Help me decide—will I really use an Air Fryer?

[Carol in Cal.]

I bought an Instant Pot in a moment of madness a couple of years ago and have never used it.

I do like to cook, and I can think of all kinds of things I’d like to make in an Air Fryer, unlike the IP.

What do YOU use an air fryer for?  Is clean up very hard?  Do you happen to have the Pampered Chef one (which is the one I’m considering?). Pros and cons?

[MEmama]

Yes, you will use it. Maybe every day.

I am not a kitchen gadget person— I have no use for an IP, a crockpot, a kitchen aid mixer or a food processor. But I love, love my air fryer and can’t remember how I cooked without it—or why. Hands down it’s been the best “extra” kitchen purchase I’ve ever made.

I use it for nearly everything. Heating frozen things like egg rolls, French fries, salmon, popcorn shrimp. Cooking chicken breasts to perfection. Roasting potatoes, Brussels sprouts, carrots. Reheating pizza, making perfect grilled cheese sandwiches. Calzones. Seriously, it’s limitless.

I have a Phillips, mostly because it was the only kind I knew about at the time. It’s very easy to clean, though I would like to give it a deep degreasing. The size I have was a bit small for three of us but will be perfect for two.

DS and one of his flat mates have already decided they will need to buy one for their on campus apartment. It’s ideal for all student food. 🙂 ( but grownup food too!)

[HomeAgain]

Check your oven and microwave settings.  We bought an air fryer and never use it.  It was too small to do anything (and it's a good size, but not for 4 people's curly fries!) and takes as long as the oven for a single basketful.  Then we noticed our oven has a convection setting, and so did our old microwave.  They do the same thing as an air fryer.

So, the air fryer went into the basement to save for ds's first apartment and we do an entire sheet of curly fries in the oven.

[Katy]

I got the XL ninja foodie grill on the recommendation from Dawn from Minimal Mom. What I like best is it has a thermometer that automatically stops cooking when meat or fish reaches the right temperature. And it doesn’t heat up the kitchen.  It does take a while to cook with if you have a bigger family though.  DH asked if we should get another & have one for meats & one for veggies. 
 

ETA: both our oven & microwave have convection settings, but I like the foodie better bc thermometer & not raising the temperature of the great room 5 degrees. 

Edited August 23, 2021 by Katy

[Lady Florida.]

I bought a Ninja air fryer almost two years ago and only used it a handful of times. Ds keeps telling me not to get rid of it yet I don't see him using it either.

The drawbacks for me are size, the fact that we don't really use the frozen food that most people put in an air fryer, and it takes up a fair amount of room for something that doesn't get used.

OTOH, I use my Instant Pot all the time (it's the only way I make rice now) and you never use yours so you might have the opposite experience with an air fryer that I've had.

[cjzimmer1]

I wasn't sure about the air fryer and waited a long time.  Part of it was I couldn't decide if I wanted a big air fryer since I have a large family or a smaller fryer for those times where one is cooking for themselves only.  I got something kind of in the middle.  I know many people say it's just like the convection on the oven.  No it is not, it's much better.  I've been using the convection broil setting (I also have convection bake) on the oven for the last 10+ years to roast potatoes, veggies etc.  The air fryer gets them much crispier.  Can't do as big of batches as the oven but the results are definitely superior.  Plus I never noticed how many times a day we were heating up the oven for a a small portion of food.  Now all that stuff goes in the air fryer and my kitchen doesn't warm up as much either (plus the air fryer is just faster).

[Carol in Cal.]

4 minutes ago, Lady Florida. said:

I bought a Ninja air fryer almost two years ago and only used it a handful of times. Ds keeps telling me not to get rid of it yet I don't see him using it either.

The drawbacks for me are size, the fact that we don't really use the frozen food that most people put in an air fryer, and it takes up a fair amount of room for something that doesn't get used.

OTOH, I use my Instant Pot all the time (it's the only way I make rice now) and you never use yours so you might have the opposite experience with an air fryer that I've had.

I keep hearing that the IP takes a while to go up and down in pressure and that that negates the time savings for anything except big roasts of meat.  Also, I have always been nervous about high pressure kitchen items.  And lastly, I can make great rice at sea level in my All Clad, and great rice at 5400 feet in my slow clay cooker (which has a very slight pressure elevation, informally, due to how it is sealed) so I don’t need the IP for rice.  If I hadn’t gotten the Vitaclay, I probably would have used the IP for high altitude rice and been very happy with it.

[Carol in Cal.]

