Air Fryers

[anti SJW]

I'm thinking of getting one. What do people think about them? Does cooking frozen food with it taste better than using a microwave?

Looks pretty easy. But it will be mainly for me. Not sure if it's worth it for one person or how much I'll use it.

Anyone recommend any brands over other ones?

 

[rel=alternate]

Does cooking frozen food with it taste better than using a microwave?

Anything taste better when not cooked in a microwave.

It's basically a mini oven, and it's pretty efficient to cook all sort of things, frozen or not.

There is a big price range, but it's overall pretty cheap, I would say it's a good investment. I can't say if one brand is better than another though.

 

[DJ Grelle]

It's like a highly specialized and focused oven. Anything you'd put in an oven fits in there.
Food does taste better than a microwave yeah.
Pretty useful. I've got a philips brand that works fine.
Dunno how useful it is for a single person.

 

[Soso]

It's worth it for one person, and like the others say. It's much better than using a microwave. My great aunt used to throw food into the air fryer when she didn't have time to cook much. Doubt it would be a problem for one person.

 

[Catastrophes]

Think of it like a miniature convection oven. A fan circulates the heat. If your oven already does convection you kind of already have one.. That said, if you live in a hot climate, running an air fryer (or toaster oven) heats up your kitchen far less than a full-sized oven does. That has its charms, since you're primarily cooking for yourself. Depending on what you're making and how you time everything, you might be able to make your whole meal in it, so less to clean as well.

 

[Rango Dango]

i have one. love it.
put some chicken in it. then frozen veggies a bit later and youve got a great meal

 

[Rungle]

I have a philips airfryer and their great.

However if you are going to make snacks in it, Dont get the "Air fryer" snacks, get the regular ones.
Air Fryer snacks are just the same snack coated in oil.

 

[the rat]

Anything taste better when not cooked in a microwave.

Wrong again, stalker child. Everything put in the microwave is 10 times tastier. Every food should be microwaveable, it's how God would have wanted it to be.

 

[ArticleWriter]

They're pretty good, even the small ones. I just don't store a lot of frozen food, so I don't use it that often.

 

[Party Cheese]

Get Air Fryer. Put gnocchi in it. Do not boil the gnocchi, just dump the entire container in the basket after tossing it in a bit of oil, enough to stick seasoning of your choice on, I like Badia Complete because I'm a lazy bastard and too lazy to even mix dried herbs when I'm hungy. Dip the fluffy crunchy potato nuggs in whatever sauce of your choosing.
Also Brussels sprouts are kind of bomb in it, if you're into that.

Also, reheating pizza? Air Fryer is a game changer.

 

[Brenda Holiday]

Really good for cooking frozen shit, to the point where I don't have one anymore because it encouraged me to buy unhealthy frozen food.

 

[Testacles Maximus]

Anyone recommend any brands over other ones?

We use a PowerXL, and it's worked perfectly the entire time we've had it. Easy to use and easy to clean.

 

[Polyboros2]

Amazing Bachelor cooking device. I don't use it as much anymore now that I'm eating healthy, and reducing carbs, but for a young guy it fantastic quality of life thing over microwaved food.

As most have said, it's amazing at frozen food. If you like fried stuff crispy, it's going to be amazingly good for what it seems like you are purchasing. Tendies, French fries, pizza rolls, all sorts of stuff you might be used to eating as mushy slop will be crunchy slop.

For less processed food options though;

• Fresh bag of mini potatoes, toss them in salt and butter, bake them until the fork sticks though, then sprinkle with grated Parmesan(or other cheeses) and herbs, finish until the cheese crisps up.
• Batter a fresh chicken breast(or other meat, pork chops did good as well, trying a chicken fried steak was weird but not unpleasant), plenty of ways to do it, they all work. Put in on a rack and turn halfway. 350° for 34 minutes should do ya, or to temp if you have a meat thermometer.
• Roasting nuts. I've done hazelnut, almond, walnut, pecan, and pistachio in various mixes. Just dump them in, dust with extra fine salt(powdered "popcorn" salt is best but can be harder to find unflavored), roast at 325° for 24 minutes, shaking 1-4x to get an even cook. They come out with an amazing texture and maybe the best flavor I've ever experienced with a nut.

 

[Daddy's Little Kitten]

I want one too.

 

[Unpalatable]

Air fryers dethrone microwaves and toaster ovens for use as a secondary or small oven. Chicken wings and root vegetables are favorites.

extra fine salt

Good inspo. Can always try the ol' mortar and pestle when it's too coarse.

 

[Drama Fan]

What do people think about them? Does cooking frozen food with it taste better than using a microwave?

Looks pretty easy. But it will be mainly for me. Not sure if it's worth it for one person or how much I'll use it.

Anyone recommend any brands over other ones?

