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 use mine quite a lot between that and the slow cooker I don't use the oven that much - although I have started baking cakes in the oven. I have a ninja - but if I was to replace it I would buy a glass one.

Same here.

I use mine everyday. There’s only 3 if us so easier than turning on an oven. I use if for chicken breasts, garlic bread, chips, sausages, lamb chops. Basically anything you’d use an oven fit, except pizza or a large roast.

Nope. I have a neighbour who loves his ninja 2 drawer but he loves branded items, especially if it’s seen. I have a bog standard 6l single drawer Tower (I think) one and it’s fine. Also, don’t go spending a fortune if you don’t think/know you’ll use it. Mine was cheap, had it at least 4 years and it’s done whole roast chickens in it in the past!
It was used a lot when I initially got it but not as much now. I’d say 2 drawers would probably be more useful. I use my rice cooker more!!
It may get used more with 2 of us in the house. My husband prefers chips made in it, but we rarely have chips!! I use it to make jacket potatoes.
Before you buy one, work out what you’ll use it for, google recipes, peruse airfryer books, watch recipe videos. It’s effectively a mini fan oven with top heat only. I does cook quicker than a conventional oven.

I was given one for Xmas. I would never had bought one. They are great. I didn't know you could toast bread in it though! Trouble is there are probably still a lot of things I could cook in it that I don't know about.

Same as above, I barely use the oven. We cook salmon, chicken, roast veg, lasagne, toasties, browning the top of mac and cheese or cottage pie, potato gratin, as well as frozen food, chips etc. I’ve also done thinks like baked pancakes and fairy cakes in a little 4-hole tray from Ikea.

use ours for chips homemade/frozen
roast potatoes
jacket spuds
heating pies
things like frozen Kiev
bacon
sausages
pizza

if it broke tomorrow wouldn’t buy another

I have a ninja speedi (and Miele oven). There are typically just one or two of us eating together (DD at Uni).

Depending on the bread, I can make cheese on toast within 5-10 minutes (my oven’s grill would have barely heated up by then). The steam bake or steam air fry cooks meat nicely. I don’t use the slow-cooker function as I’d use my Instant Pot/Pressure cooker, but I could.
A straightforward bake is good for heating bread/quiche/samosas etc. I make a lot of (sweet) potato wedges and bombay potatoes too (whereas I’d have probably bought frozen in the past).

So for me, it does what my oven does, but in about 50-75% of the time (usually at a lower temp).

I use mine every day at the moment. I've got the Our Place Wonder oven.

This week I've roasted vegetables, made baked potatoes, made roast potatoes, cooked salmon wrapped in Palma ham, roasted fillets of hake, made a croque Monsieur, made toast, heated up leftovers, made homemade pitta bread and cooked a pizza. I haven't turned the (range)oven on once.

Air fryers are great. Use our all the time. Don't bother with an expensive branded one, they all do the same thing.

LOVE MINE - i use mine daily, anything you want to make in the oven or grill you can use it for.. And you dont need to preheat it like an oven. Iv used mine for making fried rice in, making cheese on toast and then the usual kids chicken nuggets and everthing in between. I got a very basic one and had it years, im actually needing a new one. I have no regrets.

Gourmia from Costco. Amazing.

I use mine for most things, oven is barely used. Roast potatoes, chicken breast, jacket p, fries, sausages, bacon...everything that fits. We have 2 drawers and I can cook a full meal with it.

I just upgraded to a 2 drawer after 3 years of a single drawer.
cooks evenly and quicker as it’s a smaller place.
Chicken, steaks, chops etc cook perfectly. Of course great for freezer food too.
baked veg is great.
try it… you’ll never go back

you don’t need a ninja… mine was £50

Some people love them and others barely use theirs. Who knows which you'll be?

I'd suggest buying a second hand one. If you love it, you can always upgrade. If you don't, you haven't lost much. It makes the decision easier!

We use them for anything that we could cook in an oven or grill. From halloumi for a breakfast sandwich, to a full roast dinner, sans meat but if we ate meat I'd also cook that in there too.

Think of them as little fast ovens not fryers. I do cheese on toast, I do felafel, I do all sorts of potatoes, roast veg, sausages, I'd do jacket spuds if I didn't use the remoska for those, for heating up anything not needing a saucepan.

If you are batch baking I doubt they will save much

they are great if you have a lightly loaded oven on often as you are heating less space

Pretty good for reheating batch cooked stuff though

Totally worth it. My husband bought it as a wedding present to himself. I said we don't need it, we won't use it etc. How wrong was i? We use it most days, even i have used it, it does everything!

There are 3 adults and a 17 year old male here and I use my 2 drawer ninja a lot. I’m also a good home cook so don’t really use it to heat up processed food.

I can do a whole chicken in one drawer with roasted veg in the other. The chicken is quicker to cook and stays moist. It’s also brilliant for fish - crisp skin and beautifully cooked flesh. A duck breast takes about 12 mins. Sausages are cooked with no mess. A pork fillet takes about 18 mins and doesn’t dry out. Jacket potatoes take 45 mins with no pre cooking and come out with lovely crisp skin.

I don’t find it good for baking but for roasting main meals it’s brilliant and the drawers just go in the dishwasher with the the other pots and plates so clean up is really easy too.

Just another air fryer lover here. I use it to cook beige items as you mentioned, crisp up leftovers and jacket potatoes, toast nuts evenly, roast cauliflower (it's great for this), cool sausages, etc etc etc. I wouldn't be without it.

Double ninja is boss! Great for home made chips, roasties, a lot frozen products, reheating something that is better crispy. Not used it for meat apart from sausages and burgers but many do.

I think all makes seem to do the job well, just because DH is a ninja brand lover.

I have 2, a big Ninja multi thing that pressure cooks and air fries, amongst many other functions (not the one with the probe, that often develops faults and stops working just as the guarantee ends) and a Ninja speedi, which is currently steam air frying jacket potatoes (quicker and crispier than any other cooking method I've used.

Both are used several times a week for almost anything we're cooking (roasts are incredibly tender, veg steams quickly and retains it's flavour, etc) and everything else is cooked quickly and well). I rarely use the oven now (maybe 2x a month at most) and the drop in the electricity bill has paid for the air fryers many times over. The food is ready quicker and tastes better, even though the oven is a fancy Miele one with many great functions and I was really happy with it before I got the Ninjas.

Mines (a 10litre ninja) used mostly for baking spuds or cooking frozen chips… especially in heatwave temps it was great to not have the whole (top) oven heating up the kitchen.
I usually half cook baking spuds in microwave then finish off in fryer to get a nicely coloured crispy skin. It’s much better at making the frozen chips nicely crispy without burning (as long as you turn a couple of times during).
Also like for cooking salmon fillets & chicken kiev, chip crispyness applies for these too.
working on garlic bread, but not too hard or I might get a bit plump!
I use silicon ‘liners’, which wash well in dishwasher.

I use mine multiple times a day, the oven is only ever on for a pizza or Yorkshire puddings.
I never understand on air fryer threads why some posters say they're useless. An oven that heats instantly, cooks brilliantly and uses less energy is 'useless'? 😄