2 minutes ago, cjzimmer1 said:

I wasn't sure about the air fryer and waited a long time.  Part of it was I couldn't decide if I wanted a big air fryer since I have a large family or a smaller fryer for those times where one is cooking for themselves only.  I got something kind of in the middle.  I know many people say it's just like the convection on the oven.  No it is not, it's much better.  I've been using the convection broil setting (I also have convection bake) on the oven for the last 10+ years to roast potatoes, veggies etc.  The air fryer gets them much crispier.  Can't do as big of batches as the oven but the results are definitely superior.  Plus I never noticed how many times a day we were heating up the oven for a a small portion of food.  Now all that stuff goes in the air fryer and my kitchen doesn't warm up as much either (plus the air fryer is just faster).

The kitchen warming is a big issue for me.  My house was built in 1922 and I can’t easily install AC.  For much of the year it’s hot here and I don’t like to use the oven then.

[Carrie12345]

I really only use mine for “junk food”. I think I might use it more often if it were easily accessible in my space. I won’t take it out for things I can easily make just as good with another method.

Still, two thumbs up from me. Enough that I did replace the one I broke.

I’ve seen lots of grubby looking ones in videos, but I wash mine after every use, and it always looks pretty much like new. But I also don’t spray  any oil, since I’m already cooking greasy junk food, lol.

[Farrar]

I say no.

This sums up my feelings on them.

 

[Indigo Blue]

I went back and forth on it and never bought one. I think about air fried chicken wings (for Dh) and fries, but I decided it wouldn’t be a justified purchase and would take up too much space because I already have TWO instant pots, which I use almost every day. I wish you could learn to like yours. I think they’re great. As far as fries, I prefer them in my carbon steel pan fried in a very small bit of olive oil, or just baked in the oven. We really don’t need air fried chicken. That’s just us, though. I know we all have different preferences. I’d rather have space for the Blendtec and the IPs. 

[Faith-manor]

I am on the fence about that too. Mark has been investing in all kinds of grilling implements and what not, and has become a grilling machine. The food is epically wonderful, and I hate to cook. If I buy an air fryer, I might be expected to use it! 😂

[Carol in Cal.]

1 minute ago, Faith-manor said:

I am on the fence about that too. Mark has been investing in all kinds of grilling implements and what not, and has become a grilling machine. The food is epically wonderful, and I hate to cook. If I buy an air fryer, I might be expected to use it! 😂

I was at Williams Sonoma recently and they have high end pans with holes in them to let smoke through for grilling. Quite an improvement over grilling baskets, I thought.  But how do you transport them?  Don’t they drip?  Inquiring minds want to know!  

[Faith-manor]

3 minutes ago, Carol in Cal. said:

I was at Williams Sonoma recently and they have high end pans with holes in them to let smoke through for grilling. Quite an improvement over grilling baskets, I thought.  But how do you transport them?  Don’t they drip?  Inquiring minds want to know!  

Oy! I will tell Mark. He is going to be ALL over that idea. My guess is he will use his huge sheet pan under the skillets when transporting the food, or his big, antique ceramic surgical tray which his former nurse mommy gave to him. That thing has been very handy!

[Indigo Blue]

Would a convection toaster oven make sense as an oven replacement since you don’t want to heat up your kitchen? I don’t have one, so I don’t know about that. Maybe even a really nice Breville convection oven that could totally replace an oven? I know you’re asking about air fryers, but I just had that thought.

[Spy Car]

Breville Smart Oven. 

Bill

[Clarita]

I use mine but fully admit I can achieve the same results in my oven with a jelly roll pan and a cookie rack. It is only nice in that I can air fry something and have something else in the oven at the same time. Also the air fryer is faster than my oven to heat up and use. 

I use the air fryer to make the pre-made frozen chicken nuggets (and the like), and also Kale chips. I haven't yet used it for the pre-made fried potato products. I think if you are short on space I wouldn't get an air fryer. If you make a lot of pre-made fried stuff it's useful because it saves time vs heating up and oven.

[Clarita]

7 minutes ago, Clarita said:

I use mine but fully admit I can achieve the same results in my oven with a jelly roll pan and a cookie rack.

With pure convection set on my oven, maybe not all ovens have that setting, If the oven has that setting then that gets you the same results as an air fryer.

As for using it instead of the oven to avoid heating up the kitchen, our air fryer's exterior is cooler than the toaster oven while in use.

I own way too many kitchen appliances/gadgets. Surprisingly though I don't own an instant pot, just a pressure cooker.

[PeterPan]

12 minutes ago, Clarita said:

I can achieve the same results in my oven with a jelly roll pan and a cookie rack.

