Christmas Gift Idea - An Air Fryer?
Mates,
Santa has started packing his sleigh up and keeps hearing about something called an 'Air Fryer'. I looked it up and came across and article that seems to describe it fairly well. An Air Fryer is basically a smallish oven you'd put on your counter like a larger toaster oven, but it has a fan inside that moves the air around and therefore cooks faster and crispier than a regular oven. I guess conceptually its like a mini convection oven.
Link to the article: https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/appliances/a33403402/air-fryer-vs-convection-oven/
Anyway, Santa (aka: I/me) would like to know if this is something that is worth getting for the house. We are a bigger family and heaven knows we cook stuff - whole chickens, legs of lamb, etc.
So the question is: Is an Air Fryer all of that, or more of pleasant convenience that takes up counter space? And if you have one, what makes it so great and/or over-hyped?
Thank you, Merry Christmas, Go Blue and beat bama.
XM
December 22nd, 2023 at 6:01 AM ^
I have one. It is not huge, we are only a family of 4. I love it. Easy to pop in chicken fries for my daughter, 4 minutes later, food is nice and crispy.
I personally like to make homemade potato wedges in mine to go along with a burger or hotdog.
I would say mine is medium size. I can't speak to the commercials where they show the WHOLE backet full to the lid, we never cook that much. I would say it cuts the cooking time in half on most things.
December 22nd, 2023 at 10:30 AM ^
I'm a fan of going big, if you are going to go at all. This is a Blackstone griddle with a double drawer air fryer. It'll handle pretty much anything and is portable.
December 22nd, 2023 at 7:06 AM ^
Is it noisy? my tiny hot air popcorn maker sounds like a leaf blower.
December 22nd, 2023 at 8:42 AM ^
1984 called and wants its hot air popper back. You're gonna need to get a microwave.
December 22nd, 2023 at 9:26 AM ^
Hot air popped corn is at least 2.7 times more delicious than microwave popcorn. I can control the amount of butter/salt and portion sizes for a few people or for many people.
December 22nd, 2023 at 9:31 AM ^
I still make mine the old-fashioned way. Takes all of 5 minutes — if that — and the taste is still superior. The unnecessary sacrifices we make in the pursuit of "convenience" ...
December 22nd, 2023 at 10:32 AM ^
pot on a stove?
December 22nd, 2023 at 11:48 AM ^
I do it in a pot on the stove, add flavocol and butter flavored oil, just like the movie theater.
December 22nd, 2023 at 12:28 PM ^
Not only pot on a stove, I use no butter.
I started skipping butter during my healthy (sic) phase in college, and still skip it for popcorn and corn.
December 22nd, 2023 at 1:59 PM ^
butter is nearly the liquid equivalent of bacon. apply liberally, as needed.
December 22nd, 2023 at 8:06 PM ^
Underrated comment - I whole heartedly agree!
December 22nd, 2023 at 9:21 PM ^
The corn is far more likely to kill you than the butter.
December 22nd, 2023 at 9:43 AM ^
I'm not one to neg for opinions. But this is just a shockingly bad one. What are you even doing with microwave popcorn?
December 22nd, 2023 at 11:29 AM ^
It's noisy, but air-popped popcorn tossed with olive oil, garlic powder, and Adobo (red top) seasoning is tons tastier -- and much healthier -- than microwave stuff.
December 22nd, 2023 at 9:19 PM ^
Amateurs. Whirley pop for the win!
December 22nd, 2023 at 9:27 AM ^
Mine is also medium sized and we don’t leave it on the counter top. It won’t fit a leg of lamb, but it’s great for frozen food like breaded shrimp and fries. If the oven directions are “450 for 30 minutes”, the air frier will be 15 minutes at 375.
I’ve cooked acorn squash, twice baked potatoes, chicken wings, but nothing large.
My Instant Pot is the GOAT in my kitchen (Big Green Egg is it for outside)
December 22nd, 2023 at 9:46 AM ^
instapot. that was the other thing i should've asked about but won't make another thread for it. tell me more about instapot, if you would be so kind.
December 22nd, 2023 at 10:04 AM ^
It’s an upgrade to your grandma’s pressure cooker that probably looked like a part of a WWII submarine. Really good for speed cooking beans & rice. Some models have features like steaming, yogurt making, sterilizing, sautéing, sous vide, etc... It can reasonably approximate a slow cooker but the big ceramic ones still do a better job of distributing heat from all sides imo. I’ve seen some with an air fryer attachment but reviews seem mixed on those.
