Air Fryers - anyone use one?

[PK]

We use an air fryer for chips and for things like sausages. The main benefit for us is that we have an aversion to deep fat frying. For better results with chips, soak the chipped potatoes in water for half an hour to remove some of the starch and let them drain. When in the air fryer give them a shake every now and again. Maybe not as tasty as deep fat fried but considerable better than oven chips. So, worth it for energy saving and for health.

[lancashire lass]

Hard to believe it has been over 2 years since I bought the cheap air fryer. It has been well used, almost condemning the combi oven to a dusty corner - anything that needed reheating or oven cooking was done in the air fryer. And just as the comments in the review mentioned, the numbers on the timer and temperature wore off very quickly but it didn't really matter as it wasn't precise cooking anyway - I would set the temperature to maximum (200oC) and had a rough idea of how far to turn the timer dial. If I wanted to make sure something was thoroughly cooked, then I just shifted the temperature down a bit and ran the timer for longer to avoid overcooking the outside.

However, there was a downside to the single drawer air fryer - if I wanted say "fish (battered fish portions) and chips", I couldn't cook them together so had to cook one first before the other. On those occasions I would use the combi oven as well but it seemed to take so much longer to cook (one thing about the air fryer is how quickly it cooked food in comparison)

Well, the cheap air fryer was always meant to "test" out whether it was worth investing in a more expensive one and I have to confess I kept eyeing the dual drawer ones but they were still out of my price range. That is, until the Black Friday "bargains" (and yes, I did check they were indeed bargains) ... I had my eye on the Tefal dual drawer air fryer (one drawer was bigger than the other) and most retailers had dropped the price to £99. However, seems everyone else had the same idea as many retailers had run out of stock. The Ninja air fryers had been priced well over £200 for so long that I didn't even give them a second thought until I noticed they too had been knocked down in price (not as low as the Tefal though) As well as good reviews (both from customers and review sites), nearly everyone I spoke to recommended the Ninja dual drawer so I decided to get one as an early Christmas present for me.

First, it is obviously much bigger than the single drawer of the cheap air fryer so I had planned to move some of the other kitchen appliances off the work top in my tiny kitchen to make space. However, it is not just the width but the height too - the trim on the bottom of the wall cupboards was just a couple of millimetres too deep and I couldn't push the air fryer back (obviously leaving a bit of space for the heat from the fan)

Secondly, the beep sounds when starting it off and when it finishes is really loud (be-BEEEEEEP) that I'm sure my neighbours can hear it 3 doors away (so no more midnight snacks without everyone knowing ... just joking) However, when I'm in the living room watching the tv I can now hear it when the cooking time is done unlike the bell ping of the other.

Thirdly, the 2 drawers are obviously narrower than the single drawer air fryer. To be fair, there is ample room for most things so not that big an issue, but if you wanted to reheat say, a quiche or pie, then the single drawer has the advantage. Suffice to say, I'm still using the cheap air fryer although not as often as before.

Fourthly, setting the temperature and timer are now electronic (just turning the timer on the other air fryer is so much easier) You have to select a cooking method (which are just set temperatures but you can then adjust to increase or decrease the setting) which also determines the timer for that setting. Again, you can adjust up or down for how long. But it is such a hassle - 20 minutes on one setting is far too long as I quickly found out. I think you are supposed to open the drawer and give the contents a shake now and again during that cooking time but I've got better things to do than remembering to frequently return to the air fryer for a shake.

And finally, the wattage must be higher than my cheap one because I've had to "re-learn" how long to cook stuff. We've had quite a few charred meals and it has taken me a lot longer to get the hang of it than I'd like. The smaller size drawer probably has something to do with it as well (less volume, quicker to heat up and cook) I have figured out that when cooking something like a piece of chicken that you have to turn over, it takes longer to cook the first side than it does the other side (that's why I kept getting burnt rather than crispy skin because I presumed it would be the same time for both sides)

On the upside, I do like using both drawers - after setting the temperature and timer, you can just press match and both start off and finish at the same time, or if one needs longer cooking time then you press sync and it will delay the timer for the second drawer with the shortest time setting.

I had also bought 2 silicone trays for the 2 drawers - they really are very useful for containing the fats and oils and reduces the cleaning of the drawers (something I learned from the cheap drawer with its cheap non-stick coating which isn't non-stick anymore) The Ninja drawers have a much better quality enamel inner lining which helps. You do need to clean the drawers after cooking every time to avoid the build up of burned fats (in other words, they are the cooking trays and roasting tin when using a conventional oven)

So Christmas dinner - how did it go? There was no way the small turkey crown was going to fit in either air fryer so out came the halogen oven (and parked on the kitchen sink drainer - I told you my kitchen was small) but both air fryers were in use (plus obviously the hob for parboiling the potatoes and cooking the veg and gravy) and everything was cooked to perfection and in a fraction of the time it has taken me in the past. I was especially pleased with the roast potatoes and parsnips which turned out so much better than my previous attempts so I started to get the hang of using the dual drawer air fryer just in time

[lancashire lass]

Progress with the new Ninja air fryer - isn't it odd how it takes a while to get the hang of using something new, and without knowing it, it suddenly doesn't seem to be that big a deal. Well, it's still a learning curve (perfect chips every time, but darn it, overly well done chicken kiev pieces)

I have sussed out how to get the "shaking" of the contents thing being included in the cooking process. I'm usually very much into "stick it in the oven and forget about it until the timer bell pings it has finished" but having to linger about in the kitchen to give the drawer a shake every few minutes was becoming a nuisance. The old air fryer took a little longer to cook, you only needed to turn the food over once and reset the timer ... but I do like how quick the new air fryer cooks. So, there is a trick to this "shaking" contents frequently that I can incorporate without too much hassle (still a hassle though):

- depending on the dish and cooking methods (for example, some sort of stew over chips), I'll get all the meat and vegetables prepared and cooking on the hob first (my preferred cooking method in this case)

- If I'm reheating something on the hob rather than cooking, then I'll start the chips off first in the air fryer. This is where I've learned that the initial cooking in the air fryer doesn't really need to be shakened - I just want the food piping hot but not in the browning stage so the timer setting is reduced.

- after the timer on the air fryer has run down, then I give the drawer a thorough shake and reset the timer. Meanwhile, I can get on with the final details of the dish - I might need to drain the vegetables or add something else to the pan and bring it up to the boil, get on with feeding the cat, start reheating whatever on the hob and so on. As I'm already in the kitchen now, it's just a case of going to the air fryer now and again to give the drawer another shake every couple of minutes. This seems to work well as I have been catching the desired crispiness / browning of what I want well before the timer ends (one of the things that has caught me out too many times)

So I guess the message is - if you want to start your meal off and leave it to cook unattended until ready, then the air fryer is not really the ideal choice. If you want perfectly cooked food, then be prepared to keep running to the air fryer every few minutes to give the drawer a shake.