Air Fryers

[metalskins]

This seems to be the big trend in small kitchen appliances, lately. Anybody have one? You don't need any oil to "fry" all of your favorite fried foods, thus, greatly reducing the amount of fat in those foods. A co-worker has been using for several months now, and he swears by it. He cooks chicken wings, tater tots, and french fries in it.

I decided to order one from Khol's today. Got about $30 off of the sale price. Picked up a 4.5 quart for $85. Can't wait to try it out!

[mooby]

I had never even heard of one before you mentioned it. Looks interesting though, let me know how it works out.

[Giantone]

Originally Posted by metalskins

This seems to be the big trend in small kitchen appliances, lately. Anybody have one? You don't need any oil to "fry" all of your favorite fried foods, thus, greatly reducing the amount of fat in those foods. A co-worker has been using for several months now, and he swears by it. He cooks chicken wings, tater tots, and french fries in it.

I decided to order one from Khol's today. Got about $30 off of the sale price. Picked up a 4.5 quart for $85. Can't wait to try it out!

Please let us know if it's any good ,I still don't understand the premise on how you can "fry without oil"?

[metalskins]

Originally Posted by Giantone

Please let us know if it's any good ,I still don't understand the premise on how you can "fry without oil"?

I don't quite sure I understand the concept either, but if the french fries come out nice and crispy and it can make some good chicken wings, then I'm all for trying it out! I have a friend at work who swears by it! Hopefully he's not swearing at it!

[TheMalcolmConnection]

Would also love to know how this works. We do baked fries by soaking in baking soda, baking at 350 for about 20 minutes, then crank it up to 450 for the last 10. Would love to do something less complicated.

[metalskins]

Originally Posted by TheMalcolmConnection

Would also love to know how this works. We do baked fries by soaking in baking soda, baking at 350 for about 20 minutes, then crank it up to 450 for the last 10. Would love to do something less complicated.

I should be getting this thing in a few days. From what I was told, you just heat it up according to what you're going to cook in it, throw the food in, and you're done. Season to taste afterward.

I've always just baked fries too, but I've usually just bought the fries in the bag.

[metalskins]

So I finally used the air fryer last night. Only thing I really had to test in it was some chicken nuggets and some fish sticks. Upon first try, I got the nuggest and the sticks just a little too done, but not enough to ruin them. Definitely made them crispy. The nuggets were good. The fish sticks, eh, I actually like them not as crispy, but I was really making them for my son, I just wanted to sample.

I want to try some french fries in it, maybe some tater tots. Definitely want to try some chicken wings in it.

[TheMalcolmConnection]

Nice. So were these previously frozen or did you make them yourself?

[Chico23231]

Lol fish sticks...man that’s sounds disgusting

[Giantone]

Originally Posted by TheMalcolmConnection

Nice. So were these previously frozen or did you make them yourself?

See , that's my question? So is the food you're putting in already "breaded" or are you doing that yourself?

[mooby]

Chico, do... you like fish sticks?

[mredskins]

Verified Purchase
I bought this on a whim. It was a suggested lightening deal from Amazon. I’d actually never heard of an ‘Air Fryer’ before. After 10 minutes of research on Google I figured what the hey - I’ll give it a shot, I can always return it. Two weeks later, it’s my favorite appliance in the kitchen. Now that I’ve used it and researched, I have a better formed opinion.

It’s important before buying that you understand what an ‘Air Fryer’ is - and I use quotes intentionally… the marketing is very misleading. This is a convection oven. It’s not a replacement for a deep fryer. It can’t fry. It can’t deep fry. There is no frying. With that cleared up, it doesn’t take away from it’s ability or promise.

This is a very high powered (by that I mean high heat + a powerful fan) convection oven. The reason this cooks so well over a tradition convection oven is due to it’s small size, shape, and the far more powerful fan. I own and use often a very nice convection oven from Breville. For many things, the ‘Air Fryer’ is far superior.

It lends itself to a deep frying comparison due to its ‘basket’ and that it’s exceptionally well positioned to make traditionally fried food. It works really well on things like frozen french fries, tots, burritos, frozen breaded meats, egg rolls etc. If you’re into frozen foods; things you’d generally drop into a deep fryer for a couple minutes- you’ll likely be very happy. This is an exceptional french fry cooker. So much in fact that I’d recommend this over a normal deep fryer for those types of foods. It cooks as well without all the oil and mess for that type of thing.

Understand though that you could cook all these things in a regular convection oven, with the same result, and a bit more effort and time.

Since it’s really just a very high powered convection oven it’s also great at things you’d normally cook on any other oven. It makes great chicken and other meats, roasted veg, and really anything else you can imagine. The key difference between this and any other convection oven is it’s power and speed - along with very easy clean-up.

