Do I need an air fryer?

[Triceratopsrock]

We don’t do too baldly on electricity use. So far about £150 PCM for a 5 bed detached family home. Oil for heating at about £70 PCM.
electic price rises are going to cripple us on top of childcare.
looking at my smart meter over the past month of so, most of what turns it red is the oven. Children are fussy twats and we eat way too many nuggets etc cooked in the oven.
will the outlay of an air fryer save me money? Assuming I need a big one as er are a family of 5.
also fuck of grammar police, it’s Friday and I’m deep into my Lidl rosé!

Oh dear, MN, look what you all made me do today!

Picked this up from Argos late morning. Cooked bacon medallions to go in a brioche bun for lunch. They were lovely.

This afternoon I cooked a medium chicken (about 1.4kg) a lot of which will be used for my lunches this week. I cook chicken quite a lot as I don’t often eat red meat. This is, hands down, the best chicken I’ve ever cooked! I can’t believe how moist it was. It took 55 minutes (would have taken 1 hour 40 minutes in the oven).

Hardly any mess. The basket and tray were really easy to clean.

The chicken result!

For dinner, I did steak, mushrooms and potatoes with rosemary. Took 15 minutes in total using the Synch function. It was so easy and everything tasted blooming lovely.

I am not normally this extravagant! This was my first steak in over a year. I decided that, before everything turns to shit with higher energy prices, etc, that I’d treat myself to test out the new gizmo.

For the rest of the week I’ll be testing out beige freezer food. But I think I’m already a little bit in love with it.

This is the first item that MN has “made me” buy.

Ninja arrived yesterday and we cooked yellow sticker lamb kofte in it. Done in 15mins with next to no mess whilst I chopped salad.

This morning, bacon in drawer 1, sausages in drawer 2. Eggs and beans on the hob and bread in the toaster. Filling and hearty with no grease or splatter.

I’m elated! Excited to try jacket spuds, pasta bake and a myriad of chicken this week.
I posted higher up the thread that we upgraded from a single drawer cheapo air fryer. For those wondering why, the dual drawer is allowing me to cook multiple things (duh) to make a fuller and more adult meal. The smaller single drawer was ideal for waffles and fish fingers for fussy nights when dd wouldn’t eat what we eat but I it was mostly a handy backstop.

Now I can cook a protein + roast vegetables in the same machine quickly and efficiently. Or I can be honest and say it allows me to cook X + chips without turning on the oven 😂 therefore saving £ and time! Marvellous!

Would it be OK sitting directly on a quartz worktop? I know you have to be really careful of heat sources on quartz but does it actually get hot at the bottom?

I haven't felt any significant heat coming from my Ninja AF400.

I think I'd put it on a heat resistant mat or something if I was worried about the worktop though.

I have damaged my kitchen wall tiles with my Ninja 400 😬 I've been a bit stupid and not been pulling it away from the wall when I've used it and the heat has cracked the tile, Formica work too is fine though!

Can we do a beef stew in the air fryer? Thank you

In the Ninja Foodi, 15 in1 yes, its also a slow cooker. Just everything in (no need to brown meat ) stir ir and turn on to slow cook for 8+ hours, at the cost of 1p per hour.

@Furries That looks lovely, how long did you cook the steak for ?

@userxx - I did the steak and mushrooms together for 12 minutes at 200 (I like my steak well done, the booklet says 8-12 minutes). The potatoes were for 15 minutes at 200, but I might do an extra 3-5 minutes next time just to get them a bit crispier.

It would be 12 minutes for me too 👍. How long do chicken breasts take to cook ?

@userxx - I haven’t done any yet, but the little book says 15-16 minutes. Which is probably how long my oven takes just to heat up! As I posted above, the whole chicken I cooked was the best I’ve ever done, the meat was really succulent and moist.

@Sluj I have the Instant pot duo crisp (similar to Ninja Foodi, multi function) and cook for two adults and two teens. I found it difficult to grasp its size and proportions until I saw it. I can make a quiche or pie in my 21cm diameter pie dish, I can bake cakes one at a time in a cake tin of this dimension. I use the cake tin base tray to bake 6 biscuits at a time. You can cook pies from frozen but whether you could cook 2 or 4 depends on the size of the pies. I bake two at a time (in old fashioned individual oblong enamel pie dishes) in two layers using the air fry basket and grilling shelf swopping half way. You can do those croissant or pain au choc that you bake from raw, maybe 4 a time, how ever many you can fit on a 22 cm round tray. Space is tight for getting hot dishes and trays in and out - I make a sling with foil strips, but you can get a silicone thing made for the job. Timings are about half to two thirds of a normal oven.

It says you can wash the basket in the dishwasher but I don’t just because I don’t wash any of my non stick stuff in the dishwasher since ruining a few pans that way years ago. It washes up so easily that I don’t mind washing it by hand

I'm not bothered about the non stick coming off, what seemed to happen was oil getting into the machine and making it overheat I think. Well we're going to send it back and see what the manufacturer says (they said they will take it back for inspection!)