Air Fryer

[billytheghillie]

Well SWMBO has decided she wants a Air Fryer. Being a tight auld Scots *** i have allowed £100 for it. What can she get for that? Only the 2 of us in house, and must be able to do a small chicken.

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Luckily your small chickens are called sparrows down here.  

 

I bought a a 4 litre Tower Air Fryer around Christmas and am very pleased with it. I live alone and cook chicken breasts not whole birds.

[oldypigeonpopper]

Lidl had some for £40 and with good warranty 

[wisdom]

Are they as good as advertised me and the good lady are now on our own.They seem ideal as putting the oven on is not always cost effective.

Sorry not wanting to hijack the thread.We are in a similar position looking to buy one if suitable.

[bruno22rf]

From experience, buy the biggest , cheapest that you can, make sure you can get a Chicken in the tray. You dont need all the fancy buttons as 99% of the time you will use it manually, a dishwasher safe tray is a bonus. Dont fall for thinking that it will save you money, mine is a 2.4kw which is more than my electric oven on the range cooker. 

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Just now, wisdom said:

Are they as good as advertised me and the good lady are now on our own. They seem ideal as putting the oven on is not always cost effective.

Sorry not wanting to hijack the thread.We are in a similar position looking to buy one if suitable.

Yes, rather than heat a 40 litre or larger oven, you are only heating 4 litres or so of space, chips take 16 minutes in mine and used to take 35 minutes in the oven.

[enfieldspares]

I bought one, new, unused, at a local weekly old fashioned chattels auction. That was six months ago. I keep looking at it as I am frightened to try it!

[TIGHTCHOKE]

3 minutes ago, enfieldspares said:

I bought one, new, unused, at a local weekly old fashioned chattels auction. That was six months ago. I keep looking at it as I am frightened to try it!

Perhaps that is why you got it unused, these modern gadgets can seem confusing to the older members!   

[ph5172]

We have a cheaper one that was gifted to us. 
must 7l and just fits a chicken in. I can also throw some pre cooked roast spuds in around the side. 
takes about 45 mins to cook a chicken. I turn it over half way through. 
 

my top tip is to put stuff on for half the time and see how you are going. It’s also worth giving the contents a shake or flip as well. 
some packaging now has air fryer times on. 
 

mine has settings for chips. Chicken and the such but I usually just put it on for 15 mins for most things. 

i did pizza in it the other day.  That took about 4 mins. 

[amateur]

My wife swears by ours (that and the slow-cooker).

She hasn't touched our oven since November and produces her usual, excellent food at a fraction of the previous cost.

[moondoggy]

8 hours ago, bruno22rf said:

From experience, buy the biggest , cheapest that you can, make sure you can get a Chicken in the tray. You dont need all the fancy buttons as 99% of the time you will use it manually, a dishwasher safe tray is a bonus. Dont fall for thinking that it will save you money, mine is a 2.4kw which is more than my electric oven on the range cooker. 

But you don’t need to preheat an air fryer. That’s where your savings come from.

Also, I find they cook food quicker than the conventional oven.

[JohnfromUK]

I have had two back in the days when I had a gas oven that heated the kitchen a lot (annoying in summer);

1. Some time ago (10 years?), a Tefal Actifry.  This had a doughnut shaped cooking tray with a 'paddle' that pushed the cooking food around.  It did make very good chips, but (because of the paddle system) wasn't really much good for bigger things, and certainly couldn't fit a chicken in.  It had a complicated 'pop up' lid.  Overall, good for chips, no good for most other things.  Rather tedious to clean with no way to clean the fan/element area. 
2. A Phillips 'drawer' type followed it.  It was not a success.  For chips, you had to open it up and shake them around to get even cooking.  You could cook a chicken, but nothing else at the same time.  It had a fiddly time and temperature setting by (repeatedly) pushing buttons.  The cooking tray was fairly easy to clean - but there was no effective way to clean the inside, fan/element area at all.  It soon began to have a strong 'chip shop' smell ..... and needed really to be used under a ventilating hood.  It does (claim) it requires pre heating - but is quite quick.

I gave up with air fryers when I had a new fan oven.  I use a Toastabags Crisp Ease mesh tray (around a tenner) to do things like chips, or roast normally in the oven.  Including warming, the oven is on for around 40 minutes to cook chips including warm up, but the element (2.5 KW) clicks on and off once warmed, so (educated guess around 1 to 1.5 KWhr).  The Phillips air fryer was around 30 minutes at 2.1KW, so probably around the same - but it can only cook one thing at a time.

Overall, the fan oven is just as good, probably only slightly more cost to run and takes a few minutes more, sits with hood extractor so little smell/steam, and you can warm plates, cook other things at the same time etc.

[bruno22rf]

5 hours ago, moondoggy said:

But you don’t need to preheat an air fryer. That’s where your savings come from.

Also, I find they cook food quicker than the conventional oven.

Why dont you need to preheat an Air Fryer? If you select,say, 200c and put your food in ,it's not going to hit 200 for 3-4 minutes.

[Rewulf]

1 hour ago, bruno22rf said:

Why dont you need to preheat an Air Fryer? If you select,say, 200c and put your food in ,it's not going to hit 200 for 3-4 minutes.

The small area with powerful heating element and convection,gets very hot , very quickly. 

You can put a piece of bread in with cheese on top , and 4 minutes later, perfectly browned cheese on toast, you don't need pre heating.

