Air Fryers - what's good!...

I bought one of the air fryers from Aldi last week. I can't compare it to any other brand as its my first foray into them. I've only used it once, for a portion of chips, but it worked well.

Downsides I can see are:

-the chips need turned a few times (oven cooked wedges/chips would be the same though)
-the halogen lamp needed for the heat is very bright when its heating
-its bulky, but then so is a deep fat fryer

https://www.aldi.co.uk/ambiano-halogen-air-fryer/p/709145435938400

It looks like its a rebadged model from Tower.

Wev'e got an Tefal Actifry. Most people think 'chips', which are great if done right & the healthy option goes out the window, IE, use a spoonful of beef dripping instead of oil. Same with roast potatoes, which are awesome. However I've done curries & all sorts (not liquorice ones) in ours. Salt & pepper chicken wings for instance are excellent. Air fryers are more versatile than you'd think.
Our is French made & FWIW I steer away from anything Chinese made where possible.

EDIT, ours has a paddle so you don't need to keep turning the contents.

We've got a Phillips one that replaced a Breville one that died from over-use.

If you buy one, you'll probably never use your oven ever again. They're bloody great things!

We have a ninja foodi. It isn't just an air fryer but the air fryer function is very good. As it is a pressure cooker as well can do a roast chicken in 35 mins.

Also good for cooking lots of things like stews etc so would def recommend but it is a bit pricey. We got it for £150 I think from Amazon on sale before xmas and it gets used most days.

I asked this question maybe six months ago. My girlfriend wanted one for her birthday, so I bought her a bike. Consensus seemed to be to get one with a stirry thing.

I really want an airfryer, but they're expensive and my wife doesn't like the idea...

I really want some Chinese Crispy Chicken...

What are the benefits? Lower fat use, less energy, quicker?

All the above

What are the benefits?

This, genuine question. ATM I just cut baking tatties into big wedges, tablespoon of olive oil, salt and black pepper and roast on a tray. Are these things any better? I bought a DFF about 5 years ago to do fish, it's so much hassle, cleaning and wasted oil that I only ever used it 3 times, if I want fish and chips, well, the answer is simple to that.

They're not just for chips. You can cook all sorts in them. Think of it as more of a sort of mini grill/oven thats sat on your kitchen top. Its pretty much replaced our grill and oven as I never use either any more. Everything just gets lobbed in the air fryer.

Tiny amounts of oil/fat used, more crispiness, easier to clean, cheaper to use are the benefits that I've been told about.

Actifry here, been really good for most things but we found southern fried chicken didn't come out so well as the paddle broke off the crispy coating.

Chicken wings part done in a 100 degree oven then finished in the actifry are as good as a deep fat frier.

Chips aren't quite as good as DFF but quick, clean and easy, and probably would be as good if we upped the oil.

Big upside is no stirring, big downside is paddle can break coating off things.
Almost like we need another air fryer without a paddle alongside it.

Friend has one & did us the best fried chicken I’d ever had. I want one but the g/f days we’re already too fat...
my m8 said, get the largest you can! As splitting food to get a decent amount cooked, is a ball ache

We have a Ninja Foodi - fantastic bit of kit like previous posters, we use it everyday.
Previously owned a Tefal Halo and Actifry, have to say the Ninja is the best for our use.

Ones like that Aldi one linked at the top that don't move the food around - how are they better than an oven, or am I missing something?

We have an actifry and use it for all sort of things including sausages which take about 10-12 mins and come out beautifully even. For things like scampi and the like we have a wire tray that fits in where the paddle normal goes. Highly recommend one.

Another Ninja Foodi owner - love that you can pressure cook straight into aircrisp with just changing the lid. They are quite big, so you need a good clear space on the worktop without cupboards above. Use ours daily, everything from boiled eggs, chilli's to roast chicken - even made a pressure cooked and then crisped doner kebab last week - has replaced my slow cooker and now I have an all in one unit.

Does the Ninja one have a paddle?

aye combo one that does the pressure cooker is the way to got, got the ninja 4.7, tis great.

@lewisdeacon have you got a recipe for this

a pressure cooked and then crisped doner kebab

@jamj1974 no paddle for the Ninja Foodi

I splashed out around £180 on a ninja air fryer with two drawers. https://www.currys.co.uk/products/ninja-foodi-dual-zone-af300uk-air-fryer-grey-10210750.html   It was the increasing cost of running an electric oven that triggered the purchase.

