Cooking & Baking
Related: About this forumOur daughter gave us a toaster oven/air fryer
for Christmas.
So far we have confirmed it will make toast, and tonight I cooked up some pork chops. They came out very well.
So what kind of tips do you folks have for an air fryer?
rubbersole
(6,696 posts)Anecdotal. Sounds good though.
2naSalit
(86,646 posts)Do coconut shrimp, that has to happen in a real fryer or an oven, it just doesn't come out right.
I like to cook up a whole package of breakfast sausages and freeze them for individual use.
happybird
(4,608 posts)Boneless comes out a little dry, but bone-in stays juicy inside with perfect crispy skin.
I cook chicken thighs in the air fryer at least once a week. Heavily coat them with whatever seasoning you like, spray with cooking oil, set the timer for 18 min, and flip the thighs after 10 min. Delicious! And super easy. Ive done them with curry powder, italian seasoning, 5 spice... whatever strikes my fancy, and every time they have turned out great. Depending on what else I am making, sometimes Ill dump the drippings into the sauce. It works especially well in sauce for pasta.
cilla4progress
(24,736 posts)Also air fryer baked potates. Rub olive oil and salt on jackets. Crispy skins. Flaky moist interior!!
happybird
(4,608 posts)Ive not tried baked potatoes in there yet, but definitely will after reading your post. Thanks!
cilla4progress
(24,736 posts)Im going to try all your spice selections. We've stuck mostly with a delicious one our daughter served us - Chef Paul Prudhomme's Poultry Magic.
Can't tell you all what's in it - it's "proprietory'. Salt, garlic, paprika, onion and "spices". 😀
But it's good!
KS Toronado
(17,252 posts)Mainly use mine for onion rings and tater tots, time to expand my horizons.
Freddie
(9,267 posts)Great in the summer when you dont want to heat up the kitchen using the oven.
Hot dogs are great in the air fryer too.
aeromanKC
(3,324 posts)Goes great with marinara sauce.
lisa58
(5,755 posts)I made hot Italian sausage tonight. I gave myself the ninja grill-air fryer for Christmas during the pandemic because I missed going out for wings. So glad I did. Have fun experimenting- happy new year
onetexan
(13,041 posts)Bake, airfry, grill, toast, broil & several more options. I dont use my oven much anymore except for large pizzas.
Google air fryer recipes & u w find a galore of them.
Grumpy Old Guy
(3,170 posts)So are steaks, chops, calamari, and shrimp.
vercetti2021
(10,156 posts)Makes it a lot more crispier if you like your like crust a lot more done than just kind of doughy. If you can! Our new range oven had an air fryer built in
snowybirdie
(5,229 posts)Made meat loaf and scalloped potatoes the other day. Google what ever dish you'd like to make adding words air fryer and dozens of recipes come up. Frozen appetizers good too.
BumRushDaShow
(129,069 posts)I have one and literally, except for when I cooked a turkey a couple months ago (not for Thanksgiving), I have not used my regular oven in a year.
My Breville (Smart Oven with air fryer) fits up to 9x13 pans (at least those without large handles) and most of the pans/baking dishes that I use can fit in there (including a 3.5 qt dutch oven with lid). I haven't tried a skillet yet but the long handle might be the limitation (maybe an 8" could go in mine but haven't tested). I can fit a full 10-cup bundt pan in there (just tried it). The past year, I even found some small (13" x 8 1/4" ) USA Pan cookie sheets that will fit right in the slot if I take the rack out and I have been doing my cookie baking with those (and they sell the small pre-cut parchment sheets that go perfectly on those). So any kind of baked goods work well (I even made some spinach/feta spanokopitas in there last year and plan to make an 8"x8" pan of corn bread today). Pies also work in there and I have even made quiches (in pie plates) using it.
I have also made a pot roast in there (slow cook in an oval dutch oven with a low temp using the Roast function that has an adjustable temp and timer up to 2 hours that you can just add more time to if not done yet).
What I have had to do is keep a running list of times/settings for things I frequently cook as my regular oven is not a convection type and the Breville has different convection settings (or an option to not use convection at all), so I have had to adjust some times.
What is great is that some types of cooking will really shine with that convection option so you get a wider variety of outcomes from the use of it. If yours has that basket for air frying, one of the tips I have seen (and have used on occasion) is a non-stick insert to go in the basket to make clean-up easier. And regarding clean-up, I discovered the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser sheets a couple years ago and those have worked great to clean the inside and the glass front.
The air-fry is obviously great for things like (potato) fries but that means any types of food that normally gets fried (including deep-fried), including other veggies (I make air-fried match-stick parsnips to get them crispy versus roasted) work great in there. One of the things to make sure to do for the veggies since you are not deep-frying, is to still get some kind of light layer of oil on the food, and that usually means a spray/squirt while it is in the basket or what I often do, coating the veggies in a bag with a little oil and seasoning and then putting it in the basket. Periodic spritzing the stuff in the basket with some kind of oil when checking/turning (if needed) helps to brown it on the outside and seal the moisture on the inside. I've also tried bacon in it for the heck of it despite not being a bacon person (have to play around with the timing and temps to get it the way you like).
There are more and more books of recipes appearing that are aimed at air-fryers but note that the standalone "air fryers" operate differently from the toaster oven air fryers (one of my sisters gave my other sister a Ninja air fryer for Christmas so now they both have that type but I prefer my toaster oven/air fryer because it is more versatile for me).
Callalily
(14,889 posts)ificandream
(9,373 posts)Our favorites are breaded chicken strips, French fries, salmon and fresh shrimp. For New Year's Eve tonight, we did homemade pizza for the first time. Came out very nice. We may do that again.