What Other Recipes Can You Make In An Air Fryer
Air fryers are commonly used to cook fresh or frozen foods, including chicken wings, chicken breasts, chicken nuggets, french fries, pork chops, salmon, chicken tenders, bacon, potatoes, baked potato and chicken thighs. Some people even use air fryers to make cakes and other desserts.
Here are some popular air-fryer cookbooks you can buy on Amazon.
Best Overall: Instant Pot Instant Vortex Plus 10qt 7
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Interior is small considering the appliances overall size
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Included instructions are limitedlook for the full manual online
You may know the Instant Pot company from their popular line of electric pressure cookers, but they also manufacture other gadgets that are useful in the kitchen. The Instant Vortex Plus 7-in-1 Air Fryer Oven is one of their latest offerings, combining the features of a standard air fryer with features youd find in countertop ovens.
The cooking basket rotates during cooking, so your fries or wings will tumble during cooking, meaning theyll cook and brown evenly. When youre cooking something larger, you can ditch the basket, like when you’re rotisserie cooking a 4-pound chicken or a roast, or you can use the two cooking trays for foods that shouldnt tumble or spin. Our reviewer said she was able to roast a 4-pound chicken in 45 minutes and “that it tasted as good as those that are slow-roasted for an entire day.”
A drip tray keeps everything tidy and makes cleanup easier. This has a 10-quart capacity, so youll have plenty of room when cooking for the whole family.
The Spruce Eats / Lindsay Boyers
Capacity: 10 quarts | Power Rating: 1500 watts | Dimensions: 13.23 x 13.23 x14.37 inches | Warranty: 1 year
“As an avid Instant Pot user, my expectations for the Instant Vortex Plus were admittedly high luckily, it didnt just live up to my expectationsit exceeded them.” Lindsay Boyers, Product Tester
Most Versatile: Cosori 12
Combining an air fryer and toaster oven is great, but buyers who want even more flexibility should consider Cosori’s impressive multi-cooker. It’s designed with 12 different cooking presets, including cookie baking, air frying, dehydrating, and fermenting dough. Control the device through its preset function buttons or its tactile knobs while the interior light helps you keep an eye on what’s cooking. What’s more, the appliance comes with a recipe book, crumb tray, fry basket, food tray, wire rack, and rotisserie fork and handle set.
Thousands of Amazon reviewers say Cosori’s air fryer toaster oven is perfect for effortless family dinners and compliment the machine’s thoughtful design features. One said, “This is one of those things that you never knew you needed until you have it. I had no idea that ‘just replacing an old toaster’ could be such a game changer, considering the many convenient features, and my new motivation to cook/eat well and healthier!”
Buy it: $199.99
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Is Air Frying Healthy
Many love the best air fryers for how well they work with a low-fat diet. Unlike deep fryers, which require you to immerse your potato chips in oil, air fryers make the most of even a tablespoon of oil to circulate it around the fries, and if you cook bacon or chicken, fat will render and drip away from the meat and stop it from making its way onto your plate. So while air fryers don’t necessarily make your diet healthy, because it depends on what you cook in them, they really can help.
Other Air Fryers We Reviewed
Unlike most of these appliances, the Cuisinart Compact AirFryer isnt oddly shaped like a huge egg or space capsule. Rather its a big stainless-steel cube that looks like a truncated toaster oven. While its boxy shape helps it fit more neatly on a countertop or in a cabinet, the Cuisinart still takes up a bit of countertop real estate .
Youll find the Cuisinart is a relatively uncomplicated appliance in terms of heating elements. It doesnt have cooking preset programs for specific foods or additional cooking functions like keep warm or dehydrate, to make the cooking process easier. You simply turn dials to set the temperature and the cooking time, and theres no need to preheat. Theres also a straightforward manual that includes recipes to get you started.
Since it has a wide air frying basket, food can be spread out to get more even and crispy results with relatively quick cooking times without the food drying out. Most others force you to pile the food on top of each other, which can create uneven results. Using the Cuisinart Compact AirFryer, homemade fries looked and tasted like they had been bobbing in a deep fryer vat of oil.
Pros
Read Also: Club Chefman Recipes
Best Small: Philips Kitchen Appliances Avance Digital Turbostar Airfryer
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Digital screen is easy to use
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Substantial 2.75-quart basket
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You dont have to rotate your food while cooking
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Doesnt shut off when you open it
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Housing gets hot
For a reliable and attractive option, we recommend the Philips Air Fryer Viva TurboStar. Philips isn’t as well known as Cuisinart or Breville, but they were one of the first manufacturers to bring air fryers into home kitchens.
The TurboStar has four preset functions for cooking popular meals , dishwasher safe parts, and a keep-warm function that makes sure your food remains warm and ready to serve while you finish other aspects of the meal. The digital display makes it easy to see the settings that are all controlled with a simple knob.
The proprietary TurboStar technology is also designed to cook foods evenly so you wont have to stop cooking to shake the basket of fries for the perfect poutine. Our reviewer cooked French fries, chicken tenders, and apple chips and everything came out exactly as expected. To make cooking even easier, theres a downloadable app that has 200 recipes designed for the air fryer.
