Is this your experience of Air fryers?

[Isthisreasonable]

www.theguardian.com/food/2022/oct/09/chips-in-an-air-fryer-they-are-dull-dry-and-very-sad-as-am-i

Was thinking about an air fryer but this raises some of the issues that I had been wondering about, like recipes, capacity and what works best. If you've tried an air fryer would you agree with what he's saying? Is it destined to end up covered in dust at the back of a cupboard?

He's judging it on a couple of recipes and comparing air fryer chips to deep fried chips. With the best will and skill in the world, the only way to get deep fried style chips is to deep fry them.

I find air-fryer chips perfectly OK - nicer than oven chips. Meat/poultry does perfectly in about half the time of an oven, and 1/3 of the wattage. Jacket potatoes same. Negligible pre-heating time, too.

He needs to get online and find some more recipes. I bought mine about 4 months ago and I haven't used the oven in that time - cooking for two.

Hated mine, thew it away and bought a deep fat fryer. I missed proper chips.

I got given mine about 6 months ago and love it.
I do meatballs, burgers, chips, joints of meat, roasted veg, loads of stuff in mine.

We use ours every day, probably more often than we turn on the oven these days. His chips comparison is off - if you've ever made oven chips from scratch, that's the fairer comparison, and they're bang on. Also waaay better for reheating things that go a bit mushy/hard in the microwave.

I don’t compare mine to a deep fat drier as I’ve never had one. Compared to an oven I’d says it’s similar but more efficient. Mine has pressure cooker etc too so far more versatile.

No. I absolutely love air fryer chips and use it for various items daily.

OP, if you've ever had 'Slimming World chips' air fryer chips are quite similar.

Ignore Jay!!

I use mine everyday. Kebabs, chicken, fish, whole chicken, roasties, warming pies and pasties.

Air fryer chips are better and quicker than oven chips but will never be nicer than deep fried chips.

My mum likes to make baked egg custards in hers.

He’s comparing making chips from raw spuds in a chip pan to the same in an air fryer, but in all honesty, how many of us do actually use a chip pan? I’ve found that at oven chips in the AF are far nicer than in the oven - particularly the Albert Bartlett brand. And the chicken he cooked - well it was overcrowded, and he may well have put them in straight from the fridge so needs to cook them longer.
for those of us who cook every day in order to feed our families, an AF is a great appliance. I’ve not used my oven for 6 weeks since we got the AF, apart from pizza a coup,e of times. This evening we had macaroni cheese made on the hob then finished in the AF to crisp up the topping, plus garlic bread made in the AF.

I make air fryer chios and just dab them with a bit of beef dripping every 5 mins when I give them a stir (got a ninja foodi so doesn't have the air fryer paddle which dedicated ones have)

They do need a bit of fat IMO but they make perfectly lovely chips, much nicer than oven chips or wedges, with a little effort. As nice as my deep fryer chips, though I'll admit I never mastered the latter in the 3 months I used a deep fryer.

I did falafels in mine today! Asparagus was
lovely the other day too. Like PP said you do need some fat to make it nice!

Rarely cook chips and haven't had the slimming world ones. Oven chips are always a bit cardboardy. It would be jackets or roast potatoes.

I bought a chipper from Amazon and that has made a difference, but I soak in water and then drizzle in oil and seasoning

I have to say I bought ours thinking it was going to spray oil over stuff as a frying replacement. In fact, it’s just a small oven. Which is huge and annoying. We use ours every couple of weeks, because we feel we should.

His expertise is clearly in eating and writing about eating - not in cooking.

My Yorkshire puddings this evening were bloody lovely done in my air fryer.

I use mine most days.

Chips get extra seasoning with all kinds of spices and they are amazing!

These kind of chefs are food snobs!

Also completely missing the point that air fryers are more fuel efficient which for us poor folk, means 6 minutes air frying vs 25 minutes in a full on oven.

Once you understand an air fryer it’s really no different to oven. A supercharged fan one at that.

And I say that as someone who doesn’t have an oven anymore.

We’ve had one for a couple of months it’s basically a convection oven and we’ve used it almost daily instead of the oven.

most things have worked. Keep experimenting. Firm fixture in our kitchen.

I am right in thinking that you don't cook stews or anything else liquid in it? Showing my ignorance here😊

That’s right. You can’t do stuff like liquids.

@Isthisreasonable no in my air fryer you can take the crisper plate out and cook stew, pasta bake, chilli etc in it

You can but the fan is so insane you need a cover of some kind. Obviously I don’t know what goes on in there but I imagine it’s like a mini tornado.

@Isthisreasonable mine is a ninja

@MNHQ - is it time for a dedicated air fryers topic? Please!

I've currently got a chicken curry In one drawer on air fry at 200 and a naan bread to start when the curry has 3 mins left on 240