To hate my air fryer

[Champagneforeveryone]

Ugly great bastarding thing that it is, taking up counter space and taunting me with its wasted potential 🧐

We bought a Ninja because everyone said they were the best. A man even accosted DH in John Lewis while we were carrying it out like our first born child to tell him how amazing it was.

Except it's not...

We don't eat a lot of freezer food so that's not been a benefit. I've tried things like chicken breasts but they just came out pale with a tough outer skin. I'm too scared to try bacon in case it's a similar travesty. Sausages were ok, but truthfully not any different to cooking them in the oven. I'm a little disillusioned, but perhaps I'm doing something wrong? Why is the feckless contraption supposed to be so much better than, you know... an actual oven?

Mine has the most amazing non stick pan that even the most baked on thing just wipes of with a bit of kitchen roll let alone water and a sponge - however just the fact you can get liners for one that maybe isn't so easy still makes it easier than cleaning ovens and baking trays

We mainly use ours for roast potatoes

I still use this for a lot of food, makes lovely crispy jacket potatoes, on the hob instead of the oven. Very retro 1970's/1980's swiss dry pan

I love my air fryer. How are you making your chicken breasts? Mine come out so juicy. Tiny rub of oil, seasoning, 25 minutes. I made mushrooms in there the other day, they tasted deep fried but it was less then a tablespoon of oil. Made halloumi in there. Garlic bread and pizza is delightful. Made roasted gnocci, roasted carrots. Just a drop of oil, bang, done. Don’t use liners. Shake or flip the food.

I was very skeptical of the thing when I first got it but now I think it’s amazing.

You have completely missed my point. People are complaining that the food is "dry" or "crap" which is most likely going to be down to the person using the air fryer.

chill.

I haven't completely missed your point. I just don't agree with it.

I mean, my toad in the hole/yorkshires/roast potatoes are always shit but I don't blame my oven, it's all down to my incompetence.

Well, you clearly have missed it. 😂

whatever.

chill.

I use mine every single day, its so convenient, no preheating the oven, cooks quicker too, have the 14/1 the pressure cooker is amazing! There is some trial and error though, there is a couple of great facebook pages with recipes.

I've just got a basic cheap one and I love it. My oven is big so it takes forever to heat up and cook and uses a lot of electric.
The air fryer more than halved the cooking time and no heat up time either. It cooks most frozen things in ten minutes. Sausages in about 15 minutes that take 30-40 in my oven.
I don't like fried food or fried greasy chips, but oven chips are horrible in the oven, half burnt, half raw. Air fryer does them lovely.

I cook chicken thighs in mine, wouldn't cook a breast in it though. I love mine. Cook potatoes, roast veg, bacon, sausages, make garlic bread and loads of stuff. I spray some things with olive oil so have never had anything dry. I particularly like baked potatoes, start them in the microwave and crisp them in air fryer to save time.

I use the grill function on mine more than the air fryer bit. I like that it’s quite easy to clean and can see it being useful for couples but a family of five really isn’t that amazing. Friends love them but I’m a bit meh. My ovens are A rated for energy so saving is minimal.

I nearly went there, but got put off by a surge of of non-stick/PFAS/danger reports in the news and the risk when cooking at high temps etc. Someone suggested using liners, but apparently they also contain the same forever chemical rubbish, so I gave up at that point 😂

Love ours and use it daily. Wouldn’t be without it.

I didn't buy one. Friends rave about them, but even the big ones are too small for my needs. With 2 x teens who have huge appetites I cook huge amounts. Eg I normally buy 6 packs of meatballs and cook 72 in one go.

I have the large Vortex verso.

So handy with 4 teens.

Pizza perfection in 5 minutes.

Baked potatoes are incredible.
Roast spiced potatoes.ĺp 7172.1
Chips, goujons, sausages, homemade cinnamon slices, homemade sausage rolls, omelettes, 2.5 kilo roast chicken perfection.

Heating par baked rolls.

My children love it and use it constantly.

You could do that no bother in a larger or dual machine - maybe in a couple of batches but still likely quicker and more simple than currently. Do you do them all in one go in the oven?

Agree with chips, come out so nice in the air fryer

I regularly cook roast dinner for 6 in my dual one. Meat one side, potatoes & parsnips in the other. Other veg in steamer same as if I was using oven. If doing Yorkshire puddings I either put them in while meat is resting or cook them before the potatoes then just put them back on top of the potatoes for a couple of minutes to reheat them.

Interesting.

I line the very bottom of mine with tin foil which makes cleaning quick.

I put a layer of grease proof paper on the tray and that catches lots of bits too and again makes cleaning easy.

I pour a kettle of water and some washing-up liquid into soak the tray, allow to stand a while, rinse it out and it really is that simple.

There has been a noticeable drop in the ordering of take out food (that I don't pay for) by my boys, since we bought ours.

The book will be here tomorrow, I am filled with optimism once again 😆

I have a ninja and use it daily. I’ve just made my son a toasty in it, we had salmon fillets last night and I’m planning tandoori chicken tonight. I find it way more convenient than using the oven.

Oven chips are lovely done in mine (don’t like them from a ‘normal’ oven). I haven’t quite perfected jacket potatoes yet, but I think I just need to try some different temps/times.
The best thing about mine though has been the pressure cooker for rice and also batch cooking dried pulses/puy lentils.

Air fryers aren't just for freezer food 🙈

But you do have to learn to cook with them - as in which of the 6 settings to use, what temperature to set things at and how long to cook things for.

I cook most things in mine except a full pizza - it's cheaper, quicker and nicer. We do roast joints, whole chickens, jackets, roast potatoes, fish, roasted veg, also things like fajitas, Schwarma etc

The main tip with the ninja, ignore the advice on temperature, I rarely ever go above 170 in mine , chicken and meat I cook at 130 !
I will say I've got the ninja grill xl , it has a griddle as well as all the other functions, airfry , roast , bake , grill , flat plate , dehydrator etc ... it's fantastic!