OT: Air Fryers

[McLovin]

The ninja foodie is an air fryer, pressure cooker, dehydrator and slow cooker all in one. Highly recommend. We use it almost daily.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

I like my air fryer. It's best used to cook certain snack type foods.
Frozen french fries come out very nicely. Crispy, not soggy. As was stated above, don't overload the basket, and pull it out and give it a good shaking about halfway through. Fish sticks, and breaded, or battered fish fillets come out nicely as well. Pizza rolls came out much better than in the microwave. Chicken wings come out with a nice crispy skin. I didn't like the results when I floured the chicken like you would do for frying. I do them naked, other than seasoning, which takes some experimentation to get right. I don't know about cooking larger pieces of chicken. Cleanup is much easier than a deep fryer, and you don't get grease splattering on your walls, which never really totally comes clean. If you don't eat those types of food, you don't need an air fryer.

@Yardigan
This is probably the closest to my first impressions of:

Dry-rub wings with Old Bay seasoning
¼ inch hand cut, unpeeled Yukon gold fries
Yukon gold and red new potato chips
Simple asparagus

To my family with in a Telegram chat thread, I've pronounced everything "good not great," leaving attempts for better to the pros who work with oil, deep fryers, and cleanup every day. In other words, good enough for home use.

It highlights that I'm not enough of a fried food fan to get my own air fryer, but am happy that it s a tool available at my sister's place where I'm doing my social iso thing.

I will next try some salmon, shrimp, and vegetables that I have on hand, as an alternative cooking method that doesn't seek to create 'fried foods.' It takes more time and has more cleanup than I'd have guessed, but neither are unrealistic or onerous when you're actually experiencing it.

Posts #93 to the bottom of the page are the most helpful on air frying within this thread. The rest varies, with some akin to measuring the merits of other players within a recruiting thread where you only care about the guy in the Subject line.

 

[UC313]

Did chicken cutlets last weekend. Much cleaner that the pan full of oil.

 

[HuskyHawk]

@Yardigan
This is probably the closest to my first impressions of:

Dry-rub wings with Old Bay seasoning
¼ inch hand cut, unpeeled UConn gold fries
UConn gold and red new potato chips
Simple asparagus

To my family with in a Telegram chat thread, I've pronounced everything "good not great," leaving attempts for better to the pros who work with oil, deep fryers, and cleanup every day. In other words, good enough for home use.

It highlights that I'm not enough of a fried food fan to get my own air fryer, but am happy that it s a tool available at my sister's place where I'm doing my social iso thing.

I will next try some salmon, shrimp, and vegetables that I have on hand, as an alternative cooking method that doesn't seek to create 'fried foods.' It takes more time and has more cleanup than I'd have guessed, but neither are unrealistic or onerous when you're actually experiencing it.

Posts #93 to the bottom of the page are the most helpful on air frying within this thread. The rest varies, with some akin to measuring the merits of other players within a recruiting thread where you only care about the guy in the Subject line.

They are cheap. Wouldn't go back to not having one at this point. It's certainly way more efficient in time and energy than turning on the oven, and works better than a toaster oven for pretty much everything.

 

[Hankster]

Anyone out there like these? And why?

My wife just said we should get one. Deep down I don't see a need.

Wow, am I late on this topic. I bought one. Very good on. Bought it in Bed Bath and Beyond. Used it once. Cleaned it, put it back in the box and it is sitting on a shelf in the garage. You want it? Free. Shipping free. I need the room. Supposed to be a new healthy approach. My opinion. Food taste terrible.

 

[Yardigan]

@Yardigan
This is probably the closest to my first impressions of:

Dry-rub wings with Old Bay seasoning
¼ inch hand cut, unpeeled UConn gold fries
UConn gold and red new potato chips
Simple asparagus

To my family with in a Telegram chat thread, I've pronounced everything "good not great," leaving attempts for better to the pros who work with oil, deep fryers, and cleanup every day. In other words, good enough for home use.

It highlights that I'm not enough of a fried food fan to get my own air fryer, but am happy that it s a tool available at my sister's place where I'm doing my social iso thing.

I will next try some salmon, shrimp, and vegetables that I have on hand, as an alternative cooking method that doesn't seek to create 'fried foods.' It takes more time and has more cleanup than I'd have guessed, but neither are unrealistic or onerous when you're actually experiencing it.

Posts #93 to the bottom of the page are the most helpful on air frying within this thread. The rest varies, with some akin to measuring the merits of other players within a recruiting thread where you only care about the guy in the Subject line.