The short story is I am super happy with it. It gets used everyday.   Here a list of things it does well:

frozen Yorkshire puds

halloumi cheese

french bread pizza

sausages

bacon

roast mixed veg

Roasties

homemade fish cakes

crispy kale

I even crammed a small roast chicken in it

We got a Cosori 5.5L one from Amazon, about £100. No stirrer, but when the program needs it you get a beep to remind you to shake the basket (e.g. chips). The upside is that without a stirrer it's fantastic for chicken thighs, sausages & bacon. Like others have said, it's 90% replaced our oven usage.
Pro tip: for roast veggies, first pre-cook them halfway in the microwave and then add oil & seasoning and finish off in the air fryer. Brocolli and cauliflower done this way are just amazing!
I would get the biggest one you can, and in retrospect I would have got a 2-drawer one - this would have been great for last night's meal of roast chicken thighs with roast potatoes. As it was, I did the chicken first and put it in a low (100 deg) oven to keep warm for 20 minutes while I did the roasties.

Also have a cosori from amazon, paid £100. Cooked all sorts in it whole chicken, chicken tikka, chips and wedges and salt and pepper wings. It is awesome and the oven is now rarely on. It uses so much less power and cooks much better & faster.

Seriously thinking about getting one, friends were raving about theirs when we had a get together a while ago. As it’s only me requiring the meal, and when I get home from work in the evening at around 7pm, anything that makes it quick and easy to prep and cook a decent meal has my undivided attention! I’ve been checking out recipes on Flipboard, and saving them for future attention.

Honestly, it's a no-brainer if you're only cooking for yourself. The biggest drawback for me is physical capacity, it's no substitute for an oven but then I have an oven. You can bang out say (cliché alert) a portion of oven chips in the time it takes for the main oven to preheat and it cooks much more evenly.

LOL! I don’t even recall starting this thread!

We didn’t buy one - we moved house and new kitchen is half size of old one so no room for any kitchen gadgets. And coffee machine takes priority. 🤣🤣

And coffee machine takes priority.

Sensible chap!

I had to have a shuffle round of what lives in which cupboards so I could fit the air fryer into one as I hate kitchen appliances living on the worktop.

Cosori 4.7 here.
Changed my life man.

I really need to get an Air Fryers as I am really fed up of cleaning the oven.

Also could perhaps save me a few squids on electric bill ...

Parents have been using Philips air fryers in the east for at least 5 years now but I was not impressed in those days, but now I want one.

I guess I need to make more of an effort to use mine (a small Ninja 3.8l one). The main reason I got it was for potato & sweet potato wedges/chips to give me an option other than oven ready frozen ones or even fresh-baked ones - all of which are a bit 'meh', same for air fried vegetables (vs oven roast). I wasn't expecting deep-fat fried taste but to me they don't seem any better (and I'd say they're actually a bit worse) than just doing them in a normal oven. Yes it's a bit quicker but the downside of that is you need to keep a closer eye on them and shake them regularly else the outside burns easily by the time they're done. Given most recipes state to only have one layer of whatever food you're air frying mine is also way too small to be useful.

Not saying they're crap (I'll probably change to a fancier larger 15-in-1 version at some point so it's a bit more versatile) but just don't think they're radically going to change how you eat (or even save you much time/effort), at least not without putting some planning/prep effort in first to get the most out of one.

Are these quicker as they are a smaller area to heat than a conventional oven? I'm keen to get one if it means less power needed and less time switched on (to help save some bills). I'm thinking chicken breasts/fillets, kievs, potatoes, possible attempts at chicken pies as well...

Mainly for 2 people sometimes 3, so the current oven only ever has 1 rack used for our cooking so there is a lot of space left in there.

So if a cooking instruction says 25 mins at 200c - how much quicker would an air fryer be? I've just learned how to dabble with cooking and this might be an effort to relearn cooking times!

So if a cooking instruction says 25 mins at 200c – how much quicker would an air fryer be? I’ve just learned how to dabble with cooking and this might be an effort to relearn cooking times!

Not much, any faster would mean upping the temp and burning the outside before the inside is cooked.

A few examples from my Ninja air fryer's booklet:

Chicken Breast (boneless) - brush with oil, 190c, 18-22 minutes

Sweet Potatoes (cut into 2.5cm chunks) - 1 tbsp oil, 200c, 15-20 minutes (although my experience was blackening of the edges by 15 minutes)

Asparagus - 2tsp oil, 200c, 8-12 minutes

Pork Chop (bone in) - brushed with oil, 190c, 15-17 minutes

I'm assuming it will be cheaper given there's less pre-heating time required (although Ninja still recommend 3 minutes of pre-heating for most things) but how quickly it would pay off the £120+ you'd be spending on one I don't know.

Ok, so not a massive reduction in time (which is good news), but should heat up quicker and be used for less time so should work out cheaper over a period of time.

