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?

Ditto to this post here - the Ninja Dual is great for all this. We got one when our oven broke as a temporary measure (& a bit of an excuse to buy an air fryer) and it’s perfect for everything from a side of chips or cubed crispy potatoes to an individual frozen croissant. We only use the (replaced) full oven for roasts, baking cakes and pizza night.

Is everyone cleaning them after every use?
It's the cleaning that stops me using mine more, I'm usually doing something like roast veggies it meat. Using a tray with tin foil in the oven is easier to clean.
I don't have a dish washer at the moment though. I would probably be more inclined to use if I could stick in dishwasher....must take up a lot of space though.

And another vote for the silicone liners!

🤣

Well of course everyone just ate ready meals in a microwave before air fryers were a thing.

I love mine. I've had it 2 years now and barely use the oven any more.

it is just a small oven though - nothing magic about it. The small size means it heats and cooks quicker.

air fryer garlic bread was a disastrous discovery. 5 minutes from bread to glorious butter garlic bread.

I have the Ninja dial drawer one and the best silicone liners came from Aldi - they are the only ones I've found that fit the entire inside of the drawer. All others seem to be too small. Shame they don't have them all the time!

Honestly, I almost never use it to cook a meal for all of us. With the possible exception of jacket potatoes as I can fit 4 large ones in there. Just.

My general view is that it's a large thing, I'll just use the oven. But it's definitely more the ad hoc things that it's useful for . eg I made wedges yesterday - used the oven as it was a big tray. And I regularly do chicken tray bakes but use the oven for those as I simply couldn't fit them into the airfryer for all of us.

But tomorrow we're having tacos and I'll probably heat up the actual tacos in there as much quicker and easier than using the oven. The rest of the food will be cooked on the stove. Or sometimes I'll do two yorkshire puddings for DD as her carb (she's fussy).

Similarly, as I said above, it's great when we're eating at different times. I couldn't cook enough fish fillets in there for all four of us. But if we're eating separately, it's great as I can do one each for me and DS, then DH can do one for him and DD later.

I think also it depends on how often you use the oven for your main meal - we're more stove top users. The vast bulk of the food I prep I use the stove. So again, the air fryer is great for that one, smaller element that I might previously have used the oven for.

My Ninja Speedi has changed my life!

Rarely use the oven.

Frying pan only used for fried eggs these days.

Dinner usually takes 20 mins.

Have lost weight without trying.

I'd never be without one now.

Blistering peppers quickly to take the skins off.

Ooh! Thanks - I’d never considered this. Great idea!

You don't have to but I did initially.

I use the liners now.

And you can still use tin foil. I find cleaning the Speedi's removable compartment is loads easier than roasting trays etc. It's honestly a doddle.

I was sceptical but got a great deal on one last year (£30 for a digital 6.1L one) and we use it almost every day.

My kids are 20 and 16 and neither of them like the big oven but they're happy to throw nuggets etc in the air fryer.

I also use it for roast chicken or marinated chicken pieces, toasties, garlic bread, reheating meals that would be better in the oven than the microwave (pizza reheats well in it). Greggs reheats well in it too, I've done pies and pastries a few times (both reheating them or cooking from frozen). I've warmed up fruit pies in it.

I've made chips and potato wedges from scratch as well as cooking frozen ones. You can use it to crisp up a baked potato that's been cooked in the microwave (although I don't like the skins too crispy but others do).

I boil eggs in it, I know boiling an egg is easy but it's even easier to chuck it in the drawer for 8 minutes and not need to wait for a pan to come to the boil and then time it carefully after that, the air fryer turns itself off and beeps at me so I remember about it. I've forgotten about pans of eggs multiple times before.

I cook bacon and sausages in it, bacon crisps up nicely and like with the eggs, you don't have to keep an eye on it like you would with a grill or frying pan. Basically if you can do it in the oven or grill I usually do it in the air fryer now. It's only larger things like lasagne etc that I use my oven for now.

We have a Sage smart oven which has an air fry setting. Moved in last autumn and have only used my big oven for Christmas dinner. Really handy and saves on electricity.

Ww use it for small roast potatoes, mushrooms (little bit garlic lemon juice sprinkle with nutritional yeast and spray with olive oil), sausages, stuff like chicken tenders. They're really handy, we've had one for years.

The cleaning of them is the very reason why I personally hardly use mine.