Thanks, and sorry if there's a "Grill" thread this should be in... I love to eat and a while ago, while the wife was battling some health issues, found myself doing a lot of the cooking. With the mild winter, I have really taken to increased outdoor grilling. Cooked dinner on the grill more than 50% of nights in Jan and Feb, and 23 nights in March (yes, I'm scorekeeping). It's been awesome. It's amazing how many great recipes there are on the interweb. I have been grilling for a while, but a few months ago, decided to try to kick it up from good to great. It really only takes a few extra minutes of prep and ability to follow directions. I started printing and using the recipes that I really like and now have a folder that's a couple inches thick and have seriously bumped up the spice cabinet volume.

Am finding that you can cook almost anything on the grill, meats of course, but all kinds of veggies, too. And once you figger out which spices you like and how they go together, you can get creative without wrecking stuff. Have started making batches of dry rub, cajun seasonings, etc that I can have on hand and use 'last minute' when I don't have time to set up a marinade or something like that.

Eat healthy, my friends!

 

[storrsroars]

Thanks, and sorry if there's a "Grill" thread this should be in... I love to eat and a while ago, while the wife was battling some health issues, found myself doing a lot of the cooking. With the mild winter, I have really taken to increased outdoor grilling. Cooked dinner on the grill more than 50% of nights in Jan and Feb, and 23 nights in March (yes, I'm scorekeeping). It's been awesome. It's amazing how many great recipes there are on the interweb. I have been grilling for a while, but a few months ago, decided to try to kick it up from good to great. It really only takes a few extra minutes of prep and ability to follow directions. I started printing and using the recipes that I really like and now have a folder that's a couple inches thick and have seriously bumped up the spice cabinet volume.

Am finding that you can cook almost anything on the grill, meats of course, but all kinds of veggies, too. And once you figger out which spices you like and how they go together, you can get creative without wrecking stuff. Have started making batches of dry rub, cajun seasonings, etc that I can have on hand and use 'last minute' when I don't have time to set up a marinade or something like that.

Eat healthy, my friends!

There are two types of people who will emerge from this crisis: those with newfound (or rekindled) ability to cook delicious things, and those who will have devolved into thinking frozen pizza is actually good.

 

[Chin Diesel]

Mrs. Diesel wanted one for her birthday earlier this year. It's been a very good addition to the household.

Last night she chunked up some nice strips of pork, did the egg wash and then dredged it in panko and parmesan. 12 minutes at 400 and they were real good.

It's also been great for cooking biscuits, chicken strips, hot dogs/sausages, grilled veggies and seafood.

We are having shrimp tonight in the air fryer.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

Thanks, and sorry if there's a "Grill" thread this should be in... I love to eat and a while ago, while the wife was battling some health issues, found myself doing a lot of the cooking. With the mild winter, I have really taken to increased outdoor grilling. Cooked dinner on the grill more than 50% of nights in Jan and Feb, and 23 nights in March (yes, I'm scorekeeping). It's been awesome. It's amazing how many great recipes there are on the interweb. I have been grilling for a while, but a few months ago, decided to try to kick it up from good to great. It really only takes a few extra minutes of prep and ability to follow directions. I started printing and using the recipes that I really like and now have a folder that's a couple inches thick and have seriously bumped up the spice cabinet volume.

Am finding that you can cook almost anything on the grill, meats of course, but all kinds of veggies, too. And once you figger out which spices you like and how they go together, you can get creative without wrecking stuff. Have started making batches of dry rub, cajun seasonings, etc that I can have on hand and use 'last minute' when I don't have time to set up a marinade or something like that.

Eat healthy, my friends!

Just noticed how my potato choice got autocorrected to UConn. I'd heard about it but never seen it. Y U K O N

 

[UC313]

Ive also done corned beef hash. I cubed up and air fried some potatoes, threw them in an oven safe bowl, added leftover corned beef and cracked an egg on top. Back in the fryer for a few.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

Thanks, and sorry if there's a "Grill" thread this should be in... I love to eat and a while ago, while the wife was battling some health issues, found myself doing a lot of the cooking. With the mild winter, I have really taken to increased outdoor grilling. Cooked dinner on the grill more than 50% of nights in Jan and Feb, and 23 nights in March (yes, I'm scorekeeping). It's been awesome. It's amazing how many great recipes there are on the interweb. I have been grilling for a while, but a few months ago, decided to try to kick it up from good to great. It really only takes a few extra minutes of prep and ability to follow directions. I started printing and using the recipes that I really like and now have a folder that's a couple inches thick and have seriously bumped up the spice cabinet volume.

