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.

We use ours at least once a day. The other two appliances that get as much use are the kettle and the microwave. There's only two of us and we have a one drawer air fryer. Seriously considering upgrading to a two drawer (vertically stacked) one.

My DH wasn’t at all convinced (we are a family of 3, DS18) - I bought a Ninja 2 drawer nearly 2 years ago and DH loves it (as does DS)

I think the term air fryer is off putting - it’s more mini oven

DS has just cooked chicken breast and some veg in it for his dinner

I think I went ninja at time based on brand reviews and a good discount code - I would replace , originally I looked at the large 1 drawer but we ended up with the 2 drawer. Amongst other things DH cooks roast chicken abd roast beef in it - yummy

Forgot to add bought some silicone “trays” from Amazon and sone paper liners from I think Hone Bargains

We are late to the party but have a Ninja one, the tiny one. Husband takes chicken to work as part of his lunch and cooks that in it, I cook salmon in it. It's worth it for that - husband thrilled that the oven isn't getting as dirty as he is slightly obsessive about cleaning it. 16 year old is disgusted that we have got one and will not go near it, albeit most of her stuff she uses the hob for - we tend to eat separately during the week.

I couldn’t live without ours now.

I have two air fryers and have used them almost daily for the past 4 / 5 years.

i have the big pressure cooker one that I use to cook beef, chicken, shepherds pie and casseroles in.

The smaller one inside for fajitas, chicken, bacon, ciabattas, roast / chopped / jacket potatoes, sausages, garlic bread and whatever else that can go in the oven. It also has the probe so I can get my steak, pork and other meats cooked to my liking.

I also have a couple at the caravan. I wouldn’t be without mine.

We use ours daily. Both of us are proficient in the kitchen, and we cook from scratch most nights. Super crunchy jacket potatoes, amazing chips and roast potatoes; chicken is super juicy. We cook bacon and sausages. I bake scones and smaller cakes in it. If you’re doing a reheat it saves cranking the oven up for one or two portions of something. Breakfast croisssnts, toasted sandwiches, Welsh rarebit, garlic bread, all perfect. We have the ninja with one drawer, but two cooking sections. Would replace immediately if it broke. Cannot recommend highly enough.

This.

I like my Tefal one for making chips, because it turns them as they cook.

I have a Ninja. Now that my oven has been replaced with a fully-functional one after five years (it's a rented house), it is now largely redundant.

We got one last year when DD moved to uni as I found that I don't really like using the oven for a small traybake.

I love it. We changed to a two drawer one now, the first one is with DD at uni.

Jacket potatoes, roast potatoes, chips, homemade wedges, roast vegetables incl. aspargus

Grilled chicken thighs, burger, sausages, small roasts, salmon, quiches

I only use my oven when we are all at home and I do a larger roast and use the air fryer for potatoes and vegetables.
I haven't tried baking in it yet, that's something I have to investigate soon.

I bought ours in 2020 and use it a lot - so much so, that I got sucked into Amazon Prime Deals today and bought an all singing all dancing 2 drawer Ninja.

I do a lot of baking for outside, so my oven is on a lot. The new air fryer will help me to cook for us at the same time (that's the story for DH).

There are lots of air fryer instructions on food now, and we now buy the McCain's Air Fryer chips. Baked potatoes can be done in 30 - 40 minutes. They are also good for homemade fried chicken.

If you want to know more about the science of air fryers, there's a really good episode of BBC's Inside the Factory.

My oven takes 5 minutes to heat up, doesn't use much energy and doesn't take up loads of space on the worktop.
Tell me what I'm missing again?

Totally worth it in my opinion, I cook absolutely everything in mine, I love it :)

@gerbo I have a Ninja 2 drawer. You don't need a Ninja, I just got one as there was a deal on. Any decent quality one is fine.

I do pretty much everything in it. I think I've used my oven for pizza that doesn't fit in the air fryer and that's it.

