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Talk to me about Air fryers. Do I want one?


matrips
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We just got an air fryer and I really love it. 

Ours is a Corsair.  I think it's a 6 quart.  They come in different sizes, so how much you can make in it depends on the capacity.  So far we've just made things like fries or chicken nuggets in it, but I'm liking it.  I'm going to try making fried zucchini next and then move on to fish tacos.  Everything comes out really crispy and not greasy at all, and cook times are fast.  I can make half a bag of frozen fries in about 10 minutes.  I use it way more than my Instant Pot, which everyone swore would revolutionize my kitchen (it did not). 

Edited by MissLemon
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1 hour ago, MissLemon said:

We just got an air fryer and I really love it. 

Ours is a Corsair.  I think it's a 6 quart.  They come in different sizes, so how much you can make in it depends on the capacity.  So far we've just made things like fries or chicken nuggets in it, but I'm liking it.  I'm going to try making fried zucchini next and then move on to fish tacos.  Everything comes out really crispy and not greasy at all, and cook times are fast.  I can make half a bag of frozen fries in about 10 minutes.  I use it way more than my Instant Pot, which everyone swore would revolutionize my kitchen (it did not). 

So the fries and nuggets are frozen ones?  It works like an oven to reheat them?  But makes them crispier?

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28 minutes ago, Farrar said:

My friend asked the exact same question with the exact same phrasing last week on FB. It’s going to be this year’s Instant Pot. So I say no... who needs another gadget! But I genuinely have very little experience with them.

Did she get good responses? 😃

I'm not big on gadgets, so trying to figure it out before getting enticed /)

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1 hour ago, itsheresomewhere said:

I bought one a few months ago by Instant Pot.  We really like it.  My plan for it was to help my DS become more comfortable making a meal.  Hands down it makes the best fries.  This one bakes, has a reheat feature and a rotisserie.

What do you makes besides fries?  Are they homemade or frozen ones?

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Yes!  Yes you do.

i literally only do chips and chicken wings in ours but I love it and use it frequently because it’s a quick easy way to get lunch, a light meal or side on the table.

For chips (fries) you chop the potato and soak in water for a bit, coat with a tsp and cook for around 20 mins.  For chicken wings I chop the tips off and halve then either coat in flour or honey and soy and cook around 20 mins.

Edited by Ausmumof3
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1 minute ago, Ausmumof3 said:

Yes!  Yes you do.

i literally only do chips and chicken wings in ours but I love it and use it frequently because it’s a quick easy way to get lunch, a light meal or side on the table.

Which one do you have?  The toaster oven kind or other kind?  How many wings can you make at a time?  Does food need to be single layer or can stuff food in?

Edited by matrips
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3 minutes ago, matrips said:

What do you makes besides fries?  Are they homemade or frozen ones?

I have made- chicken strips, fries ( both frozen and homemade), brownies, fresh fish, scalloped potatoes, too many different appetizers to list, cookies, pizza ( frozen and fresh), baked potatoes and a ton of other stuff.   I hate heating up my kitchen during the summer so this is a great way for me to cook without heating the house. 

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Did anyone else watch that video Farrar posted?  Would you agree?  Or is it very unfair?

If I’m cooking, I’m usually cooking a lot- 3 teens here.  I do have a convection oven and a toaster oven.  After the video, I’d lean more towards upgrading our cheapo toaster oven.  

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11 minutes ago, itsheresomewhere said:

I have made- chicken strips, fries ( both frozen and homemade), brownies, fresh fish, scalloped potatoes, too many different appetizers to list, cookies, pizza ( frozen and fresh), baked potatoes and a ton of other stuff.   I hate heating up my kitchen during the summer so this is a great way for me to cook without heating the house. 

Do you have the appliance kind or the toaster oven/convection oven kind?  Never mind- I saw you have one by Instant Pot.  I can google.

Edited by matrips
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54 minutes ago, matrips said:

Did anyone else watch that video Farrar posted?  Would you agree?  Or is it very unfair?

If I’m cooking, I’m usually cooking a lot- 3 teens here.  I do have a convection oven and a toaster oven.  After the video, I’d lean more towards upgrading our cheapo toaster oven.  

You could upgrade and get a toaster oven/air fryer/small counter top convection combo.  

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I have one similar to the one on the video.  I also have a convection oven but it doesn’t cook anywhere near as nicely.  It is a very basic convection oven though.

i actually didn’t buy either both were given to me but would pick the fryer over the convection oven if it had to choose based on what our family likes.  Much crisper nicer results.

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My mom bought one as she gets every gadget out there. She loves the fries in it but everything else is not worth it to her. I don't do a ton of fries and like them fine baked in the oven, besides the fact I prefer not to have too many gadgets. The Instant Pot on the other hand is used multiple times a week for a variety of things and makes my life easier, it has been well worth it, although I would have not picked it out for myself, dh got me one when they first came out and I hadn't even heard of it yet.

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Check your oven or microwave.  After we bought an air fryer we found out that both of ours have a convection setting - which is really what an air fryer is.  It's a small convection oven.

We were not very happy with what the air fryer produced (slightly more than a single serving of something) when compared to what we got out of the oven.

