Thoughts on air fryers?

[Mr King]

They are just countertop convection ovens, but the one I bought has been one of my best kitchen appliance purchases. I use it every day sometimes multiple times a day. I cook hamburgers, sausages like brats, Italian, and breakfast, pork steaks, chicken thighs, and when the mood strikes me, frozen junk food like french fries, frozen egg rolls, tater tots, pizza rolls, and cheese sticks. In my opinion it cooks the meat and frozen junk food excellent. The unbreaded chicken thighs crisp up almost just like throwing them into the deep fryer. The only thing I have not liked so far was a frozen burrito I prepared in it. The burrito came out too crispy.  The one in the picture is a similar model to mine, but I think mine is bigger and has a few extra features. It seems to be holding up well after a few years of use. 

 

 

[Ivanhoe]

I have one, but never use it. When I was first noodling around with it, I was able to make some nice bone-in chicken thighs with skin.

Part of the hassle for me is that there's only one basket, and its not easy to clean. Mine is only big enough for one chicken breast, so no meal prepping.

Never thought about using it for sausage!

[Mr King]

22 hours ago, Ivanhoe said:

I have one, but never use it. When I was first noodling around with it, I was able to make some nice bone-in chicken thighs with skin.

Part of the hassle for me is that there's only one basket, and its not easy to clean. Mine is only big enough for one chicken breast, so no meal prepping.

Never thought about using it for sausage!

The one I have pictured, the cooking trays are both metal. With one inside the other so the drippings cans drip down. Sausages come out great. The only better way I have found to make sausages is over a charcoal grill, but pretty much any meat comes out better that way.

[Harold Jones]

I was skeptical when they first became popular but I use mine a lot more than I ever thought I would. It's good for heating up left over pizza, cooking hot dogs and brats and the occasional burger, plus roasting vegetables. For me the killer app though is bacon.  10 minutes from hitting start to landing on the plate. Sure I can do more at a time in my convection oven but for one or two people it is faster to use the air fryer.

[TrustMe]

I've took the plunge about a year ago and bought a Ninja air fryer with two self contained baskets. I use it most days now instead of the oven, you can even cook vegetables in it.

[Murph]

Try these.  I want one, Lupe does not, so we are negotiating

 

 

[Harold Jones]

Some good ideas in that video. 

My favorite vegetable dish is roasted beets and carrots, dice up equal amounts by weight of beets and carrots trying to keep the chunks similar in size to each other.  Mince several cloves of garlic and the leaves from several sprigs of Rosemary and add them, a couple tablespoons of oil and a couple tablespoons of butter to a microwave safe dish and nuke it for 30 seconds.  Poor over beets and carrots and toss to combine.  Put in the air fryer at 400F for 15-20 minutes until it reaches the level of tenderness you want.  You can cook it in the oven if you want instead, but it will take a lot longer to cook due to the oven needing to heat up a larger volume of air before you can start the actual roasting.

[DB]

I have no need for one, because I have a combi microwave/convection oven that does everything these things can do already, without any of the hype.

 

[Mike1158]

I have a VERY small kitchen so, either a tumble dryer OR an oven/hob unit.  Being a solitary tenant I find the tunble dryer more useful and an oven for one is just too costly/inefficient.

 

Looking into one of these but they look to use thermo plastic for the most part and tthat sounds tough to keep clean/be short lived.

 

Any thoughts on that folks?

[Mr King]

3 hours ago, Mike1158 said:

I have a VERY small kitchen so, either a tumble dryer OR an oven/hob unit.  Being a solitary tenant I find the tunble dryer more useful and an oven for one is just too costly/inefficient.

 

Looking into one of these but they look to use thermo plastic for the most part and tthat sounds tough to keep clean/be short lived.

 

Any thoughts on that folks?

I dont know if the Ninja brand is available in the UK but the one I have the insides are all metal, and the there are two metal cooking baskets, with one inside the other that are super simple to take out and clean.

https://www.ninjakitchen.com/products/ninja-foodi-6-in-1-indoor-grill-4-quart-air-fryer-zidEG201

[TrustMe]

For Mr King

You can get Ninja appliances in the UK i have one. 

 

For Mike

I have a very small kitchen as well. My Ninja air fryer is metal and isn't too big and it will pay for itself within a year due to lower gas/electricity bills used in a conventional oven. Their quite cheap on Amazon where I got mine from. If you're worried about cleaning them I get disposable cooking filters as well from Amazon.

 

Edited August 15, 2024 by TrustMe

[Ivanhoe]

I used to use my toaster oven a lot. Toast/muffins in the am, and chicken for dinner (along with sauteed veggies). Lately I am mostly making stews and sautees.

Since heat waves here are triple-digits, and my a/c can't get room temp below 80F when outside temps get to 100+, not running the oven is important.

That square/rectangular unit looks like the way to go. My air fryer is cylindrical, the basket is a dorky shape that doesn't always work for larger pieces of chicken or fish.

If I wasn't low-carbing, steak fries (I guess what y'all would call "chips") would be nice.