- Cooking frozen slop or reheating leftovers is often way better than the microwave. When in doubt it's easy to google an approximate time/temp. It's essentially a tiny convection oven with an emphasis on convection so it's usually not as fast as a microwave, but much faster than heating up your big oven. In my experence it's a convenient compromise of size for speed of cooking/crisping. I really don't like counter-top cluttering small appliances in the kitchen, but the air fryer is worth the space for me (plus mine is easily stowed away)
- Small size is essential for the trick the air fry tries to pull off. It's much better for a single person or snakcks for a few people, you're not feeding a family with one.
- Cant say anything about the brands, as I've only really used mine. The main difference is going to be the controls and the size/shape of the basket. As long as the review says the basket cleans easily, you'll probably be fine.
obligatory techconnections shilling, as he does a good job listing the pros/cons of it:

 

[Mordecai "3 Finger" Brown]

Pros
- really good at reheating food to keep crispness & texture as mentioned (pizza, wings, fried chicken,,etc)
- good for summer cooking as not to heat up the kitchen with the oven as mentioned by others as well
- pretty good at imitating a deep fryer for things like fresh french fries without the need for tons of expensive oil
- good substitute for the oven for frozen processed - fries, nuggets, wings, etc.

Cons
- have to look for air fryer specific recipes/cooking instructions (though more commercial products are including them)
- noisy as fuck because of the fan
- takes up a lot of counter space, not easy to store
- because of fan/convection/fluid dynamics, you are supposed to keep several feet of free space above the top of the unit to allow proper air intake/exhaust. This means requiring lots of counterspace in your standard cupboarded kitchen & sliding the heavy-ass unit in & out of position for use & storage
- I have a unit with sliding drawers. Instructions recommend only cooking a single layer of food due to convection fan fluid dynamics. Drawers are deep, but not much surface area, so lots of wasted space. Drawers limit size of items that can be cooked - roasts, chicken pieces pizza slices, etc.
- Drawers similarly limit portions that can be cooked in a batch. Really not practical for a family of any size.
- Drawers are a pain in the ass to clean and remain hot for some time after use. They are awkward to clean in the sink & don't fit well in the dishwasher.
- Has dual chambers for batch cooking. Individual drawers too small to make courses of any size. Also very easy to fill both drawers but only starting the cooking cycle for one, returning to a raw second drawer 10-20 mins later.
- Have to get into the habit of preheating the drawers for consistent results, but no preheating settings are available. Easy to burn yourself on preheated aluminum drawers while trying to load them with food afterwards.
- Lots of cooking settings, but little distinction between them or clear instructions on what they do
- Using air fryer as a tiny conventional oven has been a disappointment as it doesn't seem to cook thoroughly even with extended cooking times
- Fan in air fryer mode makes a mess with any food within the unit with a dusted top - parmesan cheese, etc.


Despite the longer list of cons, we are happy with our unit and use it almost daily.

If in the market for a replacement down the road, I'd specifically be paying attention to the internal food baskets to chose one with the largest volume/surface area for batch cooking, even at the expense of going down to a single container.

There just isn't enough capacity in this one to comfortably cook a meal for even a few adults.

I think this is the one on our counter.

Link

 

[Pee Cola]

Amazing Bachelor cooking device.

The air fryer is the greatest invention of the 21st century.

Like others have pointed out, they're basically a small fan-forced oven. Somehow they're able to pull out the oil in certain frozen foods (such as oven fries and tendies) and make them taste more like deep-fried fries (or chips if you prefer) than oven fries.

I've cooked all sorts of stuff in mine including nachos, a small roast chicken, lasagna and fresh bread.

BTW in my experience, most generic air fryers work just as well as the expensive ones like Philips and Tefal. If you're not sure if an air fryer is for you, just buy a cheap one from Walmart, Kmart or whichever big box store sells cheap shit in your country to get started. If in the unlikely event you don't agree that the air fryer is the greatest gift to humanity since sliced bread, at least you haven't thrown too much money down the pan.

 

[Polyboros2]

If in the market for a replacement down the road, I'd specifically be paying attention to the internal food baskets to chose one with the largest volume/surface area for batch cooking, even at the expense of going down to a single container.

There just isn't enough capacity in this one to comfortably cook a meal for even a few adults.

I think this is the one on our counter.

I have a Gourmia, it was like $45 on sale at Costco. It is small for a group of people, but it has lots of option including the ability to turn on/off a Pre-Heat and a Turn reminder, and like 12 different cooking modes. It is definitely the best one I've ever used.

 

[Mordecai "3 Finger" Brown]

Another Pro is that the units are relatively portable, if large & heavy.

I've had family members bring their air fryers directly to holiday gatherings along with their appetizers to assembly-line "hot out of the oven" finger food batches right at the tableside.

This was particularly useful at holiday gatherings at an older loved ones home with a tiny kitchen/solitary oven where access to the kitchen isn't practical.

We've also had others bring their air fryers to use outside on the deck to feed the gang in the dogs days of summer to make things that aren't practical on the BBQ or indoors in the sweltering heat.