Air fryers are a great way to enjoy the delicious crunch you love in a healthy way. Superheated air is the key to perfect cooking. It wraps around your food and allows it to cook evenly. It is important to find an air fryer that can cook enough food for you and has intuitive controls that make it easy to use. You’ll also want an air fryer that is easy to clean and can cook multiple foods simultaneously. Many manufacturers have refined their air fryers to allow you to create many culinary delights.
Best Air Fryers
1. COSORI Air Fryer Pro
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Amazon.com
- Multiple cooking presets, shake reminder, and digital controls
- Easy to set temperature and cook time
- Food comes out crispy
- Removable and nonstick baskets
- Easy to clean and dishwasher safe
- Need to preheat multiple times to eliminate the plastic smell.
2. GoWISE USA 8-in-1 Digital Air Fryer
9 used from $49.00
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Amazon.com
- 5.8-quart capacity with 8 cooking presets
- Wide temperature settings
- Start/ Stop button to change time and temperature in the cycle
- Nonstick pan and detachable basket
- Come with a recipe book
- Occasional rust basket issues.
3. Ninja AF101 Air Fryer
4 used from $80.71
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Amazon.com
- 4-quart capacity for single or small household
- Wide temperature range from 105°F to 400°F
- Easy to change time and temperature by Start/Stop button
- Nonstick pan and detachable basket
- Come with a recipe book
- 3 minutes of preheating is needed before adding food
- Only 4 preset functions. Luckily, they are very useful.
4. Ninja DZ201 Foodi 2-Basket Air Fryer
17 used from $109.00
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Amazon.com
- Convenient cooking with 2 independent baskets in 2 ways at the same time
- Extra-large capacity
- 6 versatile cooking programs
- Easy to clean baskets
- Dishwasher-safe plates
- Multiple accessories included
- Some new plastic odor reports.
5. Dreo Air Fryer Pro Max
3 used from $87.71
Free shipping
Amazon.com
- Fast cooking more food with multiple functions
- Easy to monitor food state through the visible window
- Come with a nonstick plate, an insulated basket, and a cookbook
- Changeable temperature from Fahrenheit to Celsius
- Built-in shake reminder
- Dishwasher safe
- Rare handle quality concerns.
What Are The Benefits of Air Fryers?
1. Healthier and eco-friendly
If you are a crisp food lover, an air fryer will be your best option to get rid of deep frying and saturated fats. Because the food is cooked by its internal moisture and oil, there is no need to add extra oil to the air fryer.
It uses less energy than an oven. This means that it’s a more eco-friendly cooking option and one that’ll save you money in the long run.
2. Fast and safe cooking
Air fryers cook faster than stovetops or ovens. It can heat up in minutes because most of the heat remains inside. The heat from the cooking process is not expelled into the air. It’s actually intensified by constant circulation. This allows you to cook foods in record-breaking time.
Most air fryers come with overheat protection for safe cooking. Cooking with an air fryer can protect you from oil splashes and hot steam burning.
3. Easy to use
Cooking with an air fryer is very easy. Prepare raw food mixed with seasoning, put them into the air fryer, click the button on the control panel. You can complete cooking with an air fryer with just one click on the button.
4. Versatile for various food
Air fryers are a versatile tool that can be used in a variety of kitchen tasks, including steaming vegetables and making oil-free fried food, such as chicken, sweet potatoes, and potato chips.
5. Easy to clean
Air fryers are easier to clean than traditional deep fryers. Air fryers don’t require large containers of hot oil to filter and store. Between uses, the cooking basket of an air fryer can be washed either by hand or in a dishwasher.
How Do Air Fryers Work?
Air fryers combine several cooking methods into one appliance.
Radiant heating is provided by an electric coil suspended above food. It works in the same way as a stovetop burner or broiler element. This dry heat penetrates and warms the food.
A fan placed above the coil creates superheated air which flows around the food. Convection heating is a common cooking method used in commercial ovens.
Convection converts the oil you use to a fine mist, which coats food as it circulates. This mimics traditional deep-frying’s effect on foods that are submerged in hot oil.
The steam created by the heat from the air is a result of the food’s moisture.
What To Consider When Buying An Air Fryer?