Things I cook:
Roast chicken
Roast potatoes
Eggs
Sausages (from frozen or not)
Burgers (from frozen or not)
Corn on the cob
Anything you would cook in the oven (Kievs / battered cod / fish fingers etc).
Steak
Vegetables
Fajitas
Pancakes

There are so many things.

Ours is used almost daily as dh, adult ds and I mostly work and eat different hours.

I don’t think it would have been useful when we sat down as a family when ds was younger, but really useful now.

Mostly for chicken breast fillets, baked potatoes, potato/sweet potato fries/wedges, steak, gammon steak, roasted veg, bacon etc. If I am home first I’ll marinade/spice rub a couple of chicken breasts, have one and leave the other in fridge for dh for later (or vice versa). We don’t do anything complicated in it just simple mid week meat and veg.

We were worried about the hype element and held off for years and now use it all the time. Air fryer chips are amazing but we cook so much in it. Everything we can cook in a normal oven in half the time. It’s brilliant for things like asparagus or roasted vegetables My son even makes scotch eggs in it. My only regret is not buying a bigger one. We are a family of 4.

If its just the two of us, or even if one of us is on our own we use the air fryer. If we have visitors or family over then we use the main oven.

A lot of these gadgets are great for singles or couples but not so useful for a family. I wouldn't attempt a family Sunday dinner in one.

The thread speaks for itself, many other people no longer use their oven more than a couple of times a year.

@HappyGardener26how do you cook jacket spuds in Speedi please? Love my Ninjas, plural, but don’t use my Speedi to its full capabilities.

I just wash them then prick with a fork, sometimes sprinkle olive oil and seasalt crystals or other seasoning over them then, but I mostly just chuck them in after washing and pricking them.

I either: (depending on size of course) bake for around 90 mins at 180, air fry for 75 mins at 200 (you have to do 1 hour then restart it for 15 mins) or steam air fry for an hour. Steam air fry is best IMO because they're crispy outside and buttery soft inside, but it is slower because it takes a while to preheat the steam. Very large potatoes get chopped in quarters and cooked the same way, to save time.

For taste, I generally prefer the steam air fry programme to air frying, especially for whole roast chicken and similar but it makes some things (like fish fillets) stick to the tray, so I now use a cheap silicone liner from Amazon, which works brilliantly.

I sold our big Ninja one and bought a smaller one as we only really use the air fryer for single portions.

My DS talked me into buying one a couple of years ago. Like most teenage boys fast cooking when your hungry is essential. He’d done his research and sold the idea to me well.
For a teenage/early 20s male they are essential. DS can cook everything in it. My latest discovery is browning mince before adding to a spag Bol. I’m old school and cook it overnight but for DS who wants it in 30mins cooking the meat rapidly while cooking the sauce and the pasta on the hob it’s much quicker.
You can also make brilliant toasted sandwiches.
We eat a lot of chicken to go in salads or wraps and it cooks rapidly and well. It doesn’t dry out the meat like an oven does, because it’s quick and the moisture from the chicken stays circulating in the oven.
When it’s just the two of us it great.
As an experienced cook and baker I was sceptical but if you have young men in the house it saves a lot of mess and energy when they decide to cook a 3 course meal at 3am. There is a timer that switches it off so no waking up to volcano like heated kitchen in the morning when they leave the oven on all night. Also no waking up to the smell of burning or the smoke detector going off.

I don't like mine. Bought to use while our kitchen was ripped out...did the job but I will get rid of it now... ugly thing taking space on my nice worktop!
I don't use the oven every day, and am vegetarian so meat is rarely cooked for dh or ds1. Yeah it does nice jacket spuds and sweet potato fries, and my dgs likes cheese on toast, but overall not for me.
Might have been more useful when I had 4 teens at home!

How are people cooking roast potatoes for a family of 4 adults... that's around 20 potatoes, you can't fit them in! They need to be spread out in a tray they won't cook properly piled on top of each other.

I prefer my cooker oven, I can just cook everything together.

20 potatoes??? No it isn't.