Air Fryers?

I decided not to buy a Ninja for the same reasons although I would not have to get rid of my microwave. I bought a middle of the road Breeze and with a slow cooker and microwave, it was excellent. I have not used my oven for almost 2 years so I use it as a cupboard.

My main electric oven has packed up and seriously thinking of doing away with it and replacing with a Ninja oven.

Can you defrost and heat up food in it.
I would have to get rid of my microwave to make room for it.

A bit nervous about buying one as it’s. Big investment.

Are the controls and temperatures difficult to understand.
Have a dread of doing undercooked chicken.

All information and tips gratefully received.

I'm another who thinks that the title is misleading.

I have a Tower one with shelves at the lodge, and that convinced me that it is not a fryer at all. Fry, roast and bake are essentially the same thing, aren't they? I use it a lot - more than the fancy Ninja I have at home. The difference is that the Tower doesn't pressure cook, but I don't like the idea of doing that in the lodge, as there is less space for the steam to dissipate.

If I were starting again (and if I already had a pressure cooker) I would go for the Tower over the Ninja, as you can get a lot in it if you use all three shelves, and I prefer that to the basket way of cooking. Ninjas are fancy, and do lots of things, but I definitely don't use all of them. They also take up a lot of space and are heavy.

Today, I have made individual toads in the hole, an onion rose, carrots, roasted sweet potatoes, carrots, peas, gravy and a Countess Pudding with custard. The only things not made in the 'Fryer' were the custard (from a carton and heated in the microwave), and the gravy, made with the veg water in a pan on the hob with Bisto powder.

Agree about the title. I mentioned I was purchasing one to one of my daughters who s aid as they never have any fried food, no point in getting one. Perhaps Air mini ovens would be a better description
The drawer in my small tower machine would not take any of my cake tins, but perhaps will buy some small foil ones.

My main oven is very controllable with regards as how to heat it, with or without fan, heat both top and/or bottom, fan circulated round just one shelf or throughout. Reckon it would make delicious bread. The only bread I make these days is Chola, was delicious in my old combi/microwave, will have to make some soon in my new oven.

Trying out chicken in my airfryer tonight.

There is a Steam Bake setting on the Ninja to do this. I haven't used it, but have seen photos online of bread baked using it, and the loaves certainly look good.

karmalady I wasn't questioning your bread making skill - mine doesn't extend much beyond rolls ? I just didn't understand the statement I quoted, as to all intents and purposes my oven and Ninja work the same way. The Ninja just does it in a more confined space. I understand now you were saying that you don't like the fan for bread making, so an air fryer wouldn't work for you. I sometimes forget that there are air fryers that do nothing but air fry.

Try it and see. See if you can bake a loaf from scratch in your air fryer.

It also has a lot to do with thermal mass. A serious breadmaker would use a stone in the oven, mist and normal heat not fan. Yes you can bake a loaf in a fan oven but it will never rise as well as in a non-fan oven, that is why I use a cloche if I use my oven for my sourdough in my fan oven. The fan removes the essential moisture

Bread really needs all around heat, not just top heat plus the air flow will stop the yeast rising that well.

I don't understand that statement. My oven has an element at the top and a fan. So does my air fryer. What is different?

I love my Ninja Max and use it most days but am frustrated at trying to keep the area behind the heating element clean. The basket and crisping plate are very easy to clean, just need a quick soak in hot soapy water before rinsing and all the grease and food bits are gone.

But there is an area behind the element that is now quite greasy, it’s the fan and a metal backing plate which form part of the lid. I struggle to get through the rings of the heating element to clean that area, I can’t get a standard bottle brush through the rings not a cloth. All I can do is wipe the outer edges but I’m worried about grease building up in the impossible to reach areas.

Researching online, this appears to be a common problem and no one has come up with a solution. I turn my fryer upside down to reach as much as I can and I am currently looking for a small bendy bottle brush and long handled cotton buds to help - having fat sausage fingers makes access even more difficult!

Any suggestions?

@franbern.I agree however the hob uses quite a bit more in energy than my little airfryer

I think the title puts some people off because it does not fry, it is hot air which is used to cook the food.

I occasionally buy items which cannot be cooked in my microwave but would take up little space in my double oven but take over 30 minutes, such as Tempura prawns including heating time. I pop them from frozen in my air fryer and they are ready in 10- 12 minutes.

To date I have halved the air frying time on items for a double oven and for me, with trial and error it has worked out.

Charleygirl, I am a breadmaker, it is in my genes. I would not use an air fryer to bake a loaf from scratch, maybe mini rolls would be just about ok. Bread really needs all around heat, not just top heat plus the air flow will stop the yeast rising that well. I would use one to bake bought part-baked rolls

I have the smallest tower, 2litre. I can squeeze in a salmon fillet wrapped in foil plus a few sweet potato chips that I have part cooked first. I have bought a second identical tower as they have a small foorprint and are light, so I can cook a bigger meal.

