is that there is no temperature setting, nor is there an on/off switch. As soon as you plug it in, it begins heating up.
For college students who don’t have access to a full kitchen, this could be a nice addition to a microwave. For small meals to feed one person, I can also see this as having some benefit. With a $40 price tag, however, it would be hard for me to recommend this over the numerous George Foreman grills that are readily available and can prepare more food at once.
As you can see in my video below, I prepared 11 batches of food in the Red Copper 5 Minute Chef: 1 omelette, 3 cakes, 2 hamburgers, 4 sets of biscuits, and a chicken breast. Here are some of my observations from those tests. The omelette had instructions and cooked perfectly in about 3 minutes. I put two eggs in the unit and cooked 90 seconds, flipped the device, and cooked another 90 seconds. The three cakes, for which I found a recipe in the included booklet, all turned out differently. Cake #1 took 5 minutes and turned out pretty well although the outsides were slightly hard. The second cake seemed burnt on one side, which I suspect because I only let it cool for five minutes. After that I let it cool for 15 minutes before cooking cake #3, which I only put in there for four minutes and it turned out the best of the bunch.
The first hamburger I put in the 5 Minute Chef for 5 minutes, but it was still raw inside, so I cut it in half and cooked it for another two minutes. The second hamburger I tried for 8 minutes, but there was still pink in the middle, so that ended up taking over 9 minutes.
After a bit of trial and error, I was able to make 2 biscuits per batch in 3 minutes and 45 seconds (per batch of two). Finally, a chicken breast took 15 minutes, but was juicy and evenly cooked.
I feel that the $40 price tag seems a bit high for the size of this product, and it should more like $20-$25. I thought the price might be lowered during the test marketing phase, but as of this October 2017 update, it is still $40.
Red Copper Flipwich
The current TV offer includes the Red Copper Flipwich as a bonus, and you can see my full video review of that product below.
Your Red Copper 5 Minute Chef Reviews
What are your thoughts about Red Copper 5 Minute Chef? Drop a comment below and a star rating above to let us know what you think about it.
Updated October 2017.
Not many “As Seen on TV” products are still around a couple of years later. The George Foreman grills and the Ronco rotisserie are a couple of exceptions. But most of these TV products wind up stored in the basement, sold at yard sales or donated to thrift shops.
I love all my copper pans. I’ve gotten several which is why I was interested in this. They work really well and clean up pretty easily. I use them every day.
My mom is alone and I thought the extra one would be perfect for her.
I’ll try to call them tomorrow. I’m still interested.
I was going to order but the website and phone was not selling what the commercial offered (2 for 1 and a free sandwich flip pan) for $39.99. Cost was higher ($49.99 for one) and the flip pan was nowhere to be seen.
I just bought another product from this company – very unhappy with them – the commercial made it look like a miracle product. NOT – took it out of the box and it certainly didn’t do what it was advertised to do. Immediately called and asked for return shipping. They told me I would have to take care of everything myself. I did but called my credit card company immediately to dispute the charges and was told they would take care of it if this company didn’t. Additionally the TV advertised free 2nd item which I later realized they charged… Read more »
I did not buy. I found that if you “doubled” your order the cost went to
$89.99 — not quite the deal Ms. Happy Patty sells. She says, “Just pay
an extra fee…” That is enough to satisfy the credit card company that
they disclosed an additional fee without stating what the fee is. I
don’t like scammers like this.
where can you get it can’t find any place to buy it
Dollar and Walmart sell these
I bought this for 1 reason only. I have not mastered frying eggs over medium without breaking the yokes when flipping. Like others have said, the cooking well is quite small, but perfect size for 3 eggs. After 3 minutes on the bottom, i flip the machine for 1 minute. My eggs come out perfect every time. I spray the bottom & top with a Biem hot butter sprayer. Then i spray hot butter on my toast & have a perfect breakfast. I highly recommend this product. Using it now for a couple of weeks, its flawless……..BTW, the well is… Read more »
This product is the GX Xpress/Xpress Redi Set go/Xpress Platinum with a copper coating. Even the recipes in the commercial are the same from the last few products. I was hoping you would do a review of this product on your youtube channel.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE the flipwich. You can even fry an egg in it easily without added spray or butter. I love all the copper cookware – nothing sticks to it and it is so easy to clean. Might wait on the 5 minute chef and see if it comes down in price since it is so small.
I just bought a couple of 5 minute chefs, one deluxe and one regular one. The deluxe is a scam. Don’t waste your money. Its the same model but just a different box that says deluxe. I called customer service and they claim that the deluxe model has the same model number but since its in deluxe packaging its deluxe. Trust them that its deluxe. Scam. Customer service is full of idiots that know nothing and they just make you mad because of their lack of knowledge and unwillingness to help. You stay on hold for a very long time… Read more »
Thanks for the reviews. I was contemplating buying one, but I’ll save my money.
My son thought this would be easy for me and he’s right – I love it! I love the fact that it’s small and lightweight but I can make two eggs with onions, gr pepper and cheese filled right to the top and it comes out beautifully. My ground Chuck burger w/onions was delicious, I just put the onions on each side. So easy and fast!! About 6 minutes and it’s done! I haven’t seen a reason to flip anything. Grilled chicken sandwich w/cheese and mushrooms was delicious. Just put the mushrooms on the sides, add some butter, it all… Read more »
where do you find recipes? The booklet that came with it doesn’t have many in it.
Can’t find direction for grilled cheese sandwich on 5 min chef!!!!
Still waiting for answer!!!??
I got one , used 4 times and loved it . Then next thing it di NOT work . The light didn’t come and it never heated at all . Got a 2nd one and I use it BUT … The top and bottom does NOT cook the same at all Even flipped one side cooks hotter . Plus stuff sticks bad even using oil or butter . If that was fixed I’d buy 20 more .
Chicken breast at 15 minutes is too long. Just eating overcooked, dry chic breast. Next time, I’ll do 10 min and check it. I’d rather cut in half and maybe have to cook longer than have overcooked meat.