Ooo, I need to try this! We have a dedicated air fryer unit, and it does an amazing job on junk food. The cleaning is totally gross, because then you have that dripping oil, the clogged crumby basket, etc. 

Even if the convection plus cookie sheet on jelly roll pan gives the same results, it definitely won't be as *fast* as the stand alone unit. If op is cooking for more than one person or doesn't care about speed and only wants the results, well then the oven hack might be just as satisfactory. Our unit is in the basement, where space is not an issue. It would never warrant a home in my main kitchen. It's fun though, absolutely. But it's the speed that makes it so fun. 

[Pawz4me]

 I went back and forth on getting an air fryer this spring. I was waffling on it because my oven has convection bake/convection broil settings so I wasn't convinced an air fryer would offer much that I didn't already have. Finally I decided on this Ninja toaster convection oven after deciding that what I was really after was (1) convenience and (2) not having to heat the huge oven when most often I'm just baking small amounts for me and DH. I love the Ninja! It works as well as my big oven, just in a lot smaller package. I've roasted veggies, reheated takeout fries, baked chicken, salmon and other types of fish, made toast, baked frozen rolls and frozen lasagna (Stouffers), reheated takeout pizza. And yes, a few frozen convenience foods. The only thing I can't do in it is bake sourdough bread. Sadly it's just not big enough for that.

Edited August 23, 2021 by Pawz4me

[catz]

I really like it for some things.  We generally do not buy much frozen food at all but my teen/young adult will occasionally throw these frozen natural chicken tenders or potstickers in them.  I actually make potstickers from scratch, freeze them, and we do them in the airfryer sometimes too.  

So we do have a convection oven.  But stuff just takes a fraction of the time doing the air fryer.  I do like it for oven fries (I make my own).  We like it for CSA veggies.  You can do kale chips, roasted asparagus, green beans, carrots etc etc etc.  We get a CSA and so it's used in ways for us most people probably would not.  When I do oven fries in the oven, it literally takes like 50-60 minutes in the oven.  And I'm still flipping them, etc.  I do the same in like 15-20 minutes in the air fryer.  I can not do as large of a batch, but when it's that fast, I don't mind doing it more often.  

We have a cheapie large basket model.  I did not want to spend $300-$400 for an oven style when I wasn't sure what our usage was going to be, but we would probably upgrade when this one dies.   We do wash by hand and it has held up fine so far.  You can order parchment inserts with vents in them to use in the bottom too.  I like not warming up the whole kitchen for summer meals.  Yes, we make less in the air fryer than we might otherwise, though we can do enough for 4 of us.  Sometimes that means we have to toss or stir things  every now and then to get even browning.  

Edited August 23, 2021 by FuzzyCatz

[crazyforlatin]

I use it for all sorts of foods, and now more often for pork belly (had teens over during summer). It’s so hard to clean between the, what are they called, vents/slits of the basket. And if you don’t clean it right away, there’s a layer that sticks to it making it harder to clean the next time. Has anyone found a good way to clean the basket? I’m waiting for DH to get back from a trip to really just take some time to scrub it. 

I use it almost every day. 

[MooCow]

I have also bought an instant pot and it is still in its box I have not even opened it. I did however open the air fryer and my kids used it until they realize they had to clean it. After that it rarely got used LOL and I ended up giving it to my oldest and his wife. They use it all the time.

[Carol in Cal.]

13 minutes ago, MooCow said:

I have also bought an instant pot and it is still in its box I have not even opened it. I did however open the air fryer and my kids used it until they realize they had to clean it. After that it rarely got used LOL and I ended up giving it to my oldest and his wife. They use it all the time.

The PC one you can clean the parts in the dishwasher, except for the drip pan. That is appealing to me! 

[prairiewindmomma]

We borrowed one and did side by side comparisons with our convection oven and convection toaster oven (which we got when our oven needed repaired and parts were back ordered this spring). The air fryer made perfectly crisp French fries and chicken tenders, but the batch time for our family size made it impractical. It became difficult to justify the space it would take up in our already tiny kitchen.

[plansrme]

I bought one for my house full of teen boys to use. Bought them a rice cooker for the same reason. They use both on a near-daily basis. They eat frozen chicken nuggets and the like and rice for Second Dinner (they're pretty much hobbits) after evening workouts or for lunch on weekends. I like that I can keep them on the counter in my breakfast room and out of my kitchen, as I am super stingy re. permanent-resident status on my actual kitchen counter. (No application for permanent residence has ever been approved.) I never use it, but it wasn't for me. It does not make a mess, and that is key.

