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?

Never done homemade chips on mine.i have done frozen chips and then were great, for oven chips. I am not a huge fan of frozen chips, but they were nice as frozen chips go.

He is right, that very wet batter isn't something you can do in it. But I do, coated wings in mine and they are lovely. Bacon in mine Never comes out not done on one side.

Anything, bread crumbed is great. Personally, I think the article raises some good points. But also is a a typical article of these types, which has bit of stupidity in it.

Love ours. It's used every day and I've only used big oven once since I bought it six weeks or so ago: to do some pizzas when we had people found. Otherwise everything else is done in the air fryer. Quick, easy to clean, cooks stuff really nicely, and our electricity bill has noticeably gone down from before we got it.

I bought one about 3 weeks ago, it’s not a fryer replacement, I haven’t had a deep fat fryer in about 30 years... but I’ve only used my oven twice since I got it.

It’s faster and uses way less electricity than my oven and nothing I’ve made yet needs pre-heating either so you save that time and energy as well.

I’m still on a fixed tariff till December, but even on old electricity rates I’m saving between 50p and £1 a day. Though that’s because I had DS doing things like having the oven on to cook two sausages for his breakfast 😐

I threw out my deep fat fryer and bought an air fryer, the next week I went out and bought a deep fat fryer. I love my air fryer but definately not for chips!

I'm still learning to use mine, and while some things don't come out quite as well thats fine. I'm not running a restaurant, I'm finding ways to afford to keep my kid warm and fed through the winter. (The mini pizzas we made were way better than in the oven though!)

I think he's right that the name is the problem - it's not a fryer, it's an oven - and as previously mentioned, a very little oven that takes up a lot of room.

My Dad cooked us some homemade chicken nuggets in his - they were very sad indeed. If you're thinking of getting one, I'd ask a friend who has one if you can have a look/go with theirs.

Of course you can, depending on what air fryer you’ve bought. Obviously not in the ones that look like a mini oven.

I cook curries in my Tefal ActiFry. It also does THE BEST homemade chips ever (according to my DS’s friends) because of the stirrer thingy inside moving the chips around so that they cook evenly.

I loved it so much I bought a second air fryer that’s a deep pan shape. 🏆

Re stews: yes you can in a casserole dish (just as you would in an oven )

In the Tefal Actifry you put it straight in the bowl and the paddle stirs it throughout. The downside of this model is, although you cam remove the paddle, there is a bit sticking up in the middle preventing you from putting in anything other than individual sized dishes.

My experience was that it was shit.

We actually got it as a housewarming gift, which was (and still remains) a lovely generous gesture but I hated it and was not displeased at all when it broke after a few months of very very minimal sporadic use (me going back to it thinking it must be me that's the issue and trying again)

They're huge and look awful on the countertop, storage of it is a pain as is cleaning.

All that aside the results are just so average. It's called an 'air-fryer' because in theory it replicates deep frying without oil. In actuality it is a counter top convection oven. You do need to use some oil for anything approaching a decent result as well as need to turn things consistently and I found pretty much everything we cooked in it depressing, with a dry texture, inconsistently cooked with a sort of strange aftertaste - you know when things just taste of the oven.

The chips were passable (albeit absolutely not comparable to deep fried) but realistically I am not having chips on a weekly basis at home, so would rather just get some proper ones when I do and not suffer the air fryer edition.

Each to their own though, I bought a slow cooker instead and think that's great and I know not everyone likes them.

We got our Ninja a week ago and have used it every day. Love it and get an added thrill knowing we’re saving money too.

It’s easy to clean, looks good on the work top and makes everything crispy and delicious.

The ONLY thing I’m disappointed with is the fact that the one we got (we grabbed it quickly online as we knew Ninjas were practically impossible to get hold of) has 2 smaller drawers rather than one large one. So I can’t use it for baking cakes, cookies etc.
A loaf tin would probably fit.

They don’t make stuff that has the texture and mouthfeel of having been deep fried. I love mine and make chips in it often.

Toss your potato and sweet potato chips in salt, oregano and paprika. Cut them thin enough and they well get a little crispy.

We absolutely love our air fryer. It’s a double drawer Ninja and is amazing. Food tastes so good and chips are way better than oven cooked. It gets used every day, multiple times a day. I cooked a pizza in mine the other day, cut it in half and cooked on air fryer for 5 mins. Was so good! Much nicer than oven cooked. I refresh crusty bread in mine and any food that you’d usually throw away as doesn’t microwave well (goes flaccid), using the air fryer you can recrisp while you reheat. The only food that I think is better cooked in an oven is roast potatoes.

We bought some silicone tins that fit perfectly and I make nice banana bread etc in them.

One thing an AF is also good for is crisping up chippy chips. They’re always a little bit soggy when we get them home from the chippy, so now we give them a quick blast in the AF for perfect crispness!

That would totally defeat the object of getting a takeaway for me. I may as well just cook some frozen chips if I’m going to arse about with the airfryer and make all the washing up.

I appreciate that may be just me though 😊

Left over dominos too- 4 mins and it's lovely!!

Hah! We actually had a chippy tea tonight - you cant do proper battered cod in an AF! My chips were lovely but DHs were from a different batch and were a bit too pale. 5 mins on crisp and they too were perfect.

I sold mine, I agree with much of what he says. We used it 3x in 3 years and it wasn't a useful item and a pain to use tbh. I did for the first time need to cook just 6 fish fingers this week and had a moment of wishing I still had the fryer rather than putting the oven on but I know in reality I would still have used the oven for convenience! Some people love them but I couldn't find a use for it.

He's an utter snob so I wouldn't expect him to like air fryers. I like mine, i find it useful, i use it for making chips, cooking fish, chicken, garlic bread and even cooked a whole chicken in it-thats the only thing i wouldnt do again though!

They do have anywhere near the capacity of an oven. For one person they are very useful- I cook for 4 or 5, it's not cost effective because I'd need to run it 3 times and food would be going cold!

I think it depends on the model you have. We have the big ninja grill and air fryer, and I can fit a full sized tray bake in the roasting tin, and certainly enough chicken wings/thighs or steak/chops for a family, though wouldn’t be able to do sides at the same time as those. We tend to have a lot of salads as side, so not such a big deal for us.

I need some recipes for wet stuff you can do with the paddle! What do you do please? I only use ours for chips really..... I also saw a basket you can swop the paddle for so you could do nuggets etc and not lose the breading to the paddle action.....

I absolutely agree you need to compare air fried food with oven cooked food. I find things like fish fingers, oven chips, chicken portions etc are much nicer in the air fryer and they cook a lot quicker.