Have you got an airfryer?

[Ohdosodoffdear]

I've been sucked in with the reels on Insta, the food always looks quick and amazing.

It would be a sacrifice to find thr space for one, so I'm torn. Do you have one? Is it a fad or do you use it regularly? Any particular recommendations?

The Ninja 3.8L is ideal for smaller portions like 1 or 2 chicken breasts or salmon fillets, reheating a meal etc. Full price £100 so wait till reduced, we got ours in a flash sale on Amazon for £64

We were really resistant to getting one. However, we caved in and I am glad we did. We hardly use the oven now and we can actually see a reduction in electricty use from our smart meter.

We cook anything we would do in the oven. So meats, baked vegetable dishes. I haven't tried baked rice yet.

The only thing we find is it really only does 3 of us. Which is fine as one eldest is often out. For roast we use the big oven still.

I have a Ninja Speedi and use it to cook aubergine, squash, carrots etc. I've done a lovely small (there's only 2 of us) roast chicken. I'm still getting used to it so different meat cuts are a bit hit and miss but, for 2, I'd definitely recommend.

@muddyford any chance of the eggs baked in cream recipe?

I love mine. Had a single drawer for years. Love making chips a sweet potatoes fries from fresh. Chicken breast with spiced in it for a salad. Stir fry type meals and I live tussled broccoli. Garlic bread or part baked rolls. Full cooked breakfast so easy.

I bought a new house with a brand new oven that has been in once. I upgraded my air fryer to a dual drawer and that has been game changer.

All the ones I have seen have a non-stick coating. Are there any that don’t as I don’t like to use non-stick.

I've 2.

I bought a Cosori 3.5l first, as there's only 2 of us but found it was too small.
Ended up buying the Cosori 6.4l Dual Blaze and it's brilliant. No need to pre-heat or flip the food.
I use it to cook steaks, chicken, sausages, bacon, baked potatoes etc. In fact anything that would have gone into the oven.
I only use my oven now if the kids come round for Sunday dinner.

I actually ended up keeping the smaller one and sometimes use them both. They are in the Utility room.

We absolutely love ours, no idea which model is it, but it's the Ninja one with two drawers (side by side). Quite big!

It's used most days, DH works from home so often chucks something in for lunch, or when DS is back from Uni, and getting ready to head off to his evening pub shift he'll cook himself some tea.

The best thing though is how much better I eat. I'm a veggie, only one in the house, and I love chucking in veg to roast, lump of goats cheese on top etc. I know I could just do that in the oven, but it seems so easy in the air fryer!

Oh and Jacket Potatoes are great!

My air fryer literally has a bacon setting?!

We have one of the Tower 5 in 1 ones. We use it daily. I do baked salmon with dill and lemon; macaroni cheese, cottage pies, roasted
new potatoes, bacon rolls (with part-baked baguettes), home-made pasties, and all sorts.

I resisted for ages, thinking it was a waste of money and we wouldn’t use it. I was completely wrong.

I have 7 - All Ninjas

Whilst one could do everything ok, each one does its own thing perfectly

Best thing we ever bought. Used everyday and will be a life saver when the kitchen gets ripped out in a fortnight.

Things I’ve cooked in it this week:

Bacon and sausages for cooked breakfast
Boiled eggs for sandwiches
Roast beef, Yorkshire pud, roast potatoes, honey roast carrots and parsnips.
Shepherds pie (had to boil the potatoes though)
Chicken fajitas
Salmon fillets and asparagus
Chicken and chips
Jacket potatoes
Banana bread.

I’ve got a ninja one with six functions including roast and bake so not sure if you could do everything on that list in a basic one though.

I live alone, have a ninja duel and use it weekly.
I don't have a microwave.
My flat is boiling hot so not having to turn on the oven is a lifesaver.

Use it for freezer junk and ready meals, jacket potatoes, to precook chicken thighs to use in other meals. To batch cook onions and peppers. To cook fish, ribs, pork belly strips. To reheat takeaway.
Oh and those frozen pan au chocolates are the absolute best from the air fryer.