I also hated the IP if that gives my opinion any credibility.

[Arcadia]

2 hours ago, crazyforlatin said:

I use it for all sorts of foods, and now more often for pork belly (had teens over during summer). It’s so hard to clean between the, what are they called, vents/slits of the basket. And if you don’t clean it right away, there’s a layer that sticks to it making it harder to clean the next time. Has anyone found a good way to clean the basket?

Soak in warm soapy water and then use a toothbrush for the slits. I use mine mainly for air crisp chicken thighs and for char siu. Mine is the ninja deluxe 8 quart.

[Carol in Cal.]

45 minutes ago, Arcadia said:

Soak in warm soapy water and then use a toothbrush for the slits. I use mine mainly for air crisp chicken thighs and for char siu. Mine is the ninja deluxe 8 quart.

 

I would to have these recipes!

[crazyforlatin]

37 minutes ago, Arcadia said:

Soak in warm soapy water and then use a toothbrush for the slits. I use mine mainly for air crisp chicken thighs and for char siu. Mine is the ninja deluxe 8 quart.

I did soak but time to get a toothbrush for DH 😄

[crazyforlatin]

1 minute ago, Carol in Cal. said:

 

I would to have these recipes!

Yes the recipe for char siu!

[Arcadia]

10 minutes ago, Carol in Cal. said:

 

I would to have these recipes!

 

8 minutes ago, crazyforlatin said:

Yes the recipe for char siu!

I use this recipe but skip the color component. Most of the time I use pork shoulder strips. Sometimes I use pork belly strips.

https://scruffandsteph.com/wprm_print/recipe/14664

[crazyforlatin]

3 minutes ago, Arcadia said:

 

I use this recipe but skip the color component. Most of the time I use pork shoulder strips. Sometimes I use pork belly strips.

https://scruffandsteph.com/wprm_print/recipe/14664

I use brown sugar and powder garlic only because I have none of the other ones right now. This looks so good!!

[2squared]

We recently bought the largest ninja. It has two baskets which are easy to clean and they can go in the dishwasher. 
 

I am anti-kitchen gadget, but my teens convinced me to get the air fryer. We ❤️ it! The teens use it all.the.time. I am particularly impressed with its ability to reheat food. We are now eating frozen pizza leftovers, which we would never have considered before the air fryer. 
 

we have enjoyed not heating up the big oven, and we have also enjoyed how fast the air fryer cooks. 

[City Mouse]

I did not want a stand alone air fryer because of lack of space, but when I needed to replace my toaster oven I went with one of the air fryer/toaster ovens. The one I got was $79 at Walmart. This one is still pretty small capacity, but it does a nice job of heating up frozen food. 

[Ottakee]

I rarely to never use the one I was given.  I do though use my Instant Pot often.   Even if the total cook time isn't a lot shorter, it is HANDS OFF time.

Like I made mac and cheese in IP...I had noodles, broth and seasoning, set to 7 minutes.  When it beeps I open the lid and add cheese and stir.  No waiting for water to boil, no adding pasta and stirring and then draining.   So for me it is worth it.  I love it for steaming veggies, making hard boiled eggs, and cooking dried beans as well 

[madteaparty]

Following. I use an IP (and used stove top pressure cooking before that) but haven’t ever had a microwave...not sure where I sit on gadget spectrum. I cook all the things all the time 

[kirstenhill]

I have a small one I was given. Despite also having a microwave with a convection setting and a convection oven, I prefer the results the air fryer gives for tator tots and sweet potato fries. I cannot get them to the same level of crispiness in either of the other devices. I just run multiple batches to get enough to feed everyone - but at 8-10 minutes/batch it's fast enough to do that. 

 My kids use it for heating up individual servings of french bread pizza, chicken nuggets, etc. 

I've never tried using it for anything other than frozen foods since I do like my convection microwave for a lot of other things, and I can do enough roasted veggies in it to serve everyone all at once. 

[katilac]

We love our air fryer and use it all the time. It's really fast (much faster than my convection oven), doesn't heat the kitchen (unlike my convection oven), and is great at crisping things that I want to be crispy (much more than my convection oven). All the frozen foods, yes, but also baked potatoes, chicken breasts/thighs/drumsticks, boneless 'mid-range' steaks like New York strip, muffins, biscuits, restaurant leftovers. All the things. 

