Air fryer advice!

[Gracie2368]

Advice on air fryers please!

Are they worth it? Does the food really taste good?

Also if you get one with two drawers, would this be OK for cooking for a vegetarian and meat eater at once?

ie nothing from the meat drawer would get into the veg drawer? Or be left as a residue in fryer from the meat for next use? (I mean in the parts you don't take out to clean each time, because of course the removable parts would be washed each use).

Would the smell/taste transfer from the meat side to the veg side?

Thanks!

We have a ninja foodi with two drawers. They are totally separate so suitable for meat/veg with no cross contamination. I love ours, it’s taken a bit of getting used to but the more we use it the more things I find to cook in it! Very handy for kids and teens too. I strongly recommend the silicone liner baskets and a shelf type thing we got, it basically doubles the space so I could cook say, veggie burgers on the shelf, veg under it etc. I’d definitely recommend ours!

I just bought my first air fryer. I have to say that I love it. It cooks much more evenly than my electric oven did. I like that food which is supposed to be crispy, actually comes out crispy, instead of burnt in some places and soggy in other ones!
I've actually stopped using my big oven.

The only thing I'm a bit iffy about is getting hot food out of the drawers because they are quite deep and there's not a lot of manoeuvrability.

I've had mine 8 years & it's used most days.
Food tastes just as good as if cooked any other way, but more quickly, cheaply & healthier.

I think AF is a misnomer; it's really a small super-fast fan oven.

If it breaks down, I'd replace it immediately

I bought one a few months ago because my oven stopped working and I needed a stop gap. I was slightly worried it would be a bit of a waste of money but it's been marvellous. Mine's a Tower dual drawer and I use it a lot. I've cooked a whole chicken in it which came out beautifully. Roast potatoes are great, aunt Bessie's Yorkshire puddings come out lovely and crispy! Pork chops the other day were really good and sausages are yum. It's so easy to clean and my new oven which I still use for bread and cakes, remains pristine! As pp said you do have to be careful getting things out sometimes because of the high sided baskets, but I have 2 pairs of long tongs that work well. I really wouldn't be without it now.

Assuming the drawers are completely separate, then yes, meat and veg can be cooked separately (I think there are some that just have a sort of divider thing). The whole drawer gets washed, not just the removable parts so that's fine too. I imagine that transfer of smells or whatever would be no different to a regular oven.

It's basically just an oven. Cooks really fast, heats up really fast so it's very convenient.

We’ve only used our oven <10 times since we got ours 6 months ago (garlic bread and pizza!). It’s our default cooking device now.

Just jumping back on to say my air fryer cooked rib-eye steak beautifully last night. I rarely buy it because it's expensive and I worry about spoiling it, but I won't worry any more! Pat dry the meat, lightly brush with oil and season with salt and pepper.
Preheat the air fryer (I left mine on for a good 15 minutes) and cook, using steaktimer.com for timing guides. Great result.