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Original poster

Air fryer, yay or nay?

62 replies

Wbeezer · 28/01/2022 21:34

Trying to decide whether it's worth buying one and if so are cheaper ones OK?
Mainly for cooking the kind of snacks teenage boys like (safely) without heating the whole oven up eg. chips,fish fingers etc.
Do you like yours?

OP posts:
ahcmonnow · 30/01/2022 11:12

Great for lots of things but chips is not one of them. You cannot bear deep fried chips and these don't taste the same no matter that you do. People will say they do but they don't. Depends on how much of a chip connoisseur you are. They make ok chips but not great ones.

ahcmonnow · 30/01/2022 11:13

BUT if you like the taste of oven chips you will be happy.

LemonSwan · 30/01/2022 11:14

Yay!

I got suggested one on here about 3 months ago. Best thing - we do pretty much everything in it.

We have a Ninja with Bake, Roast, Air Fry and Grill.

LemonSwan · 30/01/2022 11:19

@Oysterbabe

Yes absolutely depending on what you eat.

I just love that you can do small things super quick.

So you want that breakfast croissaint heated - 2 minutes.
You want a few mini sausage rolls warmed for lunch with a soup - 2 minutes.

You can also make your normal dinners - DP made a fantastic salmon dish last night. Just as in the oven but in the fryer.

Oysterbabe · 31/01/2022 20:46

I bought one and so far so good. Just potatoes so far. I was impressed with how quickly they were cooked and they were nice 👍 Tomorrow, sausages!

NinJellyWarrior · 31/01/2022 21:03

Whatever you do don't cut up sugar ring donuts into bite sized pieces add cinnamon and cook in the air fryer. They will invade your daily snack craving thoughts. (and are amazing with ice cream for dessert)

Octomore · 31/01/2022 21:10

This may be a stupid question, but why do people prefer using an air fryer to an oven?

There are lots of comments saying "I hardly use my oven now" - am I somehw not seeing the benefit of this?

If I want to roast something, my oven does it. I was wondering about an air fryer, but I'm not going to pay for gadget that literally just does what my oven does.

SandrasAnnoyingFriend · 31/01/2022 21:26

It's faster, cooks more evenly and gets things more crispy

MouseyMoose · 31/01/2022 21:31

@Octomore

This may be a stupid question, but why do people prefer using an air fryer to an oven?

There are lots of comments saying "I hardly use my oven now" - am I somehw not seeing the benefit of this?

If I want to roast something, my oven does it. I was wondering about an air fryer, but I'm not going to pay for gadget that literally just does what my oven does.

Only takes 1-2 minutes to pre heat, cooks a lot faster and gives an overall better bake to most things.
MouseyMoose · 31/01/2022 21:32

We have the large tower one which is great, was £55 but I regularly see it reduced to £40 in Argos.

NannyR · 31/01/2022 21:32

@Octomore

This may be a stupid question, but why do people prefer using an air fryer to an oven?

There are lots of comments saying "I hardly use my oven now" - am I somehw not seeing the benefit of this?

If I want to roast something, my oven does it. I was wondering about an air fryer, but I'm not going to pay for gadget that literally just does what my oven does.

For me, I find it a lot more economical and energy efficient than using my oven. If I fancy a quick fish finger butty, the fish fingers can be cooked in my air fryer by the time my oven has preheated. They come out crisper than oven cooking too.
madamegazelle1 · 31/01/2022 21:34

We have a Ninja 7 in 1 and use it all the time.
Much prefer the way it cooks things- even oven chips if I don't want to do chips from potatoes. Love the fact it cooks so quickly- I pressure cook and crisp a roast chicken in 45 mins and it is so moist and better than in the oven. Its really easy to clean and seems less hassle than the oven. It's out on the side as we use it at least once a day

Fedupsotired · 31/01/2022 22:09

I associate it with cooking freezer food. I'm not sure we eat the stuff that cooks in there

Dottychickens · 31/01/2022 22:22

I have one and really don’t recommend them.

I think it does depend on the sort of food you eat and as we don’t have things like nuggets/fish fingers/breaded frozen products, I’m finding I hardly use it. (We have to many allergies in the family)

I’ve found for us, they’re only good for chips, as you only have to soak the potatoes for half an hour in water before cooking (or sweet potato fries), so we probably use ours about 3 times a month.

I also don’t see the point in squeezing a chicken in it to roast as I cook the roast potatoes in the chicken fat in the oven and wouldn’t be able to fit it all in the air fryer.

However- I might try that doughnut suggestion a pp put on as that sounds good!

Octomore · 31/01/2022 22:22

@Fedupsotired

I associate it with cooking freezer food. I'm not sure we eat the stuff that cooks in there
Yeah, we dont really cook freezer food (fish fingers, oven chips etc) in our house at all. In fact I can't remember the last time we cooked something like that.
whyohwhyohwhyohwhywhy · 31/01/2022 22:26

How long do chips take?? (Do you have to soak potatoes?)

What else can I cook and how quickly

DramaAlpaca · 31/01/2022 22:26

Hmm, having read the thread I might just have to get one. I'd been wondering what all the fuss was about.

MouseyMoose · 01/02/2022 07:33

@whyohwhyohwhyohwhywhy

How long do chips take?? (Do you have to soak potatoes?)

What else can I cook and how quickly

I don't soak them... just prep them, add a tiny bit of all and some seasoning and cook for 20 minutes and they come out perfectly.

We don't each much freezer food (we only have an under the counter fridge with one freezer drawer so no room to store it) but still use the air fryer a lot! It's so much more efficient if I can put something in there rather than the oven then I do. E.g. we had curry last night and I hadn't needed to use the oven at all but wanted to heat our naan breads, instead of heating up the oven they just went in the air fryer for 3 minutes.

Oysterbabe · 01/02/2022 18:50

My sausages came out great today, perfectly cooked in 12 minutes so a significant time saving over using the oven. I did the mash in my pressure cooker in 10 minutes so a very quick and easy week night meal overall.
Tomorrow salmon.

Oysterbabe · 01/02/2022 18:53

I didn't soak the potatoes before I made wedges yesterday and they were great, crispy and well cooked.

middleager · 02/02/2022 00:11

@whyohwhyohwhyohwhywhy

How long do chips take?? (Do you have to soak potatoes?)

What else can I cook and how quickly

Fries are best in terms of frozen..About 15 mins.

Home made chips, soak, pat dry, 20 mins in airfryer, shaking half way.

LovelyYellowLabrador · 02/02/2022 00:15

Ohhh I fancy one of these but not sure which one

Oysterbabe · 02/02/2022 06:27

I bought this one after reading lots of online 'best air fryer' articles and it performing well. The 'best' one was generally the Ninja in these articles but that was too big for me.
This one ticked the right boxes. It's big enough but not stupidly big, easy to clean and just works really well.

amazon.co.uk/dp/B0936FGLQS/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_i_WRXAW08TEEANZ1CE3ZGS?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1]]

Cocopopsss · 03/02/2022 10:11

I have one and initially it was used a fair bit for freezer foods, sweet potatoes, samosas and kebabs.
However, when I’ve done roast veg in it, it’s been a faff and has put me off. Now it hasn’t been used in ages because if I have several things to cook, it’s easier to switch on the oven so everything cooks at once.

Any tips for how to do things like roast veg?
And larger quantities of food?
I think i find it annoying that i have to flip over the food in there.

2022sucksalready · 03/02/2022 15:25

We got a ninja foodi max grill at the end of last year and love it. It’s used more days than not.

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