Go big, because the smaller ones are still a good size, and you can get a lot more capacity for not a lot more size. I have the 8-quart Food Ninja with two baskets, and I love the two basket feature. You can set them the same or completely different. I only flip big pieces of meat, everything else just gets a shake. It's not tragic if you forget to flip, it's just not quite as pretty. 

And I am another one who loves the air fryer but fails at Instant Pot. 

 

[theelfqueen]

Me and my Instant Pot we are FRIENDS...but I havent made the AIR Fryer leap. You people talked me into the IP now convince me on the AF. 

[SoCal_Bear]

We use ours everyday. In fact, I have two because I started with an extra large capacity one and then when my toaster oven when kaput, I bought a Breville Air Fryer Oven which I LOVE because I hate using my Viking ovens. They use way too much energy and take a good 45 minutes to preheat.

I also have Instant Pot which is in use at least 5 days a week, sometimes more than once a day.

 

[Clarita]

Am I missing something my air fryer is super easy to clean? (I have a Cozyna?) There is a basket and a "bucket". The basket has large holes in it both seem to have some sort of non-stick coating and I just dunk them in warm soapy water and use a sponge to wipe clean. Am I missing something?? (I was informed about the cleaning I was suppose to do to my gas cooktop here. So me missing a component I'm suppose to clean is not unheard of.)

[cjzimmer1]

12 minutes ago, Clarita said:

Am I missing something my air fryer is super easy to clean? (I have a Cozyna?) There is a basket and a "bucket". The basket has large holes in it both seem to have some sort of non-stick coating and I just dunk them in warm soapy water and use a sponge to wipe clean. Am I missing something?? (I was informed about the cleaning I was suppose to do to my gas cooktop here. So me missing a component I'm suppose to clean is not unheard of.)

That's how mine is too.  I do make sure to only use silcone utensils in so I'm less likely to scratch that coating off but there seems to be different degrees of coating as well as different sizes of holes and even some basket that are more wire which I think would be terrible difficult to clean.  So I think it really depends on what style/material was used as to how easy or not they are to clean.

[Arcadia]

25 minutes ago, Clarita said:

Am I missing something my air fryer is super easy to clean? (I have a Cozyna?) There is a basket and a "bucket". The basket has large holes in it both seem to have some sort of non-stick coating and I just dunk them in warm soapy water and use a sponge to wipe clean.

My airfryer basket looks like this, just taller. The diffuser portion at the bottom is detachable for washing.

[Clarita]

Well, if it helps your choice in Air Fryers mine is Amazon.com: Air Fryer by Cozyna (3.7QT) with airfryer cookbooks (over 50 recipes) : Home & Kitchen. It's super easy to clean and the parts that need to be cleaned regularly can go right in the dishwasher (I just discovered).

[Lady Florida.]

10 hours ago, Clarita said:

Am I missing something my air fryer is super easy to clean? (I have a Cozyna?) There is a basket and a "bucket". The basket has large holes in it both seem to have some sort of non-stick coating and I just dunk them in warm soapy water and use a sponge to wipe clean. Am I missing something?? (I was informed about the cleaning I was suppose to do to my gas cooktop here. So me missing a component I'm suppose to clean is not unheard of.)

Mine too. I posted upthread that I rarely use it but when I do it's super easy to clean. Even when I made copycat Panda Express orange chicken and it got coated with gooey stuff it was easy to clean. The guy in that video showed food stuck on like it was an actual problem. It's not. It's like he was determined to hate the air fryer even before reviewing it. 

[importswim]

I got the Ninja Foodi a couple of years ago. It's a slow cooker/Instant Pot/Air Fryer in one. It's my most used kitchen gadget. I use the air fryer part more than the other options. It's too hefty for me to want it on the kitchen counter but I just store it in my gadget armoire in my garage. It's totally been worth it to me.

Edited August 24, 2021 by importswim
spelling

[katilac]

2 hours ago, importswim said:

I got the Ninja Foodi a couple of years ago. It's a slow cooker/Instant Pot/Air Fryer in one. It's my most used kitchen gadget. I use the air fryer part more than the other options. It's too hefty for me to want it on the kitchen counter but I just store it in my gadget armoire in my garage. It's totally been worth it to me.

I want a gadget armoire! 

[importswim]

2 hours ago, katilac said:

I want a gadget armoire! 

It sounds much more grand that it actually is. LOL! It's our old box TV armoire that we just put in the garage to hold gadgets. 😁

[Carol in Cal.]

Well I did it!  Ordered the Pampered Chef air fryer, with all the accessories.  Pretty psyched about it, actually.

[Carol in Cal.]

PS Hit me with your favorite Air Fryer recipes!