Shall I get an air fryer?

[seasidelove]

i keep hearing about them but am very clueless about how they work etc. We’re a family of 4, please tell me about them, what you recommend and so on.

Definitely get one!

We are a family of 5 & have a single drawer one, given to us as a present years ago. Can't do as much with it as a 2-drawer but still great!

I use it for things like fishfingers & oven chips. Takes a fraction of the time & crisps better. Meat & fish. Also warming up croissants & pain au chocolat, so much tastier warm! I wouldn't bother in an oven.

Also, the main parts can go in the dishwasher, unlike the oven where only racks can go in.

We have one that my in laws gave us - I didn’t know what I’d use it for but I use it every day! Our oven is slow and old and the air fryer cooks chips, roast potatoes etc in about 20 minutes, sausages in 11 minutes, I do salmon, mackerel etc. I also make fish cakes which take about 15 minutes. Between the air fryer and the slow cooker I use the oven once a week for making pizza.

For example this week we had:
Monday - mackerel fillets in air fryer
Tuesday - roast beef in slow cooker, potatoes in air fryer
Wed - chicken stir fry
Thur - home made fish cakes in air fryer with air fried potato wedges
Friday - pizza

I love it. We have a two drawer ninja.
In the holidays my kids loved it as I would cook a chicken breast and they’d have that in a roll for lunch and sometimes a sausage sandwich for breakfast!

I imagine it depends on how often you use your oven. We only use ours a couple of times a week and I tend to double up and put a flapjack or cup cakes in for the lunch boxes at the same time so I haven’t bothered.

My husband has recently become obsessed with wanting one so we've just ordered a ninja thing from their website. They've got Black Friday offers on. We've ordered a 2 draw one. It's not arrived yet so haven't tested it but I'm a bit nervous of it being and expensive fad. For those that have them, how do you know how long to cook things for and what temperature etc?

I’ve recently bought one off Amazon £56. It’s got shelves rather than drawers. Not used it yet !

I think it depends on what and how you cook as we had one for a week and sent it back.

In that week we made home made chips 3 times (way more often than usual) and they were sort of rubbery.

Bacon was ok but limited space rather than doing it on a tray in the oven.

DH tried a few other things that I can't remember but wasn't impressed, he was very sad, he'd wanted one for ages!

Yes we use ours all the time, really good for getting quick dinner done for the family when have just got in from work, halves the time from having to wait for oven to heat up and cooking time etc so makes a real difference when everyone starving. When have a bit more time the homemade chips are lovely, far tastier, cheaper (£1 for bag of potatoes compared to £3 for bag of oven chips) and hopefully healthier too

It's just quicker to heat up and cook food. So much easier than waiting for the oven if you want a quick tea.

Do jacket potatoes in them, amazing!

I kept an eye on prices then got a great deal on the ninja 2 drawer one .others are available. We use it daily hardly have the oven on now unless going to fill it .
Has been a bit trial and error but haven't regretted buying it .

Only if you have enough counter space to give up full depth x40cm (or however wide your machine is).
As you pull out the drawer it’s hot so you need a heat mat in front of the machine to serve/ insert food. Mine is a Cosori and has an annoying drop handle that needs to hang off the front of the counter.
You could probably get away with doing it one-handed but I need safety in the kitchen.
I use mine 5(?) times a week and electricity bills have gone down. Beige food consumption has gone up, though!

Oh I keep looking at the 2 drawer ninja but then don't know if I can justify it as we put in a new kitchen this year and spent a lot of money on a rangemaster 🙈

We have a ninja foodie. Gave away my slow cooker after I got it and rarely use my hob or oven now.

It’s cheaper to run, quicker, easier and less mess.

Ours came with a book showing cooking times but the nice thing is, you can (and are encouraged to) open the drawers as things cook so you get the hang of it very quickly.

Today for the first time we came back from a walk and I made “pizza bread” for the kids (French bread with pesto and melted cheese) in the air fryer instead of under the grill and it was done in 3 minutes.

There are also lots of recipes online. I have also done burgers in it and meatballs.

Fried food is delicious, so chips come out perfect, as do things like breaded chicken etc.

I dont use ours all that much but its great for my teens to make themselves foo when im at work, no risk of them leaving it on as it turns off when the timer is done etc. They use it alot

I looked at some in Curry's last week and was put off. They are massive - my kitchen doesn't have much worktop space. I don't see how the drawers can fit in much - the machines seemed very big for little actual cooking capacity, even the smaller versions. .Additionally, it looked like a fucker to clean - I don't have a dishwasher and even that aside, I don't know how you'd clean inside the machine.
The promise of small amounts done fast is very seductive, but having seen them in the wild, definitely not for me she says now.

Ours,a small one with only one drawer thing, is amazing. It makes perfect soft boiled eggs, amazing chips and potato wedges, crispy chicken, quickly cooks some ready meals etc. My dad has one and was forever going on about how great is so when my mil gave us hers, as she never used it, we grabbed it with both hands. We hardly use the oven now.

Yes! I got mine 2 weeks ago and haven't turned the oven on since. Ninja 9l 2 drawer, it's fabulous.

Yep, love it. Having children, it speeds up dinner for us all with no hassle. I don't have to keep coming back in and checking on it all the time, you just set it (comes with a booklet or timings for different food) and then maybe once for some food, give it a shake and then it's done. We use it every night. It does meats (chicken thighs are so much better in there), potatoes, veggies, you name it. So easy to clean to. It's a gamechanger if you don't want to spend forever in the kitchen but get a great meal out of it.

I don’t really see the point of them. We have an old one we were given which is good for chips but that’s it. Everything else goes in the oven. We considered getting a new one recently but decided it would be a waste of money.

People just seem to use it for younger DC to make small amounts of chicken nuggets and chips by the sounds of it

I would have found it useful for small amounts of food for my fussy DC mainly DS would have made life easier

I roast a chicken in mine. Takes 45 mins.

I got a ninja and now use my oven so infrequently that British Gas sent me a text to check everything was ok because I’d not put any money on my prepay meter for a very long time 😂

If your family eats the same stuff at the same time then maybe not worth the investment. if it saves you putting the oven on because someone wants chips or you want to heat up a couple of portions of something else (outside the microwave) you don't need to fork out for a ninja, you can buy something smaller and cheaper. If you're using more than one shelf of an oven at the same time to make a roast dinner or the thing you're cooking is bigger than an airfryer, large pizza or family sized pie for example, stick with the oven. But if you have counter space and you often turn on your oven for something small an airfryer will save you time and money. Many small households including myself rarely use an oven now. I have a single basket model that cost less than £100 I love it, but I still use my hob and microwave too

We have a small one drawer one. Has its uses. Small quantities of unhealthy things like chips coiok quicker. Great for heating up sausage rolls snacks etc. Couldn't cook a full meal in one, it's too small. Don't regret getting one, don't have space for anything bigger!