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I have a small one that I purchased on sale probably 6-8 months ago from Sam's Club. 

I'm on the fence. It makes good fries, but we don't eat fries very often. We rarely eat fried foods at all, so the purchase was not a wise one on my part. 

If you eat a lot of things that are typically fried, it might be a good investment. Its easy to clean. Its easy to use. It works well for those sorts of things.

But, I may offload it. It takes up valuable space in my appliance corner cabinet for something that I don't use that much.

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I hated Instapot.  It took sooooo long to get up to and down from pressure.  It worked but was hardly instant (like cauliflower and spaghetti squash).  I prefer a slow cooker and low and slow. 

i love my air fryer.  We have 2 of them- 6qt from Costco but only one is on the counter I use it for salmon, frozen fish, roasted veggies, fries, bacon, cooking chicken from frozen,  breaded chicken, reheating  leftovers, hot dogs, pizza... the chicken wings are not breaded and cooked from frozen. So yummy!  It’s my favorite way of cooking chicken tenderloins - i cook from frozen and they are perfect every time.

It’s quicker and easier than a whole oven and my DH likes it for reheating things with a timer- not mushy like the microwave but crispy. I like that it cooks by a timer feature so it’s precise.  I LOVE Quick roasted frozen veggies - they get a little bit of browned bits and so easy with a little pile and salt and pepper.  
 

I wash ours in the dishwasher 

 

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13 hours ago, matrips said:

Did anyone else watch that video Farrar posted?  Would you agree?  Or is it very unfair?

If I’m cooking, I’m usually cooking a lot- 3 teens here.  I do have a convection oven and a toaster oven.  After the video, I’d lean more towards upgrading our cheapo toaster oven.  

I thought it was unfair. I can't remember point by point but I'll note a few things that annoyed me.

--Overfill/fill to capacity - He mentioned this several times and he's not wrong. However, every website, every cooking blog, every cookbook, every air fryer company's manual will tell you this. He makes it sound like you won't know about that until you try to use it, but you only won't know if you do zero research before buying.

--Convection toaster ovens can be pretty big and take up a lot of counter space. I had a huge Cuisinart one that I finally got rid of. I bought a very small toaster oven (no convection setting - the fan adds to the size) that we use for toast and reheating small things that we don't want to heat in the microwave. An air fryer can be tucked into the corner of a counter or if you have enough storage you can keep it elsewhere and free up counter top space. A convection toaster oven not so much.

--Non-stick coating. Anyone who has any non-stick cookware knows to be careful with it so there's no real adjustment there. As for having to hand wash, mine (Ninja) is super easy. You can practically just wipe it clean. He showed you a dirty one and said you have to clean it without telling how super easy it is to clean.

I do have a convection setting on my stove oven but where I live it's too hot to turn it on most of the year. I spend 7-8 months trying to plan meals that don't need the oven, convection or otherwise. 

It's a personal choice and it is true about not being able to cook large amounts at a time. I'm feeding 3, sometimes just 2 so it's not a big deal for me. If you have a large family it might not be the best small appliance choice, but neither would a toaster oven. Yes, you can cook a pizza in one, but if you have 5+ people to feed you still need to make several pizzas in the toaster oven too. I wouldn't use that video as the definitive one for whether or not to get an air fryer. Seek out some other videos and food blogs first.

Edited by Lady Florida.
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I got one two years ago and use it 4-5 times a week. I have a very small oven, and it's an extension of that and allows me to bake or air fry something fairly small. We love air-fried potatoes. Make sure you watch the size that you get. I can fit three hamburgers in mine, but just barely. 

The one issue I've had is that the vessel is badly rusting on me, so plan to replace it with a Ninja Foodie Grill. I currently don't have a working outdoor grill and figure that this will replace that as well. 

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2 hours ago, LarlaB said:

I hated Instapot.  It took sooooo long to get up to and down from pressure.  It worked but was hardly instant (like cauliflower and spaghetti squash).  I prefer a slow cooker and low and slow. 

 

You don't have to wait for the Instant Pot to release the pressure naturally -- you can just press the little button and the pressure is released within a few seconds. 🙂

I can understand that the Instant Pot may not be for you, but I'm not sure why you didn't like it because it wasn't fast enough, yet you do like your slow cooker that is... well... slow. 😉 

If you still have your Instant Pot, it has a setting so you can use it as a slow cooker, so even if you don't like the pressure cooking settings, you might still be able to get some use out of it. I hate it when I buy things and they turn out not to do what I want them to do!

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I have a very small airfryer (I think it's the Dash Compact). I leave it out on the counter. I mostly use it for reheating leftovers, especially fries. Frozen snack foods are good in it, like fish sticks, mozzarella sticks, etc.  

I have picky kids who won't eat Mexican food, and it's really easy to make quesadillas in it if you use the small tortillas. Then the kids can eat those while the rest of us eat tacos or whatever. And it's great in the summer when I don't want to turn on the oven. 

I don't use it as much as I could. I think if I had a bigger version I would use it more, but I didn't want to commit to that at first. So if this one dies, I might upgrade to one with a bigger capacity.

 

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