Despite my years of resistance, my wife came home with an air fryer (by way of background, the first air fryer she brought home, a Black & Decker of all things) remains unopened in my garage.
Now that she’s recently babysat for her brother’s kid, I’m now saddled with a new Air Frying appliance from Gourmia. Now everybody is chirping at me about this and how I need to adapt or “get with the times”. I’m admittedly old school cooking wise.
So I’m done blathering- any and all feedback about this gadget/cooking technique/good or bad recommendations would be appreciated. Thanks gang.
It does a wonderful job on veggies like Asparagus and String Beans too.
An airfryer is nothing more than a compact convection oven. It can’t magically make vegetables crispy without fat. You’ll need a tablespoon or two of oil.
They come out great, but it can dry out a chicken breast. Gotta brine it first before breading and frying and they come out perfect.
Or just air fried “grilled “ chicken without the breading, but again have to brine it or it can dry out.
Wings are super easy too. A little seasoned meat tenderizer like Adolph's is simple and delicious. Add your favorite hot sauce after frying if you like but we just like em plain too.
My youngest made buffalo cauliflower in it in a couple times. not bad, not crispy though. but it was quicker than roasting it in an oven and not as messy as deep frying.
I use my instant pot often, air fryer almost never.
the kids like them though - good for heating or reheating things.
It's great for reheating pizza slices.
makes passable wings.
decent fresh cut fries. lousy at frozen fries.
in the non-air mode, it's just an oven.
good for single servings. barely big enough for 2 servings, if both people aren't too hungry.
Worth the money if you're not living paycheck to paycheck. Better off padding the bank account if you're a little skinny there. Not sure it is worth the counter space.
I don't get the woody some folk seem to get when talking about them.
any frying done in it is with added oils.
Not a fan of it for wings or frozen french fries. Great for reheating leftover fries, though.
I use it to reheat things all the time
Requires little to zero oil
I have a Ninja foodi which has a dehydrate option which I use often to make chili powders and herbs etc. And I also sous vide my wings and finish them in it which turn out to be very good.
A fryer it is not a quick high temp convection oven it works great without heating up the whole house.
We have gone through a couple of dedicated air fryers (damaged; long story). However, when we moved, we retired the old air fryer to the basement, threw away the old toaster oven and bought a Ninja Foodi 10-in-1 convection oven/air fryer. (Model DT201, if you are interested) I really like the thing for everything we've used it for. Really good toaster, "air roast" setting is terrific for reheating crusty bread, bagel and pizza settings work great. Mrs. Dane uses the air fryer setting and seems to like it. Downside of this unit: Very very large, not suitable for a small kitchen or narrow counter. But Shark Ninja (really, that's what the company calls itself) makes smaller ones.
So far, I've air fried the following and the results are better than a straight up oven/toaster oven or microwave:
Frozen fries
wings
pizza reheat
frozen nuggets
reheating certain leftovers
mini potatoes
frozen chicken patty
frozen fish
For those on diets that are looking for compromises to what they eat, the idea here is better taste maybe than outright grilling/broiling/baking/roasting.
So if the taste of fries, wings, etc. in an air fryer is acceptable enough, then it's a solid choice.
I haven't done it myself to truly know, but that's what I'm hearing.
For those that are hardcore about the taste and only the taste, likely not worthwhile.
For those on diets that are looking for compromises to what they eat, the idea here is better taste maybe than outright grilling/broiling/baking/roasting.
So if the taste of fries, wings, etc. in an air fryer is acceptable enough, then it's a solid choice.
I haven't done it myself to truly know, but that's what I'm hearing.
For those that are hardcore about the taste and only the taste, likely not worthwhile.
If you think you're making the healthy choice by doing french fries in the air fryer rather than the deep fryer, I think you're deluding yourself. You shouldn't be eating the french fries, period. And if you're going to eat them, might as well enjoy them. At least that's how I see it- I'll be double frying mine next week in the deep fryer. And a couple of days later, onion rings.
I store mine underneath in the cabinet and bust it out as needed. It’s pretty lightweight easy to move.
They are great for the mere mortals of the world who don’t or can’t deep fry shit and they are insanely good to use simply for chicken wings of any variety.
Simply put it’s worth having one for wings. They come out awesome every time. Any flavor or style.
Slow cooker?
a slow cooker aka a crock pot has been around since the 50's performing a unique and valuable function. Have you ever been to a Church potluck? Chili cook off? Christmas Eve at my grandparents? or one of any of thousands of other events.
what do you mean by "repackaged marketing"?
pj, your grandparents are still living? yowzaa, you're the proverbial BBI teen living in his folks' basement. LOL
pj, your grandparents are still living? yowzaa, you're the proverbial BBI teen living in his folks' basement. LOL
lol, no. my last grandparent died in 1987. I wish they were alive and I was living in their basement. Any of them. I was just saying Christmas Eve at the grandparents always involved a few crock pots.
I didn't know anything about them, but from a quick search they just look like expensive air fryers
Nice memories...what ethnicities in those crock pot dishes, just curious, cuz we grew up w/o a mom, or father was an awol parent, so no treasured family recipes.
Ridiculous take to be honest.
That's about as crazy as saying people who use non stick pans care less about taste than people who use cast iron.
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Who want fast meals that don’t care about taste or don’t know how to cook.
Ridiculous take to be honest.
That's about as crazy as saying people who use non stick pans care less about taste than people who use cast iron.
I would say, though, for the small group of people who get non-stick so that they can fry an egg dry, they are more interested in "health" than taste
Hadn't really thought of that, I guess true enough. I use non-stick when cooking eggs fried or scrambled because the clean up using stainless, iron, or ceramic pans is such a royal pain--have to use my fingernails to dislodge the stickum, e.g., when my wife cooks an omlette on an omlette sized pan that is not non-stick.
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I would say, though, for the small group of people who get non-stick so that they can fry an egg dry, they are more interested in "health" than taste
Hadn't really thought of that, I guess true enough. I use non-stick when cooking eggs fried or scrambled because the clean up using stainless, iron, or ceramic pans is such a royal pain--have to use my fingernails to dislodge the stickum, e.g., when my wife cooks an omlette on an omlette sized pan that is not non-stick.
Most pro chefs recommend non-stick for eggs, but they use butter or oil. I do a lot of stuff in non-stick if I'm not going high heat