The Spruce Eats / Lindsay Boyers
Capacity: 2.75 quarts | Power Rating: 1425 watts | Dimensions: 14.5 x 10.5 x 11 inches | Warranty: 1 year
How Do I Know If I Need One
Like shearling-lined Birkenstocks and children, an air fryer is something you want, not something you need. The only person who needs an air fryer is someone who has no other oven and craves a corn dog. However, if you answer yes to two or more of the following questions, youre a prime candidate for the air-frying lifestyle:
- Do you have counter space for extra kitchen appliances?
- Are you kinda impatient?
- Do you get extremely excited about new kitchen gadgets and just want permission to buy this one?
- Do you want the crispness of fried food without using a deep fryer?
- Do you L-O-V-E roasted vegetables but hate turning on your oven and heating up the whole apartment?
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How To Clean An Air Fryer
1. First of all, follow what your manufacturer recommends. Check your manual and see if theres any advice on how to clean your air fryer. If steps are given, you should follow them to avoid invalidating the warranty.
2. If no advice is given, the first thing you should do is unplug the air fryer and let it cool completely. The basket/racks will be extremely hot after frying and you could easily burn yourself. If you want to speed up the cooling process, you can carefully remove the basket or racks and leave them in the sink.
3. Once cool, you can clean the basket/racks. You can wash these in warm soapy water and use a sponge or soft-bristled brush to scrub away any residue. Dont use metal utensils or steel wool to scrub, as this can damage the non-stick coating. If theres any burnt-on residue, you can leave the basket or racks to soak in the soapy water prior to cleaning for 20 minutes. Use a toothbrush if theres difficult to reach crevices. Rinse and leave the basket/racks out to fully dry. Alternatively, if these parts are dishwasher-safe according to the manual, you can do this instead.
4. If the outside of your air fryer looks a bit grubby, take a damp microfiber cloth and wipe it over with a small amount of dish soap. Then, rinse away the soap with another cloth.
8. Leave your air fryer to completely dry before re-assembling.
Your air fryer should now be spotless. Make sure its fully dried before you start using it again.
What Are The Benefits Of Using An Air Fryer
There are numerous benefits to using an air fryer to prepare fried foods:
- Air fryer is much healthier than deep frying since youre using air rather than oil. This results in much fewer calories and fat so you can enjoy more of your favourite crispy foods without the same health impact.
- Air fryers are much more convenient to use since they clean very easily and you dont have to fill them with oil, making them much lighter and easier to store.
- Air fryers are also much easier to use than a deep fryer since you can prepare your fried foods with just a few buttons.
- Your running costs are much lower since you dont need to continually purchase oil for your deep fryer.
- Air fryers are safer to use than a deep fryer since youre never exposed to hot spluttering oil that can easily burn your skin. Theres also a nearly 0% chance of a fire, something that is of higher risk with traditional deep fryers.
- An air fryer is much more versatile than a deep fryer since you can perform more than one function with them and you can put any food in your air fryer without needing to coat it in an egg wash, flour, and breading before frying.
Recommended Reading: How To Cook Jimmy Dean Breakfast Sandwiches In Conventional Oven
Consider Your Cooking Choice And Style
Basket-style air fryers are good for cooking small quantities of foods that are easy to shake, like fries and veggies, in which case, an air fryer that doesnt heat outside the body will be a great fit.
Hot air toaster ovens are usually larger in size and can perform multiple cooking functions, including air fry. Food is typically air fried on multiple shelves, but they require more monitoring and often need to be rotated during cooking.
Why Trust The Spruce Eats
Donna Currie is a cookbook author who reviews products and writes roundups for The Spruce Eats. Currently, she has no less than five air fryers in her house. She’s partial to air fryers that have multiple functions and her go-to right now is the Ninja Foodi because she likes the pressure cooker option.
This roundup was updated by Sharon Lehman, a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist who happily makes space for any gadget that make cooking faster and easier. She has tested and reviewed several air fryers for The Spruce Eats, including the Chefman TurboFry Air Fryer and Emeril Lagasse Power Air Fryer 360 on this list.
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Best Air Fryers Of 2021 According To Testing
These top-notch air fryers make crispy fries and wings with little oil.
We updated this story in November 2021 to include more information on air fryers and what to look for when buying. We also added more detail about how we test air fryers in the Good Housekeeping Institute Kitchen Appliance Lab and made sure that all of our picks were in stock.
Air fryers can be compared to small ovens that crisp up wings, fries, veggies and air-fried recipes with little oil. They come in several different styles, including basket-style, which is great for large batches of foods like fries and vegetables that benefit from shaking oven-style, which is ideal for cooking food on numerous shelves and often feature rotisserie accessories and toaster oven styles, which can toast, bake, broil and more in addition to air fry.