December 22nd, 2023 at 2:01 PM ^
thank you AAC. we have a regular slow cooker, but dear wife mentioned the instapot thing, too, so i'm glad to get some opinions and research on those also.
December 22nd, 2023 at 5:03 PM ^
I make pulled pork (add Liquid Smoke!), chili, beef stew/pot roast, chicken noodle soup - all kinds of delicious stuff! My son (18) cooks up chicken thighs in no time flat and makes himself ready to go meals for the next two days. Once you get used to it (quick ramp time) it will be as easy as set-it-and-forget-it!
edit: I cut up red potatoes, tossed them in olive oil and Italian seasoning, and they were done in 12 minutes in the air fryer. Standing rib roast is in the oven.
Get both the air fryer (Instant vortex plus) and instant Pot!
December 22nd, 2023 at 12:16 PM ^
I make soup often in my Instant Pot. Especially in Winter. Throw in your choice of vegetables, soaked or canned beans, tomato paste, chicken stock. Add some diced ham, sausage or chicken. High pressure for 10 - 15 minutes and dinner is served in 30 minutes or so.
December 22nd, 2023 at 9:23 PM ^
Instapot makes an air fryer too.
December 22nd, 2023 at 6:20 AM ^
Got one. Enjoyed it heavily for awhile. Banished it to the novelty appliance cemetery, along with the Insta-Pot and the Blendjet.
What we really need though is new cookware. Saw a commercial for Hexclad, was intrigued. Saw the price, and thought, eh, I can live with my current PFAS leeching set.
December 22nd, 2023 at 6:21 AM ^
vlady, how come/why did it go from heavy use to a train ride to siberia?
December 22nd, 2023 at 6:27 AM ^
Wasn't the air Fryer's fault. It does its job well enough. It just proved too cumbersome for regular use. It's like having a pancake griddle or a waffle iron. Great for making pancakes and waffles, but how often are you going to have pancakes and waffles?
December 22nd, 2023 at 7:09 AM ^
The convenience of air fryer cooking is offset by the clean-up after each use. Grates, baskets, and the built-in drawer should be removed and cleaned with each use. Otherwise, leftover food and oil contaminate your next recipe.
December 22nd, 2023 at 7:54 AM ^
I always felt that way about the George Foreman grill we have. Seemed to take me such an inordinate time to clean it that I rarely bother using it...
December 22nd, 2023 at 9:25 AM ^
My son had a George Foreman grill in his dorm room and brought it home one Christmas break. It had never been cleaned. "Oh, I have to clean it?" he asked.
December 22nd, 2023 at 2:02 PM ^
first, i read your post as 'my son is george foreman....'
second, our george forman is sitting on the counter, used today. it has stood the test of time, but when the boys leave i have a feeling it'll be collecting mucho dust.
December 22nd, 2023 at 3:54 PM ^
Oh man this takes me back to Ann Arbor circa 2006 lol.
December 22nd, 2023 at 9:45 AM ^
We may or may not still have and use a 15 year old george foreman
December 22nd, 2023 at 11:32 AM ^
Shadow -- this exactly. I love the way the Foreman cooks stuff, but it's a giant PITA to clean.
December 22nd, 2023 at 8:40 AM ^
I haven't tried them yet, but I've been browsing parchment paper liners on Amazon. Would make for easier cleanup, though I will say that tossing the basket and grate in the dishwasher isn't exactly difficult.
December 22nd, 2023 at 11:12 AM ^
I make a shit ton of waffles, sir. Only real maple syrup allowed however.
Insert oatmeal joke here.
December 22nd, 2023 at 7:10 AM ^
Hey XM, Merry Christmas brother, I have the Emeril Lagasse pressure cooker/ air dryer combo that looks like a crockpot type.
I love it, more so the pressure cooker part, I do make fries and tater tots in it and it works great that way but when I tried to make fried chicken it didn't work as well because the chicken pieces were stacked on top of each other and couldn't fry evenly.
I highly recommend the air fryer oven types, go on amazon for a wide selection, they might have an adequate sized model.