We love ours! Have had it for about 6-7 years. Don't use it as regularly as other people as it's only 1 drawer & not really big enough for the 5 of us.

One of my favourite things to do in it is heat up shop croissants etc 😋 They go in for 1 minute & are so much tastier & crisper than straight out of the packet! So I spend a couple of £ on shop croissants for a treat, rather than £1.50 each on bakery items!

I have a Ninja dual drawer. It's very handy. If it broke I would buy the Ninja Flex.
I would recommend the silicone liners you can buy separately from Amazon. You can bung them in the dishwasher.

OP - the way I look at an air fryer is to compare it to a microwave. MIcrowaves are very handy in that they allow you to do certain things very quickly - you can defrost foods that would otherwise take hours, you can heat up leftovers very quickly, you can quickly boil/steam veggies etc.

The airfryer is the same but for things that you would usually use an oven for. So it's a time saving and convenience tool rather than offering up a whole host of new foods/cooking techniques.

Like others,we use ours a lot and also often for smaller things that would just be time consuming and wasteful to heat up the oven. For example, yes, the crumbed chicken/fish fillets and chips from the freezer for the kids in my Ninja takes just 12 minutes vs 9 minutes to pre heat the oven then 20+ minutes to cook. This is particularly helpful on days we're all eating at different times - relevant person comes in and sticks their fish fillet/fish cake/chicken fillet in the air fryer and microwaves whatever sides I have prepared earlier. And not just freezer ones - I regularly prep salmon fillets and they take just 6 minutes in my air fryer so as me/dh/ds come in we turn one on and are eating less than 10 minutes later.

I use it a lot for things like par-baked bread as a way to get a quick fresh loaf/roll/ciabatta out quickly. Similarly frozen uncooked croissants - takes 30 minutes in the oven by the time you've heated it up etc. 11 minutes in the air fryer.

I also use it for smaller things that I don't want to use the oven for - eg I will roast some cauliflower in there to add to a curry this week as it's quicker and easier. I regularly roast tomatoes and onions (takes about 20 minutes) to have with couscous and feta for lunch. Similarly, jacket potatoes can be microwaved for 10 minutes then put in the air fryer for 20.

Its also very handy when entertaining. my big oven might have a roast or a large lasagna but the air fryer is churning out little canapes, or fresh baguettes etc.

edited to add: I have a single drawer one but I am eyeing up a larger/double drawer one and one thing I will be checking carefully is I quite often freeze lasagnas/curries etc in single portions in foil containers. They are then heated up in the oven but it's faff and takes ages. I'm definitely aiming for a drawer that can fit one of those so that when someone eats one of those meals, they can use the air fryer. I suspect it will half the time it takes to cook from frozen.

Never use my oven now unless it's for a frozen pizza

We have one and I use it daily. It seems more efficient for a lot of things and easier to clean than the big oven. My favourite thing to cook in it is roast chicken.

Just bought one and so far done excellent chips, fried pumpkin gnocchi and sausages. Very pleased with it and just ordered a book for recipes on Amazon. Doesn't seem to be particularly quicker for a few things (chips from frozen being the exception here). It does take up a bit of space (we got a relatively small one but even so it's bigger than expected. It feels like it's taking less energy because the space is concentrated, rather than heating the whole oven for some sausages for eg.

Wasn’t convinced to start - DD wanted one so I got a small one - but I was sold when I realised it could do four baked potatoes in an hour rather than having my large oven on for hours. Very handy for heating leftovers that need to be dry/crispy rather than soggy. Makes great Kale chips too although unfortunately they are really smelly cooking.

No plans to get one, not sure what we'd use it for. Not enough space for it and we have a combi microwave oven that covers our needs. I don't use the main oven in our cooker anyway.

I store mine in the (now redundant) oven. I made sure to get one that fitted in there! It is fantastic. I use it every day.

Absolutely anything you'd normally cook in an over or grill but it's quicker, more efficient, easier to clean

We don't have one.They look so big and bulky. What size would we need for a family of 5 🤔 I wonder if its worth us getting a smaller one to try first it's a lot of money if we don't use it often.

How big are everyone's kitchens to store multiple ones! 🤯