Am finding that you can cook almost anything on the grill, meats of course, but all kinds of veggies, too. And once you figger out which spices you like and how they go together, you can get creative without wrecking stuff. Have started making batches of dry rub, cajun seasonings, etc that I can have on hand and use 'last minute' when I don't have time to set up a marinade or something like that.

Eat healthy, my friends!

Try grilling stone fruit like peaches and plums. Pineapple

 

[StllH8L8ner]

I enjoy making wings on occasion and would use a small fryer with oil but the clean-up was a bit involved. Got an air fryer for Christmas and have been using it ever since. Wings are nice and crispy and I didn't notice a difference in taste although I also douse them in various sauces. Very easy to use and clean-up was much quicker.

 

[Lamble]

I don't know which is worse - the fact there are 6 pages of comments on this, or the fact I read every single entry. This quarantine is getting to us all! May all your meals be delicious!!!

 

[Yardigan]

Try grilling stone fruit like peaches and plums. Pineapple

Thanks, have not done that, will have to give it a try. We have grilled bananas (with sugar and cinnamon on top...just to make sure they weren't "totally" healthy).

Pineapple sounds like a good idea...never really thought about cooked pineapple but have recently started taking a liking to 'volcanic' (hot spicy) Hawaiian pizza... Am sure there's gotta be some good grilled pineapple recipes out there.

 

[Yardigan]

There are two types of people who will emerge from this crisis: those with newfound (or rekindled) ability to cook delicious things, and those who will have devolved into thinking frozen pizza is actually good.

Agree. I had a rekindled interest in cooking delicious things starting prior to the current sitch, but there's no doubt that present circumstances have ratcheted that up a bit lot. Not only does the stuff taste better, but I'm thinking it's healthier when you can pronounce everything that's in your food and despite what seems like eating 'more', have actually managed to drop a few lbs in the process.

 

[TRest]

Thanks, have not done that, will have to give it a try. We have grilled bananas (with sugar and cinnamon on top...just to make sure they weren't "totally" healthy).

Pineapple sounds like a good idea...never really thought about cooked pineapple but have recently started taking a liking to 'volcanic' (hot spicy) Hawaiian pizza... Am sure there's gotta be some good grilled pineapple recipes out there.

Just slice it in rings, drizzle some honey on it, get some solid grill marks. Great a la mode.

 

[ZenConn]

I have a Bella air fryer. Havent cooked much of a variety of foods in there. Mostly fries and wings.

I found the most success not overloading the basket. Its a glorified convection oven with a fan that circulates the air around.

I usually throw in a bag of the Tyson Applewood smoked wings in them for the kids. If you want to work with non flavored wings, you need to lower the PH level to get it crispy so add some baking powder to it.

Its good for heating up leftover pizza when you dont want to preheat the oven.

 

[brihman]

What are your thoughts on the Breville’s Combi Wave 3 in 1?

QUOTE="storrsroars, post: 3503025, member: 2500"]
There are two types of people who will emerge from this crisis: those with newfound (or rekindled) ability to cook delicious things, and those who will have devolved into thinking frozen pizza is actually good.
[/QUOTE]

 

[Kitaman]

Note: not a pillar in sight. Whaler, it's not listed and being rented at the moment, but I could put in a word if you want to move to the civilized side of the river.

1891 Boulevard, West Hartford, CT 06107 | Zillow

That's one big arse air fryer!

 

[storrsroars]

What are your thoughts on the Breville’s Combi Wave 3 in 1?

QUOTE="storrsroars, post: 3503025, member: 2500"]
There are two types of people who will emerge from this crisis: those with newfound (or rekindled) ability to cook delicious things, and those who will have devolved into thinking frozen pizza is actually good.

I stopped working for Breville last spring when they pulled the plug on Pittsburgh as a demo market, so never worked with the Combi Wave. However, I think Breville actually does generally make excellent products that live up to their claims. I own the Smart Oven Air and use it almost daily for something or other. I appreciate the air frying feature for fries, fresh egg rolls and unbreaded wings. For breaded, I've found that the coatings typically come out uneven, and I'd probably be better off following a regular oven fried recipe. But otherwise I'd highly recommend it as a very useful appliance.