It’s also the PERFECT bacon cooking appliance. This thing turns out perfectly crisp bacon in about 5 minutes without the greasy stove-top or flipping/turning since it cooks on all sides simultaneously.. In addition you get fantastically clean bacon grease in the bottom of the fryer to save for later use. No need to strain. This alone, is worth the price if like me you eat a high fat/low carb diet.

Where it falls short - and this is all due to marketing - is that it’s not a deep fryer. It’s not a fryer, period. If you’re expecting the same results from this device that you get frying chicken in a pot of lard, you are in for a very disappointing experience. If you expect anything close to frying, you’re in for a bad time. This is NOT a fryer. It is an oven. It’s a really, really great oven.

That’s my review of ‘Air Frying’ in general now for this device…

I love the build quality of this thing. It’s well made. It’s well designed. The ‘flip switch’ to disconnect the basket from the fryer bed is really well designed. It’s size makes it easy to leave on a counter and if you choose, wash the parts in a dishwasher fitting on the top rack. Having only owned it a couple weeks I can’t say how well it will hold up with dishwasher cleaning but my guess is that you’d best be advised to hand clean it like anything with teflon surfaces.

It’s likely perfect for the average person, or maybe two people. While it fits a large amount of fries or that type of food you can pile up, it lacks surface area to cook more than two chicken breasts or fish filets at the same time.

I love the appearance in general but in particular the blue lights. What a silly thing to compliment an appliance about - but it looks really nice when it’s on.

It pauses the heating when you remove the basket automatically and resumes when inserted- but I found figuring out the difference between heating and preheating confusing. The display is simple, which is good, but also lacks some basic info. You get two indicators - heat and time. Adjusting those things is easy but the display blinks and beeps no matter what you choose so I found figuring out the difference between the current info and the desired info confusing. There may not actually be a difference… it may also be moot as this device ‘preheats’ in a matter of seconds.

This thing comes with two ‘cook books’. Garbage. They are tiny pamphlets with recipes you will never in your life make and none of the info you want. There is a cooking chart but I also found that to be mostly useless. You’ll find yourself using Google to figure out suggested times for cooking nearly everything. The rule of thumb I’ve found is follow usual directions but decrease heat and time by about 30%. You have to experiment.

I really like this thing. I didn’t expect to like it so much. I also didn’t expect to like to so much that I just ordered a much larger (twice the size) fryer from Amazon. I think I’d like a larger size so that I wouldn’t have to cut my bacon in half, and also have a larger surface area for things such as large fish filets. I’ll update my review once I make a comparison but I really have no major complaints about this model.

LATEST UPDATE 10/28/17: Here are a few things I've made in the fryer and consider to be a great success. I will continue to update as I try new things. Note: I cook everything at 400 degrees as I've found no advantage to cook at a lower temp- unless cooking delicate things.

Frozen Fries/Tots - no need to use oil as they are typically pre-fried. You can fill the basket and only shake once or so, they come out fantastic. Typical cook time depending on thickness is 5-10 mins.

Home-made fries - equally well cooked, but you need to add a tablespoon of oil to get the crisp, deep fried effect. Cook time depends on cut but 10-20 mins.

Frozen Burritos - perfect. As good as a deep fryer. Rub them in oil before cooking to get that deep fried look and texture even though they are pre-fried. 5-10 mins.

Bacon - Seriously this is the best and easiest way to make bacon. Cook for 5 minutes depending on the thickness.

Chicken, tossed in flour - Wow, take a breast, toss it in flour and cook for 15 minutes flipping once. It’s not the same exactly as deep fried but oh my, you get a nice crispy crust and perfectly cooked chicken.

Breakfast Sausage - 5 minutes and you get wonderful links cooked perfectly inside, but crusty casings

Thick Italian Sausage - 10 minutes, they look grilled.

Kale Chips - I was hesitant but I tried them, and I'll be darned if they aren't kinda tasty. The air fryer makes them perfectly in about 5 minutes vs 20 mins in an oven.

Grilled Cheese - I thought I had perfected the grilled cheese after 40 years of frying them. I was wrong. Bread, a bit of butter, cheese - perfect. You get fried bread but it's also light and fluffy vs. pan frying. Really impressed. No need to flip!

Quesadilla - perfectly crisp tortilla and melted cheese/fillings in just 5 minutes. Again, no need to flip.

Frozen Burgers - again they look pan fried and I'm really impressed.

Nachos - wow, there is no better way to make nachos.

I think I'm going to stop updating the cooking list... honestly I think at this point it'd be easier to make a list of things that don't work great in an air-fryer. Everything I've tried has been great you just have to adjust the cooking times down about 30% or so. The fact that things get cooked on all sides at the same time just makes a world of difference.

[Giantone]

Thank you ,you have answered almost all my questions.If you don't mind me asking ,which fryer did you buy?

[MTK]

lol I feel like this is an infomercial

[TheMalcolmConnection]

Originally Posted by mooby

Chico, do... you like fish sticks?

LOL. I see what you did there.