Air fryer - worth it or hype?

[gerbo]

I'm 49, we are a family of 3 (or 4 if eldest is home!). Are aur fryers worth the money, if you're a pretty accomplished home cook?

I cook pretty much daily for my family, often batch cooking, and baking weekly. We have a 2 oven range but I guess this would be cheaper to run....

In my head,though,air fryers are for heating up frozen foods!

I'm using my slow cooker more at the moment to save money, and was wondering, are air fryers also economical? Would we need one with 2 drawers? And how do you use yours?

Thanks for any tips.

I bought one 18 months ago and have used it twice, save your money

In my head,though,air fryers are for heating up frozen foods!

No, they are for doing whatever you do in your oven.
Also, whatever you might do under your grill.

I bake bread in mine.

I only have a really small one, and use it lots.
All my adult dc have bigger / two drawer ones and only tend to use their ovens if cooking for a larger group like a dinner party or at Christmas.

I have a family of 5 and I wasn't keen on one but we got a Ninja 2 years ago and I use it daily, I rarely use the actual oven these days 🤷‍♀️

From what I have read it is a mini oven. It can save money as you don't have to heat the full oven. But whether it's worth the money (and therefore counter space) depends on the way you use your full oven.

I usually use my oven once a week and make sure it is full (including things to reheat in the microwave during the week) so a mini oven wouldn't be any use.

Can I ask what you use them for ,please, apart from bread? (That is tempting, but we have a breadmaker we use regularly)
Do thet act as mini ovens and/or grills then? Could I make cheese on toast? Roast asparagus? I think they would do jackets well....

I'm tempted by a single drawer one.

We haven’t used our oven since we got an air fryer! They’re especially fab in summer as they don’t heat the house up more!

Do you have to buy Ninja for quality?

I could live without mine.

I've got a large 2 drawer, but find it's not big enough to fit the amount of food I need for us 4 adults. Whereas I can fit lots of trays etc in my oven.

If there was only 2 of us I'd probably use it more.

I also like to see my food as it cooks.

So I only use it for bacon and sausages at the weekend!

Hiya - family of 5. Like you I cook everyday for my family (or almost every day) and I use mine every day for one thing or the other! I have recently baked bread in it. It was lovely! I have a ninja one but my SIL has a Philips one and she’s happy with it.

edited to say: just roasted some asparagus on Saturday. Quick and delicious

I have a Tefal one and use it pretty much everyday for either lunch or dinner it’s so convenient .

I got one from a friend as she'd been given a posher one. It's a cheap one and excellent. Dh was against the 'fad'. Guess who uses it nearly every day?😉

I like it for crisping up jacket potatoes. It's good if you fancy a fish finger sandwich etc. Dh does sausages bacon and suchlike. It's quick.

Ours is one drawer but work has 2 drawer an that's useful.

We only got one very recently (Tefal), we have a range cooker (always on) so felt we didn't need it, but the heat this summer made us want to switch the whole cooker off or keep just one oven on low so we bought one. It is getting used pretty well every day, either by one of us or young adult DC. It's just so quick and easy. We only cook for all four of us once or twice a week so it is mainly used for food for one or two. I like that it's fast, it switches off when it's done, you can peek in easily (our main ovens don't have glass doors) and it's easy to keep clean. We've only had it a month or so but have baked bread in it, made cheese on toast, cooked things like chicken portions, potato wedges, roast veg, heated up croissants, all sorts of things. We slow cook in the main oven so don't need those sort of functions.

I got one after staying at a couple of houses that have them. And because one of my kids turned veggie and it’s really easy and quick to cook some crispy tofu in it.
I cook elements of a meal in it rather than the whole meal - eg potato wedges or sweet potato cubes or crispy tofu that then gets chucked in a curry or a stir fry. I also looked for one I could fit in a cupboard as don’t want it taking up worktop space

Mine is from Aldi.

I got it off a local give away site, as the person was upgrading to a bigger one.

The quality is great.

Only me but I love my small single drawer. I use it for everything I use my main oven for.
it does frozen chips for two well but I wouldn’t use it for more

I have small cakes tins and baked Victoria sponges recently (one at a time)

It cooks everything that your oven cooks. The only thing I use the main oven for now are large roasting dishes or large pizzas - air fryer easily fits everything else, including a small chicken or a pork joint, cut portions of meat, veg, bread, cakes, beige freezer stuff.

I do miss the worktop space a bit and when I move house or get a new kitchen I’ll design it with a specific space. I use a microwave a lot for steaming veg and having both is quite a lot of worktop space to lose.

