Air fryers…what’s the hype?

[mummy203]

am I being unreasonable thinking air fryers are hype? Or am I just not getting it yet

I’ve been bought a 4L tower one, not used yet because I’m not sure I’m going to keep it. At first I thought fab I will use instead of my oven, but all the tutorials seem to show everything cooked separately chips for 20mins, chicken for 20mins and so on. There’s not enough room to put everything in for a family meal to cook at the same time. I can’t see how this would work cooking a meal for even 2 people. If you have to put half the dinner in the oven anyway then why use the air fryer at all just put everything in the oven at the same time 🤷🏼‍♀️ What am I not getting?

[Now50]

I’m with you so looking forward to hearing some tips

[5zeds]

I don’t get it either. It’s just a very small oven isn’t it?

[Strugglingtodomybest]

We don't use hours for family dinners, it's mainly used by the the teenagers when they want to cook some chicken and chips for themselves.

It's also really good for warming things up. Especially things that would go soggy in the microwave.

[buffyverse]

They cut cooking time substantially but are a massive pain to clean !!

[BronwenFrideswide]

Marking place as I'd like a run down of their benefits too, it seems to me you either have to have a gargantuan one that takes up a hell of a lot of space on the worktop which allows you to cook everything you'd need to to produce enough for a meal for everyone and serve it all at the same time or you have a smaller one and have to cook and eat in shifts or bits of the meal separately.

[TheYearOfSmallThings]

I totally agree. I will add that the things I have been served by friends to show how great their air fryer is were not as nice as they would have been from the oven

[serenghetti2011]

I’ve got a ninja foodi which I’ve had for a few years now and it’s handy for cooking chicken without putting oven on, kids chips/fish fingers take half the time, I’ve done teriyaki salmon in it which was lovely, pork joint at weekend. I have a teeny oven so it’s handy to free up space and for small things. I rarely use both my oven and the ninja but will use the hob and there’s 6 of us. Cheaper to run too. It’s taken me a while to get to use all the functions and it was only bought because my oven broke and was going to take a while to mend.

it’s an air fryer, baked, roasts, steams or pressure cooks so it’s very versatile, down sides you need a good bit of space, the lid is big and doesn’t open unless it’s pulled right out on the units and it isn’t very attractive. I likely wouldn’t have gone out and bought one otherwise tbh as it was expensive

[Northernsoullover]

Its a lot cheaper than running an oven. Even a gas one.

[InPraiseOfBacchus]

I just got one and I love it so far. Much more quick and efficient for heating 1-2 person portions. 2 people's worth of frozen chips done in 16 minutes and very crispy, as opposed to 25 mins in a big oven.

It's mostly just me at home in the week, and this saves me time and energy on cooking. It encourages me to actually eat what I've got in the freezer rather than order in.

[SpinningFloppa]

I’m wondering the same as just got one but I can’t see how it’s big enough to cook say chicken nuggets and chips so do they need to cook separate which then defeats the point 🤔

[Move22]

Easy to clean, the basket goes in the dishwasher.
toasted sandwiches are a total game changer in the air fryer.

[Sparklingbrook]

They are quick and efficient. Ideal for when not everyone eats at the same time. Cleaning is like washing two saucepans, or they go in the dishwasher. Good for reheating food.

Roast chicken took about 50 minutes, no preheating of the oven required and they use less power.

We hardly use the main oven now.

There are loads of threads on here with recommendations etc.

[Quornflakegirl]

W e have a two drawer one, it’s handy when we’re back from after school activities late and I need to quickly cook something for dinner. It doesn’t need preheating so much quicker than the oven. I can cook fish and chips for me and the dc in 15 minutes whereas the oven would take 45 minutes to an hour with preheating and cooking.

[Roselilly36]

Best kitchen gadget I have, use it one or twice a day, for all sorts of things, cooking sausages or bacon, gammon, roasted a whole chicken, oven chips come out lovely, crispy on the outside and soft and fluffy in the middle.

