To have not used an air fryer yet?

[user0512]

Thinking to buy one but not sure. Does food taste 'normal' in an air fryer? Anyone already got one? Would you recommend?

How do you know how long to cook things for?

A general rule of thumb is that you cook things on a slightly lower temperature and for a slightly shorter time than you would in an oven. The manual you get with it has timings for different foods.
it's very easy to check the food whilst it's cooking - just pull out the drawer - sI I tend to go by if it looks cooked, it's ready!

I do love it. Lots of foods cook in the time it takes just to pre-heat the oven.

Mine comes with a cooking time guide

We've used the oven 3 times since beginning of March - everything else in the air fryer. We usually set temperature about 20 degrees less than cooking directions, and check when food has been in fryer for about half to two thirds of recommended cooking time.

I have a halogen oven which I rarely use now. It has a built-in fan, etc. Is and air fryer that different?

I bought the Ninja about 3 weeks ago. I haven't used my oven since I got it!

We love our air fryer and use it loads. Not for traditional frying as we thought but more like a mini super quick oven. We use it for chips, sausages, chicken, in fact anything you would usually cook in the oven. Plus much nicer and more well cooked than oven baked

You can follow the instructions guide but you will get the hang of it very quickly.

Yabu, it's ace. I bought a ninja double thing largely because my friend said her 11 year old could use it. Dd8 proclaimed last week 'friend down the road has a ninja, but she didn't know children could cook in it!'

I really want one, any recommendations?

I always preheat on a higher temp and then put the toast in on a lower temp. I use butter on the outsides and flip half way through.

The ninja one with the two compartments does look good!

can you do ‘wet’ food like curry? Or is it more for baking/roasting?

And what size one for a family of 4?

I have a Cosori from Amazon when it was on offer and it's great. It has presets for veg, steak, chips, bread etc and the basket goes right in the dishwasher. There's also a Facebook group!

Honestly food tastes better in it. Chicken doesn’t dry out. It’s quicker.

With energy prices as they are, not preheating a big oven and shorter cooking times are a big bonus.

Ninja Foodi is without doubt the best thing I’ve bought for the kitchen. You can cook a whole chicken in 30 mins, it’s amazing!

I have roast vegetables every day now and they're lovely and it's nice to eat healthier. We do virtually every meal now in ours. I love it and wouldn't be without one now. The cooking time is more than halved and they use far less electricity. Cleaning is easy. They cook virtually everything apart from stuff like rice, pasta and soup.

DD11 has discovered you can cook a slice of frozen pizza in ours in about 5 minutes. That would be 15 minutes in the oven. I barely use the oven at all now I have the air fryer.

We only use them for hot chips (that come out average at best), nuggets and spring rolls.
I don't like anything else in it. So really only things that would normally be deep fried. When I can be bothered I usually get out the deep fryer for chips they're really not as good in the air fryer. When I do them in the air fryer they're coated in a bit of oil to give them a fighting chance of being nice.

The other things I mentioned come out fine in it.

We had one for a while, the one with the arm inside that went around. However we found that it sometimes churned up the food. I'd put in smiley faces and they'd come out looking like they'd been massacred 😂

I love ours for hot crunchy chips, warming sausage rolls and to night I got brave and cooked a whole chicken in it. Well, amazing! It worked, which I was surprised at, but also super crispy skin and very moist and tasty. Also I find supermarket French baguettes crisps and warms fabulously in it. Especially if you stick a bit of garlic butter on. Yum.

I just got one, and it has three shelves rather than a basket
Great for beige freezer food did a garlic flatbread in it, halloumi for a salad, some roasted veg
My dad "air fryer? Never heard of such a thing" as he poked around it. He had bought the same one by the next day and is now happily cooking everything in it

Love love love mine! Was put off for ages by the word ‘fryer’ but it’s simply a diddy little efficient convection oven and it is AWESOME.

Faves so far are: crispy spiced chick peas, halloumi, aubergine, roast / sautéed potatoes. GET ONE!

We have the Ninja one and it's great, quick and easy to use and everything we've done in it has turned out really well. Would definitely replace it straight away if it broke!