Do I need an air fryer? 🍳

‘everyone’ goes on about how’s great they are… Are they? Can my fan oven do the same?

Can my fan oven do the same?

Yes but it’ll probably cost more. We’ve got a Tefal Actifry (made in France) other people swear by a Ninja (made in China) & May be more versatile, but..
Only you can decide where to put your money.

It’s all about the Thai barbeque. Sorry.

I might have to do some googling… Don’t even really know what a air fryer is!

It’s all about the Thai barbeque. Sorry.

Gai Yang is saved for the oil drum bbq outside. Is just no good in the oven!

Our teenage boys appear to use the Ninja for all the food they prepare, except maybe breakfast cereal..

Have you been watching the Apprentice?

I ate at Siam Square Mookata in Golden Mile 2 weeks ago 😉 with good company, although to be honest I preferred Chang’s 27 in Tiong Bahru.

No, you ned loads of fat (preferably lard) to fry things.

The Felicity Cloake article in The Guardian a few weeks ago was interesting, probably worth a read of you’re not sure whether to get one.

They are often on social media videos. And my dad seems to love his. These are unrelated anecdotes 🙂

BUT, I haven’t seen any evidence (yet) that they can comfortably do food for a family of 5. I suppose you could buy a big one but that would take up loads of room and I already have an oven

My Wife got an air fryer a few months ago. I was sceptical, but have since been converted.

It’s pretty versatile & very quick. You don’t have to warm the oven, so by the time the oven would normally have just got to temperature, we have cooked the same stuff in the air fryer completely.
It’s quite bulky though, so you need somewhere to store it.

Bit of a learning curve, but it’s probably the best gadget we have bought for the kitchen in a long time.

Shouldn’t be allowed to call it a fryer. It’s just an oven with a powerful fan isn’t it?

We cook for a family of 4 in our Ninja Foodie (air fryer/pressure cooker/slow cooker combo) its excellent and we probably do 4 of the 7 evening meals a week in it – very versatile, quick and quite compact. The new one has a mutli-function lid which means you don’t need a separate pressure cooker lid.

BUT, I haven’t seen any evidence (yet) that they can comfortably do food for a family of 5.

Hello, family of 5 here. Well, one of!

Yes, ours is too small to feed all of us, and it makes no sense to be cooking some stuff in the oven, and some in the air fryer. But, we have plenty of evenings when the kids are coming in at different times, so things like potato wedges can be chucked in for 2 or 3 of us at a time.

It makes some foods nicely, others need more fussing. As mentioned, potato wedges are very good, chips less so because chips need to be deep fried. Chops are better in it than the oven because the fat drains away from them, much like grilling. Other than that, we haven’t really played with ours – it’s only about a month old. I vastly prefer my rice steamer..

I was sceptical, but have since been converted.

Broadly where I am.

My partner wanted one for Christmas*, I thought “great, I might get a night off in the kitchen,” what I didn’t realise was that she wanted it for me to use. 🤦‍♂️

I bought an Actifry with the Stirry Paddle Thing™. Not the cheapest but you know what? It’s ace. It does stuff you’d normally fry in a healthier manner as per the marketing, and it cracks out stuff you’d oven in a fraction of the time.

A mate of mine coincidentally got one around the same time and planted the seed of the “ten minute chip butty” and he’s not wrong; fistful of oven chips, cooked way better than in the oven which would’ve taken North of 45 minutes. I made pasta and veggie meatballs earlier this week, chuck the balls in there and they’re cooked ahead of the pasta. Last night I did potato wedges – parboiled for a few minutes then spun with oil, Lancashire Sauce, Worcester Sauce and a crushed up stock cube before stuffing in the fryer, game changer.

It may or may not be “just an oven with a powerful fan” but if nothing else it’s a massive time-saver, and the stirrer and timer makes it fire-and-forget. I was deeply sceptical but I’m sold.

(* – she wanted one the previous Christmas so I bought her a bike)

Another sceptical but converted here.
It’s like a mini oven.
Best £40 we’ve spent in years.

roasties, covered with some sort of marmite and something infusion that gets chucked in are amazing.

Even if you’re a bit meh about marmite.

I thought it was all about steam ovens – or was that last year?

grum

Shouldn’t be allowed to call it a fryer. It’s just an oven with a powerful fan isn’t it?

In other news….a nutribullet isn’t actually a bullet and the turbo Levo bike doesn’t actually contain a turbo!!

Joking aside, the frying aspect of the name kinda describes what it does – cooking food in (a small amount of) hot oil.
Oven or baking implies to me jacket potatoes, stew, pizza, garlic bread, cakes etc.
The frying part of the name (to me anyway) makes sense in the context of the way it is used and the type of food you are likely to cook in it.