Against my better judgement I was persuaded about 18 months ago to buy one. It is a Ninja dual drawer. DD2 and her boyfriend use it several times a week and I insist that it is cleaned after every use because I hate stuff sitting around the place with grease all over it going stale.

The drawers don't fit in the sink very well for washing and each one would take up far too much space in the dishwasher so can't go in there.

I was never that into it and I guess I just prefer the oven, which I have always had. Possibly I should make a bit more effort with the air fryer but it honestly just doesn't grab me.

I heard everyone talking about it so I bought a ninja one. It’s stacked but still big and bulky. I used it once and didn’t like it at all.

Vegetables were burnt and the chicken was ok. Maybe I did it wrong. It’s just sat in the pantry doing nothing. I prefer the oven/stove.

I wasn’t convinced but bout a ninja two drawer big one (£250 with 20% of Lakeland and a three year guarantee) it is used CONSTANTLY. Our electric bills have gone down, food is cooked with far less electric. No pre heating a massive oven for the sake of two salmon fillets.

we bought a cracking book “bored of lunch - air fryer” which has fab recipes and are really healthy.

If it broke tomorrow I would replace it. Oven used about once a month now for cooking or only for baking.

each of the drawers can fit an XL chicken and it goes crispy and is cooked in an hour

We use ours for:

Lunches (fish fingers, falafel etc to go in a wrap)
Breakfast/brunch (hash browns, bacon)
Sausages
Salmon fillets
Marinated chicken or tofu
Paneer for curry (would have dry-fried previously)
Roasting vegetables (peppers/Mediterranean veg/cauliflower/root veg)
Jacket pots
Baby pots 'roasted'
Wedges/chips (from potatoes, or frozen)
Toasting bagels/crumpets/hot cross buns (I don't have a toaster)
Dehydrating apple (we have a proloific tree!)
Crispy chickpeas
Turning potato peelings into crisps...

Probably more! Anything I could have fried or oven baked previously.

I have a Ninja 11 in 1 and use it almost every day. Veg is fantastic in there. I cook chicken from frozen in less than 20 minutes and it's tender and not at all dry.

I'm going to buy some silicone liners as I have the new Pinch of Nom book ( Pinch of Nom Air Fryer: Easy,... www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1035054566?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share) which has recipes like lasagna but you need a dish to cook them in.

I also recommend these books. Bored of Lunch Healthy Air Fryer:... www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1529914515?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

The Complete Air Fryer Cookbook:... www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0711287597?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Bored of Lunch: The Healthy Air... www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1529903521?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

There are millions of recipes online but I do enjoy a real recipe book to flick through and meal plan.

This week, it's been used for:

• miso baked salmon
• crispy tofu
• fishfingers
• grilled broccoli
• part baked baguettes
• roasting garlic and tomatoes for soup
• strips of beef for crispy chilli beef
• reheating leftovers
• baked potatoes

Easy to clean, quick and cheaper than the oven.

We have one which I know we don't use enough and keep browsing these threads and recipe books! For those who do things like roast veg etc how do you stop it collapsing and leaking through the holes in the bottom plate?

I use liners or tin foil.

I thought the Duronic one from Amazon - it comes with the two 5l draws and a large 10l drawer. Was much cheaper than the ninja. I love it. The thermostat in my oven has just gone, so removed the oven and not bothered to replace it.
I still use my electric hob a lot, but not missing the oven at all.
I line the drawers with tin foil if I've run out of liners, which reduces mess.

If you cut a round pizza in half you can still get both halves in the big drawer or get the rectangle pizzas.

I've roasted chicken in mine, made a banana loaf, yy to frozen pain au chocolat.

I also have a small kitchen with cabinets above the work tops so I bought one that does slide underneath. I put it where my microwave went, so haven't lost counter space - just put the microwave where my built in oven was.
I'm going to gut my kitchen so will get a new oven at some point, but in the meantime the air fryer has been fab.

I’m astounded at the complaints about cleaning them. I just put the crisper plate in the dishwasher and wash the drawer in the sink, it’s takes two minutes if that, everything just wipes off the non stick surface. If I’m doing shepherds pie or lasagne then I use a silicone liner.

Liners, or take the bottom plate out.

Grease a silicone cup, break egg into it, top up with a tablespoon of double cream and sprinkle with seasalt. 180C for about 13 minutes, until the white is set and the yolk still runny. Delicious! I do them four at a time for DH and me