Is there anyone who DOESN'T love their air fryer?

[veneeroftheyear]

Just that really. They're not cheap and although I'm very interested in the idea, I wonder if I'm going to be disappointed.
If you didn't like yours, why not?

I have the big one and it has been sitting in my kitchen waiting for me to use it. I'll be honest, I am a little intimidated by it as it is so big, but I have now taken the plunge and cooked two chickens side by side.
I watched a utube manual mainly for the timing and temperature and copied it.
The chicken was crispy on the outside and moist inside. perfect !
They took exactly one hour
Last night I cooked lamb chops for my partner and he said they were lovely.
I think once I have used it a few more times I will be automatically using that instead of the oven

Please can someone reveal how you make the delicious cheese toasties?

Couldn't live without mine.

Ninja AF400, not used my oven in 3 months

Me, it's not that I don't love it, it's just that I don't have much use for it other than curly fries/oven chips about once a fortnight which I could just do in the oven, and it takes up a lot of space on the worktop. I would never have got one myself, my mum brought it with her when she moved in.

I might start to use it more but could do with some ideas and recipes - particularly for vegetarians.

I have an instant pot duo crisp which is multi functional. I love the pressure cooker part and the air friar is ok but I can’t see how anyone never uses their oven.

mind you I think some people don’t mind food not being not too crispy, I’ve seen multiple posts on here from posters saying sausages cook in just 6 minutes when they absolutely don’t and all the recipes I’ve found online and from my own experience they take at least 15 minutes.

We have the Von Shef 5.5l.

It's been a revelation. Great size, bought direct from the Von Haus website and I think I got TopCashback on it too.

The inner basket clips in and out, it washes easily, it's quick and no mess.

The teens use it for sausages, burgers, marinated chicken breasts, wings etc.

I use it for salmon, quiche, cheese on toast (toast the bread in the toaster first, then grate cheese and tomato and 'air fry' it on high for 10 mins.

It also makes excellent work of oven chips. Teaspoon of oil, some salt - delicious.

I don't see the point of doing a toastie in an airfryer where you toast the bread first. With melting cheese - 30 seconds in microwave, you have a toastie at that stage.

My MIL is obsessed with hers and likes to feed us things that she’s cooked on it every time we visit. The food is always really dry and flavourless. It’s really put me off ever getting one.

Ours is an 8L dual drawer and we haven't used our oven since we bought it. I've done salmon, chicken, roast veg, potatoes, pizza, even cupcakes in it! And I've only had it two weeks!

Basically anything we would have done in the oven before, we now do in the air fryer.

Which one have you Got?

I don't get it though. They are basically just small fan ovens. If you have a modern efficient fan oven, just use that surely??

Air fryers are still generally faster (and often more energy efficient) than a full-sized one regardless of how new it is, just because you aren't wasting time and energy heating space that isn't being used, unless you are totally filling your oven every time. I also find it cooks more evenly.

I probably will only use our oven for doing big roast dinners when we have guests and stuff (Christmas for example!) as our air fryer is big enough for the four of us and takes a third of the time (plus is much easier to clean!).

I have an old Tefal Actifry which I use and like - but in the interest of full disclosure, both my DDs dislike the taste of roast potatoes/chips etc done in there. They say they’re too dry. DP and I don’t mind though, so..

Hmm. Very divided opinions here!

Mine is really fab but isn't replacing the oven. But I do love that its quick and uses a lot less power for cooking small things. I made a couple.of chicken thighs for dd and sandwiches yesterday - took 15 minutes.

That's where it really shines for me.

I don’t have one, I don’t understand the need to be honest.

I have a really basic one and love it. I especially love the energy savings!

i only tried bacon in it at the weekend and I’m a convert!

The ops who are asking about casseroles - you need an electronic pressure cooker like the instant pot rather than an air fryer.

Love my instant pot - it does chilli in 10 minutes and a chicken casserole that tastes like it’s been on slow cook in the oven all day in about 45 mins. Use it about 3-4 times a week

I bought a double air fryer. So far loving it. Made some chicken strips and jacket potatoes in it. Came out perfect

I finally went to YouTube to see how people really cool with an AF. My takeaway at the end was 1) it's essentially a mini oven which brings the advantage of saving energy 2)it s quicker to cook small amount of food due to the concentrated heat in smaller space. 3) Point 2 might lead to more tender inside while the outside is crispy as the heat works faster in small space than oven. 4) easy to manoeuvre if need to add ingredients in between cooking - Just take the drawers out at worktop. 5) some people do stir fry too, but it requires having foil wrap around tightly each time to avoid splash and losing moisture. 6) that person's wife highly praised that stir frying with AF remove any chance for the whole house to stink.

All in all, because you need to let the part of the surface you want crispy exposed, unless you roast , you do have to cook only the volume that base can fit without too much overlapping. So probably need to cook a few dishes together to serve a bigger family.

These are my takeaway from watching the video. Might be wrong. Corrections are welcome.

I think that's pretty much it. Calling it an "air fryer" is misleading really.

it does seem to do some things better than a big oven - the puff pastry top for my pie was way puffier than when done in the main oven.

it won't completely replace my main oven because sometimes I need the large size of that but it is certainly a great addition to the kitchen.

I have 2! One large but dumpy one I can fit a chicken in, and one flat one that I use for other things (although only home-made pizza fits - I don't have anything the right size/shape for storebought).

My son cooks cakes in them perfectly too (small ones, not whole birthday cake size). Although I've never had any luck with yorkshire puddings or bread - I suspect it's something to do with the air rushing around.

I think of them as compact ovens, and use them as such.

Oh, the ninja has a temperature probe and goes super-hot so I can cook steaks pretty well too - it's not quite as good as sous-vide followed by flash fry for crust, but so much easier that I'll take it.

We don’t use ours. It seems to only be useful for unhealthy food- chips, bacon etc which we don’t eat.