What are air fryers?

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I keep seeing them mentioned, but I'm not entirely clear on what they cook.

We use the oven for cooking stuff like fish fingers, pies, breaded fish, wedges etc. We rarely do any baking or make roast meals. Would an air fryer meet our needs do you think? 🤔

I don't get them either interested in finding out more. Do they still use oil?

You do still need to use a small amount of oil for best results. It's basically a countertop convection oven, so it circulates very hot air around the canister and cooks the food. In theory this gets you closer to 'deep frying' than oven baking would so it's not bad for homemade chips, for example. Technically it isn't trying anything but supposedly mimics that.

With that said ours packed up after a few months, and I didn't rate it anyway. Everything had a slightly off chemical taste and without using oil and constantly pausing it to shake things like chips it didn't cook evenly. It was pretty expensive, you'd need a very large one to cater for a family too, plus it takes up a lot of space for the portions you can actually fit in the basket.

I love ours! Much cheaper to put on for a few nuggets or whatever instead of heating the full oven, and also cooks things much quicker usually.

We use it for baked tatties or roasties (needs a bit of oil for these) oven or homemade chips, sausages nuggets fish cakes etc and also roast veg like stuffed peppers. No oil needed for most things, but you can add some if you'd prefer.

I didn’t get the fuss about them but Dsis constantly raves about hers and has even bought a second one. She never uses her oven.

We were recently offered one free so took it to see if they were as good as the hype.

DH LOVES it. The smart meter shows red when we put the oven on but stays green with the air fryer so it doesn’t cost as much energy wise.

We have tried simple things so far and haven’t added any oil to anything.

Jacket potatoes from raw to crispy skinned perfection in 35 mins just turning them once. DH did hash browns & bacon last week in around 12 mins with no fuss. Oven chips in around 12 mins with just the occasional shake.

Teen likes a steak bake that generally takes 35 mins in the oven from frozen. Done in around 18 mins in the air fryer.

Simple to clean. Normally you would have to scrub an oven tray after doing oven chips, he just put some water and fairy in the air fryer & put it on for 2 mins & the basket & tray could then have a really easy wipe and were clean.

He did chicken wrapped in bacon in it the other night & said it was good so we are impressed with it so far. I’ve seen you can bake cakes in it & all sorts, I will have to find some recipes & instructions.

I heard about everyone raving about them but wasn't overly keen. I use it for frozen things like spring rolls, tinned potatoes are good in in too (just got to be careful because they can burst).

I've got a Ninja Foodi which has an air fryer option. I never put oil in it and use it for everything from sausage rolls to cheese on toast. Cooks really fast and I also never use my oven now.

We have the Ninja 7 in 1 and it's amazing! Cooks things quickly and really well. Pressure cook and air fry a roast chicken in 35 mins and so much nicer than done in the oven, proper chips taste amazing but if no time oven chips are so much better in there, lovely roast potatoes, slow cooker option. We barely use the oven

I have the instant pot vortex. 4 friends bought the same one after eating at mine. It improves food so much, cooks evenly, cooks quickly and is easy to clean

I have a ninja, do most of my cooking in it now. Everything is quicker and tastes better.

Best gadget I've purchased.

Plus cut down my electric a bit.

Ooo, interesting. Thanks for this insight. I'll have to do a bit of research.

Don't think of them as a fryer, think of them as a mini oven.

I have both the ninja, and the philips XL (don't ask. Ex was a shopper)

And they're great for different purposes. Although both heat up so quickly that apart from steaks, I don't bother pre-heating, so the amount of money they save me on electricity is massive (relatively speaking)

Chips, a roast chicken, fishfingers, chocolate fondant (DS2 keeps them frozen and we have it down to a fine art cooking them to perfection in the airfryer) etc. I do in the squatter, squarer, deeper, philips.

Steaks (and the chips to go with the steaks), bacon, rectangular pizza, I do in the ninja (it has a thermometer so it cooks the steaks exactly as we want them).

I only use the big oven for round pizzas and bread these days - so rarely!

Oh! The only things I've failed to cook in them are yorkshire puddings, and bread.

Cakes bake beautifully though.

I'm interested in getting one of these. Can anyone recommend a small version?

Check out Felicity Cloake in the Guardian, she's just had a trial run with them

Thanks, @TwoBlondes, will do that now.

It’s a little oven that cooks things quicker and crispier. It’s not like a deep fat fryer at all.

I love mine. We have the ninja dual zone one which is great although we previously had the ninja af100 which just has the one drawer and that was great too, if a little small to feed a family with.

Chicken comes out gorgeous, we found our oven makes chicken quite dry but is absolutely lovely out of the air fryer - cooks things like frozen chips, nuggets etc much nicer than the oven too and in less time. In fact we very rarely use the oven now. Air fryer cooks a great steak too

Ours has been the best gadget we ever bought. Still use it very regularly and use it for all kinds,. Part baked rolls are lovely.

Havent tried cheese on toast in it so thanks for that!

Also hadnt considered putting water and fairy in it to clean so again thanks.

I've been thinking about getting one for a while. A friend of DH's has one and she says it's brilliant. Have also been watching Kerry Whelpdale on YouTube - she does a lot of air fryer recipe/cooking videos, which are helping persuade me that it would get used a lot if I bought one.

Thanks to mumsnet I've recently discovered you can put cheese toasties in the air fryer, they are amazing, and much less greasy than normal.

We use ours a lot for things like chicken strips and nuggets, oven chips, jacket potatoes, bacon, sausages, etc. I think they all taste nicer when they've been cooked in the air fryer.

I love mine. I make homemade wedges in 20mins, fish fingers in 7/8 mins, mixed veg. DH cooked sausages in it too.

We got one. Purely because one of the dcs doesn't eat any proper meat but will only eat like fish fingers, nuggets and suchlike. So perfect for that 12 min and done