I found small cake tins and will happily bake a cake in one. Also small round foil dishes are good. It is ideal for one person but even so, I do like that I have another so I could have two on the go at the same time. They are very economical with energy, max is 1 kwh, I usually use much less than full power and generally only 15-20 minutes. My electricity consumption has gone down considerably

I already had a good pressure cooker so a tower air fryer is a good compliment to that

Decided to get one of these machines to save using main oven for one small item,. Purchased a compact Tower one, = just me here. Most evenings my main meal consists of a large salad and either fish or chicken.
Fist (Salmon usually) cooks in microwave for less than three minutes. Chicken I will try in this airfryer. Last night had a salmon fishcake and this was cooked perfectly in less than 15 minutes in there.

I rarely have any fried food, which i why I have not bought one of these machines earlier - but reading of uses on here and other thread realised that it will be ideal for single portions that would, otherwise, need the main oven.

I note your delicious sounding breakfast HappyGirl - but TBH, I could cook that with no added fat on my hob in less than ten minutes, using just one wipe clean pan.

I note the removable base in my Tower drawer. Are there any recipes in which this should NOT be used does anyone know?

Still using my Ninja A400 and loving it. Tried all sorts and so far everything has been great. Got the hang of pressing the controls and everything works well.

Love to know how the bread/ rolls turn out.

I also live on my own and my small air fryer is the best thing since sliced bread. I have not used many double electric ob=ven since Christmas and I am certain my air fryer has paid for itself since I bought it late last November.

I am no cook but even I was thinking I could make bread in it. I use it most days and now I am used to it, it is so easy and clean.

Yum, yum Happygirl. Sounds great.

I have a tower basic small air fryer. Only myself at home. I can make a breakfast of sausage bacon tomato and mushrooms in there in 10 minutes

I can understand your DD loving her Ninja MiniMoon. That was a lovely present. I will look at the Salted Pepper You Tube channel. It’s really a good way to revitalise our meals and it’s fun. Yesterday cooked red onion sausages and also matched some little cakes so managed 12 - six in each drawer. ( Not different but it’s an experiment every day). Aim to reduce using the oven by various means. Scones were lovely although using my usual recipe with time adjusted. Cakes were light but browned on the top only. They were in silicone so that was the reason I should think. Bought the cup cake size as could only get those in Lakeland and they are smaller than I usually make but dh enjoyed them.

We bought the Ninja dual zone air fryer for DD for Christmas. She loves it and uses it daily. She discovered that you can cook gnocchi in it, and won't make it any other way now.
The Salted Pepper YouTube channel has loads of recipes and demonstrations for the foodi, grill and air fryer. She also has Facebook groups for the various ninja products which are very useful when you are new to air frying.

That is so encouraging GrandmaKT. Thank you for that. I filled in the online guarantee so hope that will help. Loving it so far, my only problem is that I haven’t got the hang of the timer and temp switches. They need a sharp high impact to work and the second drawer didn’t come on today when I tried pressing it. It did yesterday (only collected it yesterday.).

Lovetopaint037, I had to contact Ninja Customer Service when I broke the basket of my Ninja. There was a bit of to-and-froing because it was a Christmas gift from my son and daughter in law, so I didn't have the receipt. Once that was sorted, they were very efficient and sent me a replacement at no cost.

Collected my Ninja dual drawer (AF400) yesterday and air fried breaded fish and sweet potato chunks (chopped them up myself). Today I made some scones. I used a normal recipe and just shortened the time and they were fine. Also baked a M&S quiche which fitted in one of the drawers perfectly. My only trouble is that I have had trouble trying to change time and temperature and then I found I had to really give it sharp short heavy hits. Yesterday I synched two programmes but today trying to match the two drawers didn’t work. It must be me and the way I am doing it so it is still work in progress. The results have been really good.

Jane43 I misled you when I said Amazon service had been criticised. Like you I love Amazon Prime. What was being referred to was Ninja customer service and Amazon said the problem should be referred to them. Since posting I settled on buying the Ninja AF 400 which is a dual drawer 9and a half litre model. I was going to buy it from Curry’s but they had just sold out, Amazon couldn’t deliver until June, John Lewis the same and also Very all sold out. The only place to offer one was Argos so ordered one to pick up at a Sainsburys later this week. Hopefully it will be okay. Will have some fun trying it out and so pleased you are so satisfied with yours. Looking forward to cutting down on my oven use. The cost of putting it on so often is a little worrying with the fuel costs. Thank you for your help.