Bit of a thread resurrection but just taken delivery of a Ninja mini 4.7l multi cooker. If this is a mini I hate to see the size of a family of 4 version.

It’s meant to pressure cook, steam, slow cook, sear/saute, air crisp and bake/roast. Hopefully, rely on the oven a lot less and I can also get rid of the slow cooker.

We have a ninja foodie. We use it every day, maybe use the oven once every couple of weeks now.

Had one, chips were crap. Gone back to a proper deep fat fryer. It’s just a hair dryer with good PR.

For balance, We have an air fryer thing, it was used a couple of times, now lives in the cupboard. Big lump of plastic that doesn’t do much really.
Had an actifry paddle jobbie, stuff used to get stuck under the paddle, eventually it snapped off.

Use ours a few times a week.
Fish stuff like scampi, goujons, calamari are much better in the air frier. I made some onion bhajis the other day and deep fried them but they were seriously oily so I stuck a load in the frier and they were much better so that’s the way I’m going in future. Also patatas bravas done in the air frier gets them so much crispier so definatly a thumbs up from me. Ours is only a cheapie thing as well so will upgrade to a better machine soon.

As others have said, IME chips are just crap in an air fryer, no better than in the oven (and need more tending to). I’ve used it for a few other things but not been blown away – I keep meaning to try some of the ideas on numerous YouTube videos but haven’t gotten around to it yet.

I really fancy one of these electric pressure cookers. I love stews and curries and the idea of not needing to be so organised and do a good one in 45 min appeals.

i’ve got the instapot duo crisp..
it’s a pressure cooker AND air fryer (just change the lid).

TBH, it’s fab.

I did the kids hash browns and onion rings for brekkie (12 min…but yeah, weird breakfast) and then pressure cooked myself some eggs.
Does pasta in 3 min.
Slow cooked a curry last week.

honestly..i barely use my oven now!

DrP

Interesting.

I presume these vunder devices are liberally coated in perflourocarbons and they operate at pretty high temperatures?

Ok important question, can I get a pizza in an air fryer somehow? Pretty much the only thing I use my oven for.

No I don’t have anywhere to put a pizza oven.

Leave.
Leave now with that “don’t want pizza oven” talk 😉

Prob could do a pizza.. never tried though…

Gonna do pulled pork with the pressure lid this week…mmm

DrP

Just to resurrect this,

Has anyone got experience of both the posher Actifry things like what I has got, AND the supermarket £40-£50 Tower / Daewoo outings? I’m thinking maybe a cheap one might make a decent Christmas present for my mum (about all she uses the oven for is frozen chips and the occasional pie) but if they’re crap unless you spend three figures on one then I’ll rethink it.

Cheers.

I thought it was all about steam ovens – or was that last year?

We’ve an Aga, we’re not even last decade, we’re last century 🙂

Just got an old-school hob-top pressure cooker to reduce oven usage. Anyone else use one and have tips?

Ok important question, can I get a pizza in an air fryer somehow?

We do pizza in our air fryer (Ninja AF400UK). Cut into quarters and cook 2 at a time (1 in each drawer).

Haven’t used the oven since getting one.

EDIT: Just noticed the thread revival status!

@Cougar surely the more expensive ones just have more features? Mine has two drawers, fries, roasts, some kind of extra crispy setting, some fancy timing thing etc. I’d imagine if I paid half as much I’d just get one drawer and air fry mode. How wrong could you go, as someone said, it’s a heating element and a fan right?

I just bought the 40 quid Tower offering from amazon a couple of weeks ago. Seems to do the job. Lovely chicken thighs and some various chips/wedges and onion rings so far, I’m no expert but am getting the hang of it.

Also handy for giving a quick blast to danish pastries for my coffee break.

I have the lidl one and it’s fine. Mainly use it for when the kids are hungry and I can stick in some fish fingers
but as has already been said

Shouldn’t be allowed to call it a fryer. It’s just an oven with a powerful fan

I was listening to Radio4 last week and they had a piece on pressure cooking

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/programmes/m001bkp5

Also got the £40 amazon tower job a few weeks ago. Our oven is an Esse range (also our heating and hot water) and takes ages to heat up. Its been handy to just whack it on cook things really quickly and in most cases doing a better job. Only need the oven for big jobs now like a roast.

Our oven is an Esse range (also our heating and hot water) and takes ages to heat up. Its been handy to just whack it on cook things really quickly and in most cases doing a better job. Only need the oven for big jobs now like a roast.

And that is exactly the reason an air fryer is recommended as a way to reduce energy costs. So @cougar could be an excellent gift idea.