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?

Depends on which one you have. I've a Ninja 14-1 and it acts a s a pressure cooker too so can do stews in ultra fast time.

Oh it would be Jay Rayner 😂
I love my air fryer and chips are fantastic! Plus only one tbsp oil. I bet he cooks his 3 times in beef dripping!
Seriously though, I use it every day and it's made life easier for me, I cook bacon, chicken, pork chops , toasties, the list goes on. Yesterday I made a banana cake 😋

You can as long as you use a casserole dish inside the air fryer. I haven’t tried it but I know someone who regularly makes stews, pasta bakes etc.

I absolutely love mine but it is really just a small super quick oven I think! I have never used a fat fryer and don’t want to so it does chips etc fine for us! The biggest plus is how cheap it is to use and that is why I use mine instead of the oven!

I use mine 3 or 4 times a week for different foods, it's basically like a mini fan oven. I use oil spray on chips , fish, burgers etc.
Compact and economical.
Was bought my one, by my daughter nearly 2 years ago and it has been very well used .I am now thinking of getting a bigger size , but I think they are selling fast .

Exactly. Forget the mention of fryer in the name. It's a small fan oven. It's really convenient, great for teens or older kids under supervision. It's cheaper to run than an oven. I do anything of the frozen or chilled convenience food variety. Small joints, baked or roast potatoes, chickens or chicken portions etc. basically anything that's not 'wet'. I'd replace mine immediately if it broke. I have a family of 4 and I got an XL size.

😂 it might be!

OP - I love my air fryer, use it most days - made a moussaka in it today, and reheated some bread. They are basically mini fan ovens /grills

I have no doubt deep fried chips taste better than AF ones but a v significant point if the AF is that you use less oil so it’s healthier! I love mine, only need that & a gas ring and I’m good to go

I absolutely love mine . I use it most days . Have used it to cook burgers , steak, marinated chicken , potato dishes , roast veg and also ready made oven chips , falafel etc .
Its really cut down on oven use.
I have tried cooking roast potatoes in it but they weren’t nice .I Find the oven best for this

OP try ‘home fries’ type oven chips, way nicer than the rest

Home chips, sorry. Not fries

I have a 9 in 1 ninja and use it weekly. Mostly oven chips as they are better than done in the oven. Last week I cooked a stew using the pressure cooker setting and it was the best stew I have ever made. Only took 20mins compared to 2+hours. Soup takes 10 mins.

I use potato wedges in place of oven chips.

Sausages and steak cook really well in an air fryer.

Ds who is 17 uses the air fryer 3 times a week at least and I use it for hash browns at the weekend.

I think calling them "fryers" is misleading, and encourages comparison to deep fat fryers. They are just tiny fan ovens, and can cook pretty much everything you'd cook in a fan oven, in about half the time, and 25% lower temperature. The only constraint is the size eg: you couldn't do a big pizza.

Of course chips done in the air fryer or in the oven are never going to taste the same as deep-fried chips.

But the frozen "oven" variety are better in the air fryer than in the oven, and quicker too. We use ours almost every day and have cooked everything you could cook in an oven. We've made scones, reheated steak bakes, made a chicken and cheese quesadilla thing. DD even used it to cook one of hte smaller pizza express pizzas.

I think capacity is the biggest limiting factor. I have a Cosori one and you can't do a meal for 4 in it like chicken and chips/burgers and chips etc so I'd still have to put my oven on or pan fry something. I mainly use it if I'm just doing something for the kids.

That said I think everything I've cooked in it has come out well.

Roasties are nice from the air fryer, haven’t done a jacket potato. I love ours it’s one of the ninja grill ones. It gets used most days. Roast function for a tray bake or roast joint, air fryer for chicken wings/thighs or sausages, grill for steak/halloumi/aubergine, and lots of other dishes. He’s rammed way too much chicken in that basket in the photo if he isn’t going to turn it, the idiot (which, to be fair, is the opinion I’ve always had of him anyway).

I spent a long time thinking they were a gimmicky bit of nonsense, but it’s proved me wrong. I love ours.

By pure chance, I was listening to this piece yesterday on the science and cost savings of air fryers. Might be worth a listen op.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0018hjr

You can. My daughter does bolognaise etc. in hers. My experiment with a lentil dish didn't work though.

You can do liquids, you can just put them into another container first.

How could his bacon not come out right? Ours is wonderfully crisp in just a few minutes. Worth getting an air fryer for that alone.

I think capacity is the biggest limiting factor.

Only if you don't buy one that's big enough for your needs.

It's like a mini oven, cooks quicker and uses less energy than an oven. Chips are like oven chips as said, but who deep fries at home nowadays? Ours is used almost daily, great if you have teens who want to heat things from the freezer etc.

Agree that it's brilliant for reheating too. DS is a steak bake addict - it's ridiculous to put on and heat a whole oven for 25 minutes to cook one bake for his lunch. 13 minutes in the air fryer and it's done.

Air fryer is a misnomer, uber oven would be better.

We never cook chips unless they are part of a delivered meal (pretty rare). It's horses for courses. We use the air fryer when it's useful and it is cheaper than the oven but we also use the oven, slow cooker and microwave as appropriate. Screws need screwdrivers, nails need hammers.

We’ve had a tefal actifry for years which i pretty much only do chips in…and I’m pretty much the only one that likes them

BUT, we did buy my dads spare ninja one and weve been pleased with what weve ‘cooked’ in it, the scampi we tried was nicer than in our oven and its very very handy being able to do a few chicken strips for ds2 lunch and not have to use the oven and waste all that energy

We use ours every day. I've cooked a joint of beef, scampi, chicken, pork chops, baked potatoes, roasties, potato wedges, chips, sauté potatoes and focaccia in it so far. All good!