Off to do some checks on the models mentioned in this thread, thanks.

I'd definitely recommend finding one with shelves instead of a basket.
Mine has a basket and the capacity is rubbish. Was round someone's house and they had one where you opened a door and it had 4 metal shelves - not only could you fit a lot more in, but you can remove the shelves and stick in the dishwasher... gotta be so much better! Didn't catch the make of it... Tower, maybe? [url= https://www.towerhousewares.co.uk/pages/air-fryers ](yes)[/url]

As an aside, I did a salmon steak for about 6 minutes in mine and it was soooo juicy. Highly recommended. 🙂

We have an Instant Pot. wasn't cheap, but we've only used the oven for pizza since.

baked potatoes are great in it. actually, everything is great in it. No need for any oil and it's an air fryer and pressure cooker in one (along with other things)

we just need shelves in it so we can make sure everything cooks evenly.

Daft question, maybe already answered....

Can you do a full meal in one, like chicken, potatoes, veg? Do you just lump it all in the same basket?

Ok, so not a massive reduction in time (which is good news), but should heat up quicker and be used for less time so should work out cheaper over a period of time.

Pretty much. One thing to realise is that it doesn't need preheating like an oven does. Cooking times (IME) tend to be on the lower side in so far as if e.g. the bag of chips says "oven, 20-25 minutes" it will take 20. So that's likely half what it'll take in a conventional oven including preheating.

Off to do some checks on the models mentioned in this thread, thanks.

I ended up with an Actifry, with a stirry-paddle thing. It's great for 'loose' foods like chips, you get an even cook without having to attend to shaking it periodically. You can remove the paddle which means you can do things like sausage rolls, but there's still a sticky-uppy bit in the middle of the tray which would stop you putting anything large in there like a roast.

We’ve just got a Ninja Foodi. Trying to find out feet with it.

Anyone know if I want to double the quality of rice do I need to increase the cooking time?

We have a standard Ninja air fryer and get on great with it. Cook wedges, chips, roast potatoes, chicken, sausages, bacon and jacket potatoes after being in microwave. We do wish though that we’d got the double basket version so that you could cook meat in one side and potatoes in the other.

I can't find a decent dual drawer (preferably 9l) in stock anywhere, apart from inflated prices

Amusing article by jay rayner in the guardian saying they are shit:

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2022/oct/09/chips-in-an-air-fryer-they-are-dull-dry-and-very-sad-as-am-i

I find ours mostly better for reheating than actual cooking. But I’m still getting used to it.

Amusing article by jay rayner in the guardian saying they are shit:

Not really. Just saying they are not really what the name implies. Most people realise that when they do their research.
He still says they cook some things really well and at much, much lower energy use.

I did a couple of veggie pies in ours the other day. Took the foil off to cook them and we had beautifully crispy and golden pies all over, not just the top. No collapsing.

I think like anything they need experimenting with. I have also found that chips are not particularly crispy etc, but then I've rarely had them from a chip shop crispy. I guess the paper wrapping makes them softer. I suspect I could get better results by experimenting with settings.

But they are incredibly faff-free to cook when compared with deep frying and still very good. You have to remember to shake them a few times during cooking. I toss mine in cajun spices etc. Really nice.

Not sure anyone is saying they're the be all and end all, but they are incredibly handy and a far better option than heating a huge metal box up to temperature.

This is a good read:

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2022/feb/15/air-fryers-miraculous-kitchen-must-have-or-just-a-load-of-hot-air

Jay Rayner was distinctly unimpressed when he tried a few recipes in a Cosori.

I use Melissa Thompson’s technique for making chips (in the article that ElShalimo posted) and they’re bloody lovely. Not at all like chip shop chips though - crispier and less greasy.

I have also found that chips are not particularly crispy etc,

Parboil them for five minutes first. Dry them out as much as you can (the freezer is handy for this) and then air-fry.

Anyone got any views on this: https://amzn.eu/d/0zfEetB

We're after one with two separate trays and was looking at the Ninja Foodi Max but don't really want to pay £230.

They definitely make better chips than the normal fan oven but they aren't like the chippy. Especially the actifry with the rotating paddle.

ANyone got the Lakeland dual basket fryer? Disregarding the availability (hoping it might come back in stock), it's a LOT cheaper than than the Ninja FOodi and I've got a discount voucher on top of that

https://www.lakeland.co.uk/26920/lakeland-dual-basket-air-fryer

We’re after one with two separate trays and was looking at the Ninja Foodi Max but don’t really want to pay £230.

You don't want to pay £230 but you're happy to pay £200?