[curiouscatgotkilled]

I use mine all the and we are a family of 5. I mainly use it for the kids easy dinners, something with chips and I put it all in together. I have done sausages in it, jacket potatoes etc, Anything that id do in the oven. we only use the oven now for pizza, roasts etc.

Mine is easy to clean, but I will get some silicone trays when I see them as they will be even easier. The kids can use it as its so simple and they love to bung something in for a snack.

I am not a cook as you can probably tell but my mum has used it for quiches, tortilla omelettes, macaroni cheese and cakes.

We have also done toasties!

It is quicker and cheaper to run than the oven and id be lost without it now.

[BitOutOfPractice]

I love mine but there's only 2 of us so it's really useful for doing roast potatoes or jacket potatoes if we haven't got the oven on for anything else. Stuff like that. Also bacon doesn't need you to hover around the grill supervising etc. We use it a lot.

[DramaAlpaca]

I love mine! I've had it two weeks and literally haven't used the oven since I got it. Mine has two compartments so two things can be cooked at the same time, which is very helpful. It's not a pain to clean at all.

[JustlookingNotbuying]

We’ve had a Tower one for a while.
At first of all I only done chips in it but now use it quite a bit, even do the toast in it now. 16 year old ds uses it all the time as he is always in and out and hasn’t time to wait for me to cook (his words lol).
It is definitely quicker and cheaper than our normal oven.
We are thinking of getting the much larger Ninja one next.

[Sisisisi]

4L is very small Op.😬
Ours is 6 L for just DH and I.
Families need the dual versions unless you just want to do a single serving.
If you havent used it could you refund/ swap?

[mmmflakycrust81]

We LOVE ours - we got the Ninja duel so we can cook two different drawers on two different settings and sync them up so they finish at the same time.

We havent had the oven on since we brought it. Its saved us so much time and money as we dont have to preheat and its made dinners so much faster to pull together with a shouty toddler.

The other morning I fancied a hash brown bagel so I could chuck two in the ninja and ten minutes later i was eating. I never would have bothered win an oven because of the time and energy it took for two small items.

[xogossipgirlxo]

Apparently it's super cost saving, but I don't use my oven this often to see the difference between what I'd spend on electricity or cost of this device.

[torquewench]

I've a 2 drawer Ninja one. Haven't used my big oven since I bought it in March. Everything goes in - fish, chicken, chops, bacon, oven chips, sweet potato wedges, other chopped veg like courgette, aubergine, red onion & cherry toms. I'll also warm up falafel, pies, pasties etc in a fraction of the time.

[fromcitytocountry]

Our oven is absolute garbage so we bought one about 3 years ago and never looked back. To us it's just a mini oven and we only use our larger oven for either big baking or big meals that we cant fit into the airfryer.
I love that it heats up instantly and cooks more evenly than our oven.

Unfortunately after 3 years ours just broke....right around the time of the airfryer hype....so the replacement has cost more but we have also invested in a bigger one.

But for us the airfryer is probably the most used kitchen gadget we own

[SoldierBoy]

We have one and use it loads. We do most things in it - chicken, sausages, bacon, pork, steaks, pizza etc. Things like chicken and chips we would put whatever takes longest on the bottom and then add the rest on top of that. Or put them side by side. Ours comes with a separator for the basket.

We compared electric usage with our oven yesterday. Air fryer was 32p per hour, but would never need it on that long as everything cooks quickly. Oven was 89p per hour - although it is quite old and not a fan oven so may be very different to other usage.

[BatteryPoweredMammy]

It depends on what you typically like to cook.

I’ve got the Tefal genius with 2 trays. I can cook frozen chips in the bottom tray with the stirrer for 20 mins and chicken goujons in the top tray for 12 mins and microwave some mixed frozen veg towards the end of the cooking time and that’s the DC’s tea cooked. No pre-heating required.

I also cook frozen croissants and breakfast pastries in it at the weekend to save putting the oven on.

I chose the genius 2 because the bottom pan doesn’t have drainage holes in it like most of the other models, so you can cook stir fries and stews in it, if you want to.

Also, all the parts come out easily for washing either by hand or in the dishwasher.