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Hi, poss looking at air fryer, we’re a couple with a single oven, who eat fairly healthy and want it to stay that way. (Chicken, fish, lean meats,lots of roasted veggies, spuds- baked, boiled, mashed, wedged/parmentied etc, steamed veggies, very little preprocessed stuff - more what we got from the market)
Air fryer is intended to
- help us have a double oven
- reduce cooking time and be cheaper to run (often doing 1 baked potato in oven)
There seem to be all sorts now inc with steam…….
I’m thinking large with double drawers (two things at once, diff temps etc if reqd - like whole chicken plus veggies on other side), which would sort of give us a quicker/cheaper double oven.
Any features to deffo have/avoid etc etc and do they work ok for healthy type produce.
Thanks
I've done all sorts in ours since we got it. TBH, it's like a small fan oven, if you can do it in an oven and fit it in the AF you can do a decent job of it.
As experiments we have done fish, chicken breasts, I even did a small roast, and all worked well. In the main we do sausages, bacon, hash browns, that sort of stuff. Black pudding too.
And pasta bake - crisps up nicely
Is it healthy? Better than frying I guess, the food sits above on a grill sort of platform so oil drains downwards. Not healthy is that it's so easy to stick a few hash browns in as a snack, not so bad now novelty has worn off but I was getting through a few, let's say.
Ours is a Ninja 2-zoned / smart one, the dual zone two temps to finish at the same time has proved quite useful.
We've got a basic one.
It's fantastic and we use it all the time and it doubtless saves us a chunk of energy.
It IS basically a fan oven.
Whatever you do in the oven you can do in the air fryer.
We bought a Lakelands* unit just under a year ago, that has a single draw that can be split with a divider & has separate cook controls, that converts back into one control when you want to use it as one big draw. I can't recommend it enough, as the main issue I find is trying to fit enough stuff in to make a meal, without having stuff sitting around cooling. Also those silly accessory kits that have racks & silicon baskets, are worth buying too, along with an oil sprayer.
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My tip would be to get as big as you can afford. I got ours as an test to see what it's like and wish I had got a bigger one.
I have a Ninja multicooker. Pressure/steam and air fry.
I use the steam air fry setting most of the time. Roasts chicken perfectly.
Not cheap mind.
My microwave broke after 12 years so I got one of these: https://amzn.eu/d/h59jQx t">Air fryer Microwave
Works well.
+1 think of it as a convenient fan oven and get probably a bit bigger than you think you need.
We got an Ninj AF300 which was great, I could do a roast for 4 in it at a squeeze, chicken in one drawer, potatoes in the other, but for fam of 4 it felt a bit small so we went to the 400 eventually. IMO its roast potatoes are particularly good - better than I can do in a fan oven. Only really use our single fan oven for cakes now, although I expect you could do a cake in an air fryer if you wanted.
My tip would be to get as big as you can afford. I got ours as an test to see what it’s like and wish I had got a bigger one.
Yeah, this. Mine is great, but too small.
Had a few cheap ones, branded Tower/Salter, all suffeted from burning smells and visible melting and deforming of the case, and were only non stick and easy to clean for a very short time, all went back for refunds. Have a twin basket Ninja now, quality is much higher, and cooks better. I'd avoid the cheapest ones.
As everyone else said. Ninja. Everyone I know rates them. Mines is fantastic.
Cheers everyone
Mrs has found Instant Vortex Plus VersaZone Air Fryer, which gets good reviews (just behind ninja), and we think will be fine for a couple.
The air fryer has rendered our oven redundant.
They’re bloody great things!
I have the Instant Vortex, great machine and a doddle to clean.
Got a double ninja one and it's great. Makes excellent jerk chicken
We've got a Costco job - 6.5L (I think), digital controls and cost £43.
Does a great job and I really can't see the point in spending more.
I personally wouldn't get a bigger one purely because they're all fug ugly so it's got to live in a cupboard when not in use.
Great fot lots of stuff but the ovens do get used for larger meals and slow cooking.
We have a double ninja air fryer with grill and use it nearly every day.
Very fortunate to have a son who is in a year’s work placement with Ninja so we were able to use his staff discount but it’s been so useful , and saves so much time I think it would be worth it anyway.
Slightly OT but how does everyone else clean their air fryer basket? When I first got mine I cleaned it, spotlessly, all the time.
Now it's a few months old the baked on oils and fats seem to have created a solid gunky barrier that's really hard to get looking new again.
Was thinking about just plopping a dish washing tablet in and letting it soak over night?
I feel like my chips are suffering as a consequence!
We've got a Ninja 7.6l dual fryer. Depending on what's being made, I can sometimes do everything I need to feed a young family of four. Or cook the kids food first, then the grown ups, kids are slow eaters and the air fryer is quick so works out ok.
The main oven has hardly been used since the Ninja turned up.
Was thinking about just plopping a dish washing tablet in and letting it soak over night?
Dishwasher tablets are basically just sodium carbonate peroxide, the same stuff as "oxi" type stain remover. I buy the cheap own brand stuff and use it for lots of soaking and deep cleaning. Used a lot when I was home brewing, it's a sanitiser as well.
I hate threads like this.
I now have a brand new Ninja Foodi doing peri peri chips and sausages for lunch.
I'm afraid we've gone a bit mad here. We have the Ninja 15in 1 and the two drawer jobbie. If you like lot's of different roasted/ fried things in your meals then the two drawers are awesome. If you like one pot stuff then the added advantage of the pressure cooker on the 15 in 1 is very handy. Out of the two I think I prefer the two drawer version, it's very clever with the separate timers and the sync function.. and yes, go big.
Edit to add....the pot that comes in the ninja foodi 15 in 1 is a bit of a letdown, many people upgrade it to a stainless steel version that costs an extra 50 quid within months of purchase
Those that go big, don’t forget dishwasher space.
With ours I found it got a greasy residue when cooking oven chips that was very hard to clean off the basket mesh without putting it in the dishwasher. No idea capacity but it’s a pretty bulky thing.
I have a Tefal Actifry. It's good but the paddle system means that it's not great for anything large or fall-apart-y. If I were replacing it I'd probably get a Ninja of some description.
how does everyone else clean their air fryer basket? When I first got mine I cleaned it, spotlessly, all the time.
I wash it after every use, a kettleful of water and a lug of washing-up liquid to lift the grease, leave to soak for a few minutes and then chuck it in with the rest of the washing up.
One thing I wonder about...
I'm sure it's 'better' than an electric oven for smaller stuff, but is it really any better than a gas oven, given how fast gas ovens pre-heat?
I always assumed air fryers biggest gains were the smaller capacity, so much less pre-heat time compared to a typical electric oven?
Before we got the Ninja we had an Actifry (still do as a matter of fact - and I reckon it does better roasties because the churning arm keeps fluffing the edges up)
I used that a few times without the arm fitted, works fine. It's just a chamber with hot air being pumped in, lacks temp control in the same way the new one does but got perfectly reasonable results even with large or fall-aparty things.
I used that [Actifry] a few times without the arm fitted, works fine.
I tried that, ended up with a very uneven cook.
You can get a wire tray to replace the paddle - I have - but it's stupidly shallow.
i did turn the food myself as i would in a normal oven. And indeed as you still have to in an air fryer, for best results on your sausage IMHO