I use mine to store letters in. Waste of time.

I have a double drawer Ninja air fryer. We use it all the time. I make cheese and tomato Ciabatta in it for lunch, we cook sausages, wedges oven chips in it. Dc can use it for frozen sausage rolls. I still use the main oven, but its great and more cost effective for doing smaller things/portions. Jacket potatoes are lovely in it. I might try making some bread actually!

Absolutely get one, they are fabulous and I was the world’s biggest sceptic. I have only had mine for 6 months but I adore it.

I got mine from a charity shop, it hadn’t been used and I spent a whole £10 on it.

You can cook anything that you would cook in an oven and it warms instantly so you avoid having to wait 15 minutes for the oven to warm.

We rarely use the oven anymore only for pizzas and cakes.

You can also get paper inserts so washing up is a breeze as you just throw the insert into the bin after use.

Get a small one if you are wavering, to try.

We love ours. We don't all eat at the same time so it's great as we don't have to heat the full oven just for one or two people. It cooks quicker, is cheaper, it is basically just a mini oven.

I was given a Tefal one this year. I was sceptical at first but I do use it quite a lot. I like it for cooking salmon particularly as it seems to trap the cooking smell inside so the kitchen doesn't smell like when I have done it in the oven. But I use it for meats, roast potatoes etc fairly often too. There's only me and DH at home most of the time now so I can easily fit what we need in it and I think it saves electricity compared to putting the oven on. If I was doing a big roast dinner for the whole family I'd do everything in the oven but for just the 2 of us the airfryer is great,

It is a mini oven and because it is smaller it heats up to a lower temperature and less minutes to cook. We use it rather than heating an entire oven to cook say just 4 salmon fillets. We crisp off jacket potatoes in it, cook them in the microwave (roughly 4 mins per side) then transfer into the Ninja Airfryer 2 drawer, so we use 1 draw for 2 potatoes, cook for about 6-8 mins per side with a 3 minute preheat, crisps up the skin beautifully.

When Ds has stuffed pasta for lunch, he cooks half a garlic bread in the air fryer. Now that would be a complete waste of electric to cook half a garlic bread in a conventional oven. I am no longer trying to cook a few things at once just to use the oven space once it is heated up. We also cook frozen pastries for breakfast on the weekend in it.

We are a family of 4 adults, we cook oven chips (spray with oil for crispy outsides) in both drawers, I can fit a 1.7kg whole chicken in the drawer which it cooks to perfection as I have the one with the probe. Anyone reading this, check the size of your chicken, the weight is not a guarantee of length and girth

I use my air fryer most days. I have a two drawer and use both drawers regularly.
Things I cook are:
Homemade Chips (chip raw or par boiled potatoes and spray a little oil on them)
Frozen chips or wedges
Roast potatoes (if doing a small amount - use oven for Sunday roasts)
Sausages, Burgers, Bacon, Fish in breadcrumbs, chicken goujons etc
Roasted Mediterranean vegetables (just chop up with a little olive oil)
Chicken drumsticks or thighs etc.
Reheating croissants or pain au chocolate etc.
Anything you grill - pork chops, lamb chops, kebabs etc.

Two drawers is good as you can have different temperatures in each etc.

I purchased a small 2 drawer Ninja about 4 years ago. Only regret is choosing the small size. We are a 2 person household. There are times when the larger size would be useful.

It’s used daily to toast bread, split scones, toasted sandwiches, even an egg one. Homemade sweet potato fries, fish, steak, roast veg including garlic. Baked potatoes, (microwave, split, add a little oil to hold whatever seasoning). It’s faster. I made an omelet once. Fine except I should have oiled the dish more. Roast mushrooms are delicious. If you need to add something like roast peppers to a dish, pop in AF while you prep. I tried boiling eggs but most times the shell was difficult to remove. All that faffing about with iced water took longer than using a saucepan.

I use Pyrex dishes, it keeps drawers clean and easy to pop in the dishwasher.

You sound like a gadget lady. Look at the other Ninja options. Don’t have any experience of the newer models. Which? Usually rate the 2 drawer highly. You can’t go wrong

I’m grilling bacon this evening. You’ll find a lot more than the above to cook. I have limited time so haven’t had time to experiment more.
Saw someone cooking some sort of casserole in deep rectangle glass dishes they purchased in Ikea. They had large 2 drawer.
Hope you can understand my suggestions, I wrote as I thought of things.

I have a Ninja but without drawers, just a lift up lid. Used daily for everything from roasting a joint to dehydrating tomatoes.