Air Fryers

There's a good post on GN about air fryers. I use mine nearly every day. The oven left here by my seller takes about ten minutes to heat up - air fryer is instant.

If you’ve got all those lurking at the backs of your cupboards I wouldn’t bother buying another gadget.

An air fryer is a game changer! I inadvertently packed mine a while ago in readiness for a house move in a week - but I'm tempted to unpack every box to find it again! The best bit of kit I've ever bought for the kitchen!!

My only comment is that it’s much quicker and cheaper to do baked potatoes in the microwave!

Get a Ninja. My brother uses his all the time. I bought a Tower, on offer, impulse buy and it is small capacity. Disappointed when I used it for chips and it's been at the back of the cupboard since Dec 2020. TBF I keep meaning to try some other things with it. Seems you get what you pay for.

I’m reading this thread with interest as I’m considering buying one. My friend loves her air fryer. She started off with a “compact” 2 litre size and although she loved it she regretted not going for the bigger size. It wasn’t big enough for a couple and she has since bought the 4 litre size. I live alone but she has recommended I should still buy the bigger one. Not because I eat enough for 2 but because my grandchildren are often here!

Is your slow cooker at the back of the cupboard then Happypie? If it is you are wasting your opportunity, because it’s so useful?

We use ours daily.
We even picked a microwave that could air fry

It all depends on your dietary habits and cooking style.

I'm another Ninja fan. I have the 9-in-1 Foodi and it does so much more than just air frying, from pressure cooking to dehydrating. It's a fantastic piece of kit.
Oh and yes, you may be able to do baked potatoes quicker in the microwave, but they don't taste nearly as nice!

I have a ninja foodi and a Tower air fryer. I use them both daily. DH loves a bacon sandwich for breakfast. Pop the bacon in the air fryer and it's cooked in 5 minutes.
I use them for sausages, chops, chips, toasties and so much more.
I rarely use my oven these days because I can bake and roast, pressure cook and sautè in the foodi. It's also a pretty good slow cooker.

I’ve got the Ninja with 2 drawers it’s great, we’ve just had steak, sweet potatoes and tomatoes cooked in it.

Oh and yes, you may be able to do baked potatoes quicker in the microwave, but they don't taste nearly as nice!

I second that. Although when time is tight we have been known to microwave for 5 mins before putting them in the air fryer. Somehow the potato gets much fluffier in the air fryer, and the skin gets much crisper.

After having a small air fryer, given to me by my daughter, I bought a larger one and loved it.

Just before Christmas I upgraded to a 14 function Ninja, which was on sale. I had swithered due to the cost, but my husband and my daughter, who has an older version, persuaded me. I absolutely love it! It has cut down on cooking time, but even more so, the effort it takes to cook food is much less, which is important to me.

My health is failing and problems with my hands and dexterity means that lifting dishes in and out of the ovens is becoming more difficult and sometimes dangerous.

It has been worth every single penny!

Casdon don't hijack the thread... I love my slow cooker!!

I'm afraid my experience of an air dryer has been very short lived. I had been thinking of getting one for a while now, my friend is delighted.with hers and uses it a lot.
So we bought one on Saturday in Aldi, it was on special offer, however, when we got it home and opened it up, I thought here we go again, another huge gadget to deal with and store when not in use.
I proceeded to read all the instructions and identify all the parts when I discovered a part was missing!
I was almost relieved and decided I needed to return it which we did the next day. Needless to say I didn't get another one just a refund.
My kitchen is rather small and compact so it would be a problem to store it.
I hope I'm not putting anyone off buying one but I just thought it's not for me.
I do use my slow cooker a fair bit as well as the ovens.

Air fryer not air dryer!

One thing that no one has mentioned as far as I can see is the fact that it's much easier to clean the air fryer than the oven. I do all my burgers, bacon, gammon, and roast chicken in the air fryer, and it's much easier to clean up the fat than if I was using the oven.

merlotgran

If you’ve got all those lurking at the backs of your cupboards I wouldn’t bother buying another gadget.

I wonder if there is any cupboard space left for another gadget? ?
For someone who cooks, they have an awful lot of unused cooking gadgets!
Time to pass some on, I think.

I think it depends on your eating pattern. We eat a lot of casseroles and stews. I am not keen on big lumps of meat, whether, steaks or burgers

I use my slow cooker constantly, but my small air fryer only occasionally, mainly for making pommes parmentier, recooking chips and not much else.

Are air fryers most use to folks who normally fry their food? I rarely fry food as I have a heart condition and my husband and I try to eat healthily - steaming veg, etc. But I see people are cooking veg in an air fryer?

I have a Ninja and like it. I haven’t tried baking in it yet but grilling and frying is easy and quick. Steak is very good.

That's very true M0nica. We use our slow cooker quite a lot too, it's great for batch cooking. It's on at the moment making lots of beef and mushrooms in red wine. But the air fryer will do the jacket potatoes or croquettes to go with it.

I have a lot of unused gadgets as well and have been seriously thinking of getting an airfryer and did wonder which on to get. The Ninja 2 drawer is expensive and wonder if it is worth it.

That's why I find my Ninja so useful - I rarely fried things the conventional way either, but it's not only useful for the air fryer function - mine also does slow cooking, pressure cooking, baking, dehydrating and even makes yogurt!