December 22nd, 2023 at 10:01 AM ^
thank you SDM and merry Christmas to you and yours.
December 22nd, 2023 at 10:02 AM ^
The keys to enjoying a long term relationship with an air fryer are two-fold:
- recognize what it's uniquely good for. In our case, we just love how it cooks vegetables, e.g. carrots, brussel sprouts, potatoes in many forms, and if you like fish tacos, Gordon's whole (un-chopped up) crunchy cod fish sticks become restaurant grade when cooked in an air fryer. YMMV, but there is likely something out there you like to eat which is best prepared in an air fryer.
- get one that's easy to clean. That means the cooking pieces are dishwasher safe and, as someone mentioned above, you can buy circular (and perforated) parchment paper inserts for the bottom of the bucket. Speaking of buckets, that's the easy kind of fryer to clean, NOT the ones that look like toaster ovens. It should have the removable circular rack at the bottom. We like the Ninja version of the fryer, particularly the one with the digital temp controls and a preheat function, but that's mostly icing on the cake. What's critical is being able to clean it.
December 22nd, 2023 at 6:41 AM ^
Just curious: is your NAC—Novelty Appliance Cemetery—stored on your treadmill?
(My treadmill became a box storage site until I moved to an apartment and got rid of it, with difficulty.)
December 22nd, 2023 at 10:34 AM ^
I suspect there is a bread machine and a rice cooker in that cemetery.
December 22nd, 2023 at 10:44 AM ^
My cemetery includes a fortune cookie maker, which is possibly the least useful small appliance ever (It's certainly in the running with ice cream making machines).
December 22nd, 2023 at 11:34 AM ^
Hey wait a minute we have an ice cream maker... wait never mind we dont use ours either.
I would like to say that I found the bulk dry bag of the dole whip pineapple and im kinda stoked to give it a run!
December 22nd, 2023 at 7:41 AM ^
That reminds me, I need to toss my indoor grill that I ordered one late night last year. I've used it literally twice. Food taste like shit and I see it every day in my kitchen. It's an eyesore.
I live in LA, WTF was I thinking. One of the worst purchases ever.
December 22nd, 2023 at 8:42 AM ^
I'm a bit surprised the InstantPot was banished. I get not having it on the countertop full time, because it does take up countertop real estate. Mine moves into the kitchen and back to the garage on a frequent basis. I use it for soups and stews, and I find the pressure/heat really makes herbs and spices "open up" in those recipes. Stew meat reduces to fork-tender in about 40 minutes. Also: it's really handy for making rice (pot-in-pot, which reduces cleanup), and hard-boiled eggs (7 minutes and shells come off easily).
December 22nd, 2023 at 9:02 AM ^
Proud member of the Pothead Cult. I think there’s an air fryer version but I have the conventional one and I can attest to the flavors of the stews and generally how well they come out; I also have a great curry recipe that is a big hit with my family. The footprint is the only downside that I can think of but as you note, that’s easily dealt with.
December 22nd, 2023 at 9:19 AM ^
I also have a great curry recipe that is a big hit with my family.
Would you consider posting it here? Please? :-)
December 22nd, 2023 at 3:22 PM ^
Happy to. https://www.wellplated.com/instant-pot-butter-chicken/
Don’t overdo the butter or it’ll burn. And if you’re so inclined, you can kick it up a notch with extra curry and some additional spices like cumin and turmeric. I also make a fish version with frozen scallops and a solid whitefish like cod. It’s always been great.
December 22nd, 2023 at 6:13 PM ^
Thanks!!
December 22nd, 2023 at 11:43 AM ^
Our InstaPot is stored in a drawer, so we pull it out when needed.
We use it mostly to make mass quantities of rice and beans. Dry beans cooked there taste much better than the canned stuff, and have less salt. We can store them for future use in soups, to refry or with rice. And it's great to have them on hand in the middle of the week when you need something quick and easy for dinner.
Helpful hint: Put a thin layer of coconut oil in the pot before you put in rice and water. It makes for easy cleaning and doesn't affect the taste of the rice.
December 22nd, 2023 at 9:11 AM ^
I find that we generally use the same 2-3 pans all the time. Rather than buying a matched of 8 pots and pans, just buy the one pan that you like. After using it at the in-laws, there are 2 new Our Place Always pans under the GadgetPlay family tree. (33% off now)