Air Fryers

[MIKEYTEE]

Have any of you culinary gurus used an air fryer?  I have been thinking of buying one, but not quite ready to pull the trigger. If I do, I know I would want at least a 10 quart capacity.
So what be your thoughts?

Mike
 

[Twolanerider]

Have any of you culinary gurus used an air fryer?  I have been thinking of buying one, but not quite ready to pull the trigger. If I do, I know I would want at least a 10 quart capacity.
So what be your thoughts?

Mike
 

I'm not a great cook so can't speak to this as would some of the rest of the crowd. Do have an air fryer though and have used it for a few years. 

It is great for things that are already fried.   Things like bagged chicken parts or wings or french fries or other things of that ilk.  They'll stay crisp, cook quickly and taste as good as they would have any other way.  Also good way to cook hamburgers.

Other fresh meat, however, well... average is about as good as I'd give it.  You can't get crispy chicken cooking it fresh.  It is a quick way to "fry" chicken if you're staying crustless.  Well seasoned skinless chicken doesn't come out too bad. 

Overall it's a quick way cook meats that just have to be ok, is quite satisfactory for cooking frozen pre-prepared things and will keep them crunchy/crusty, and it's a really good frozen french fry cooker.  The minimal mess part is nice too.

[Posty McPosterson]

I love chicken wings. I love them so much I buy 40lbs at a time and freeze them in 2lb bags. I love them so much I regularly remove the cooking grates from my gas grill to place a pan of oil directly on the sear burner to fry them. Several months ago Mrs posty bought an air fryer and thought we should try chicken wings. I scoffed, in an arrogant foodie wing addict way that it couldn’t possibly do the job and cleaning that air fryer pan would be a nightmare. She was right. I was wrong. The basket only holds about 10 but it works great. Clean up can barely be considered a mild inconvenience. I tried tater tots yesterday and was disappointed with the outcome. They crumbled apart. It wasn’t the fault of the air fryer though. They were great value brand, 1/2 the price of ore ida. Lesson learned. They will be used to make hash browns instead. I’ve heard that left over French fries are actually palitable when reheated in an air fryer. It’s basically a blow dryer on low speed with a cleverly crafted basket to maximize air flow. I’m not sure a large size is the best idea. You max out at 1800 watts using 110v anyhow. Wings take roughly 30 minutes.

[iski]

Don't have one, have thought about getting one, so far have not.  Sort of a convection oven in miniature is my understanding of how it works.  Makes sense that it would be good for re-heating or foods that have already been fried, an oven does that better than a microwave.  We use the toaster oven for that, it does an ok job.