Air fryers create a nice “fried” finish that your oven range can’t compete with, and they also reheat food with results that blow away the average microwave. Plus, air fryers require only a small amount of oil to make foods crispy, which means a fraction of the calories and fat of traditional cooking methods, like deep frying.
How do air fryers work?
Are air fryers “healthy?”
How we test air fryers
- Performed the best in our lab tests â it made food the crispiest in the shortest amount of time
- Easy to use
- Some may think basket diameter is small
Best Value Air Fryer
- Cooks evenly for crispy results
- Affordable
What To Consider When Buying An Air Fryer
Size: Counter space is precious real estate, especially when you’re dealing with a small kitchen. While air fryers are designed to fit neatly on your counter, consider how much space you have to spare when you go to purchase an air fryer. Compact air fryers are available for those looking to save on counter space.
Capacity: In the same vein as size, capacity varies greatly among different types of air fryers. They typically range in size from two quarts all the way up to seven quarts. It’s important not to overcrowd the basket, so consider the size of your family when choosing an air fryer. A two-quart air fryer would be suited for one to two people, while a seven-quart air fryer can accommodate up to six or seven people.
Related: Which Air Fryer Should You Buy? How to Pick Your Perfect Size and Type
Wattage: Wattage levels can go up to 1800 watts and beyond, so make sure your kitchen outlet supports the watts consumption of the air fryer you choose.
Price: Air fryers are an investment, but you don’t have to break the bank to get one. You can find an air fryer for under $100, or you can splurge and spend almost $400 on a top-of-the-line model. Keep your budget in mind as you choose the right air fryer for you.
Presets: Air fryers sometimes have presets for popular foods, like chicken or vegetables. If you’re planning to use your air fryer to cook specific dishes, you may want to go with one that comes pre-programmed with that setting to make life a little easier.
Don’t Miss: Barber Foods Air Fryer
Can I Cook Frozen Meats Or Vegetable In An Air Fryer
Yes, you can. In most cases, meats and vegetables from a frozen state can be prepared in an air fryer. The highly heated air and convection action draws excess moisture to an exhaust port, so frozen foods wont become mushy from unwanted steaming. Keep in mind that cooking times may sometimes need to be extended considerably when starting from frozen.
What We Think Of The Dash Dmaf360gbaq02 Aircrisp Pro Air Fryer + Oven Cooker
The Dash DMAF360GBAQ02 Aircrisp Pro Air Fryer + Oven Cooker has a 3 quart capacity, making it a much smaller and more compact choice than many of the other air fryers on this list. It only has a weight of around 10 pounds as well.
The appearance is pretty striking. It has a completely round body and comes in four color choices. This appearance looks fresh and ensures that the air fryer fits into any kitchen, no matter what the kitchen may look like.
Although the air fryer is small, it retains functional and efficient performance. It comes with a digital display and eight preset options. These presets make it easy to cook all of your favorite snacks in this nifty little device.
More so, the Dash DMAF360GBAQ02 Aircrisp Pro Air Fryer + Oven Cooker comes with safety features. For example, it comes with an auto shutoff function to ensure nothing burns or causes a fire.
Price wise, the air fryer is pretty affordable. It isnt quite as cheap as our budget pick, but it is close. People on a budget will be happy with the price tag on this product.
The biggest issue with the Dash DMAF360GBAQ02 Aircrisp Pro Air Fryer + Oven Cooker is its size. Because it only has a capacity of 3 quarts, large families probably wont be able to make food for the whole family using this device.
Easy to operate. Good time and temperature. The capacity is great for its price.
michelle
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What Else Should I Look For
The bigger the basket capacity, the more people youll be able to cook for. So if youve got a family, then a 5 litre machine is probably a must.
A loud beep to signal the end of cooking time is a good idea if youre using the time to wander off and do something else. Most air-fryers will only cook one food group at a time but some will cook a whole meal in one go if youre after a one-pot solution.
How We Tested Air Fryers
What is the first thing you think of when you consider air fryers? Chips, of course, so our homemade fries test was crucial.
The key to crisp fries was to peel and soak the potatoes in cold water for half an hour to remove starch, before drying thoroughly. We used Maris Piper potatoes for all.
We looked at the manuals for each model and followed their directions for cooking temperature, time and the quantity of oil needed. If the type of oil wasn’t specified them we used vegetable.
Anything from the size of the cut to the variety of potato can make a difference here, so its always good to gauge things halfway through the time. But for the purpose of the test, we shook ingredients only when prompted too and scored the appliance based on its performance.
We tested the air fryers using set criteria and scored each one on the following core areas out of five. The average of all determined the overall star rating they achieved:
Quality of foodTo ensure fairness, we initially cooked chips in every fryer we tested. We looked at how evenly they fried and whether they were brown and crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside.
Ease of useNo-one wants to resort to a YouTube video to work out how to use a new gadget. We looked for fryers with clear, simple instructions, so we could get them out of the box and cooking our dinner as quickly as possible. Fryers also scored highly if the icons or control buttons were easy to use and intuitive.
Read Also: Jimmy Dean Sausage Links In Air Fryer