I've had various cheap models (£40) for 4 years now , and they are fast and economical to run, I replace them when they get too difficult to clean!

Never tried a whole chicken though.

[JohnfromUK]

1 hour ago, bruno22rf said:

Why dont you need to preheat an Air Fryer?

This is what my Phillips says to preheat;

Preheating

1. 1  Put the mains plug in an earthed wall socket.

2. 2  Press the power on/off button to switch on the appliance. (Fig. 6)

, The display shows the last selected temperature.

3 Press the temperature increase or decrease button to set the required temperature. See section ‘Settings’ in this chapter to determine the right temperature. (Fig. 7)

Tip: Press the increase or decrease button longer to put the temperature forward or backward more quickly.

4 Press the START/STOP button. (Fig. 😎

• ,  The appliance starts to heat up.

• ,  The set temperature flashes until the set temperature has been reached.Then the appliance beeps and the set temperature is displayed continuously.The appliance stops beeping if you set the required cooking time (see step 4 in section ‘Hot air frying’).

  Note:You can also start the preheating process manually by setting the temperature and then pressing the timer decrease button until ‘- -’ appears. (Fig. 9)

[bruno22rf]

17 minutes ago, JohnfromUK said:

This is what my Phillips says to preheat;

Preheating

1. 1  Put the mains plug in an earthed wall socket.

2. 2  Press the power on/off button to switch on the appliance. (Fig. 6)

, The display shows the last selected temperature.

3 Press the temperature increase or decrease button to set the required temperature. See section ‘Settings’ in this chapter to determine the right temperature. (Fig. 7)

Tip: Press the increase or decrease button longer to put the temperature forward or backward more quickly.

4 Press the START/STOP button. (Fig. 😎

• ,  The appliance starts to heat up.

• ,  The set temperature flashes until the set temperature has been reached.Then the appliance beeps and the set temperature is displayed continuously.The appliance stops beeping if you set the required cooking time (see step 4 in section ‘Hot air frying’).

  Note:You can also start the preheating process manually by setting the temperature and then pressing the timer decrease button until ‘- -’ appears. (Fig. 9)

They all vary, mine has a preheat button, press said button then select temperature, oven beeps when temp is reached. I do a lot of chicken tandoori breasts in mine and without preheating it's difficult to get it just right.

[Rewulf]

1 hour ago, bruno22rf said:

They all vary, mine has a preheat button, press said button then select temperature, oven beeps when temp is reached. I do a lot of chicken tandoori breasts in mine and without preheating it's difficult to get it just right.

Mine have all had a light to say its up to selected temperature, but unless I'm doing a pie, I just leave it on max. 

The light comes on after about a minute, but after 30 seconds the pan is too hot to touch. 

It's nothing like the amount of time pre heating an oven. I'll have to try some tandoori from scratch, but frozen tandoori pieces are piping hot and ready in ten minutes. 

[discobob]

it is all about planning what you are doing - I was banging my head last week when my wife cooked 2 pizza's in the Oven - for us and the eldest. Then she put on the Air Fryer to cook chips in it 🤬instead of doing them in the oven at the same time as the Pizza's

We have a dual basket ninja along with a multifunction instant pot (pressure cooker, slow cooker, air fryer etc) used for doing larger cuts of meat or making stews etc....

[oldypigeonpopper]

Hello, another cooking item that is handy and saves using cooker tops etc to do a fry up is a small portable electric induction hob, you will need a steel pan , I bought mine many years ago in China and just changed the plug, just about every home has 1  , now you can buy in UK, 

[discobob]

16 minutes ago, oldypigeonpopper said:

Hello, another cooking item that is handy and saves using cooker tops etc to do a fry up is a small portable electric induction hob, you will need a steel pan , I bought mine many years ago in China and just changed the plug, just about every home has 1  , now you can buy in UK, 

Definitely if you have a electric ring type hob. This may be interesting to watch

 

[oldypigeonpopper]

1 hour ago, discobob said:

Definitely if you have a electric ring type hob. This may be interesting to watch

 

Hello, I've got the camping gas hob to just in case of power cuts, must have my Tea 😁, my induction hob from China cost less than the camper one, I can do a fry up in 5 minutes with everything in the pan

[Stonepark]

7 hours ago, discobob said:

it is all about planning what you are doing - I was banging my head last week when my wife cooked 2 pizza's in the Oven - for us and the eldest. Then she put on the Air Fryer to cook chips in it 🤬instead of doing them in the oven at the same time as the Pizza's

Actually a good call, the moisture that comes off chips would stop pizza base getting crispy.

[Duckandswing]

We have a sage air fryer. I was sceptical at first. It’s so much quicker than firing up the range. As someone said earlier, pizza takes no time at all and it’s even great for different cuts of meat. I wouldn’t be without it now. The  different settings work perfectly.

[hushpower]

Buy the biggest , Tower or Ninja

[moondoggy]

14 hours ago, bruno22rf said:

Why dont you need to preheat an Air Fryer? If you select,say, 200c and put your food in ,it's not going to hit 200 for 3-4 minutes.

Because the air is blown at a higher speed than a fan oven and heats up very quickly, like a hot air gun, it will hit temperature in seconds rather than minutes.

I do a cherry tomato dish in olive oil and balsamic vinegar that takes 40 minutes in a preheated conventional oven. In the air fryer, it takes 20 minutes. Any longer and it would be burnt.