Capacity
An important consideration before purchasing an air fryer is its capacity. A fryer can cook 1.5 to 3 pounds of food per hour. This would be sufficient for most households. However, a large family may require more, such as 2-basket models for 4-5 pounds of food.
Size and settings
Air fryers can be easily fitted on kitchen counters because they are compact. Despite their simple design, most air fryers may have more or less appealing settings, including fry, roast, grill, and bake. The majority of machines have timers that can reach temperatures as high as 400°F.
They usually come with several presets for easy cooking, and a safe setting with overheat protection. Some multipurpose models are capable of cooking multiple types of food in the meanwhile.
Wattage
Air fryers require 800 to 2,100 watts of power to work. Make sure that your kitchen outlet can handle this amount of power before you purchase an air fryer.
Budget
The product price varies in size, capacity, functions, and accessories. Larger models with more accessories and functions generally are more expensive.
Besides the product price, the cost of running an air fryer should be also considered before buying. Its electricity bill is calculated based on the capacity and running time. If you have a large family, you will need a larger model that can hold over 4 pounds of air-fried food at a time. In this situation, the running cost of a larger air fryer is less than using a smaller one twice or three times cooking.
What Food Can Be Cooked In An Air Fryer?
The main four functions of most air fryers are fry, roast, grill, and bake. The multi-purpose cookers are great for cooking a variety of foodstuff, including raw meat, vegetables, frozen foods, reheating leftovers, and so on.
Raw meat
The most common raw meat for cooking in the air fryers are chicken, pork, steaks, shrimps, meat patties, burgers, and salmon fillets.
Some air fryers come with accessories like a baking cage, rotisserie fork, and rack to cook double-layer meals.
An air fryer with rotisserie is a great way to roast whole chickens. It can create a taste of grill cooking, a very delicious, crispy, moist meat with very low fat.
For raw meat with various thicknesses, the cooking time of air fryers ranges from 10 to 30 minutes at different temperatures.
You can also try chicken pieces wrapped in thin layers of batter. But this battered food must be pre-fried or frozen, because the fast-moving hot air will push the batter from wet-battered food, causing it to be splattered all around the cooking pan.
Adding a teaspoon of oil to the wet flour or breadcrumbs will make it stick better to the chicken. As long as the batter isn’t too dry or too wet, this way can create a more crunchy and richer color without splattering.
Vegetables
Air fryers can roast vegetables exactly the same way as you do in the skillet.
This is possible thanks to the ceramic bowl and the stir paddle included with the unit. This hot-air kitchen appliance roasts fresh mushrooms like enoki, portobello, broccoli, corn, sweet potatoes, etc.
Nuts
The air fryer is a great way to roast peanuts, chestnuts, almonds, walnuts, or other nuts. Peanuts, almonds, and walnuts take approximately 10 minutes while walnuts take only 5-8 minutes. It’s super simple. The nuts don’t get burnt because there is a stirring paddle that can shake the pan without having to stop the air fryer.
They are much more deliciously roasted in the oven than I do in the air fryer. The stirring paddle can shake the pan
Pancakes, donuts, biscuits, and muffins
There are various accessories designed for most standard air fryers, such as nonstick baking dishes, pizza pans. You can make different recipes with these accessories.
The nonstick baking dish is great for baking small desserts such as muffins, egg tarts, donuts, custards, bread, lasagna, quiche, biscuits, casseroles, or curries. You can cook any dish that has a watery sauce.
Frozen foodstuff
French fries are traditionally deep-fried in high-heat oil. Now you can cook frozen French fries and frozen fish in the air fryer with little oil. Frozen fries can be made in one layer. It takes about 12 minutes to achieve that crispy exterior and moist interior texture. In just 15 minutes, you can prepare dinner with air-fried fish and chips. You can cook more evenly by shaking the food halfway through the cooking process to get a more even browning.
Leftovers and other
You can also use an air fryer to reheat the leftovers.
Air fryer cooking requires a lot of creativity and tests. If you are patient and open to tests, you will be successful in multi-cooking with an air fryer.
Can I Use Aluminum Foil Or Baking Paper To Cook Food In An Air Fryer?
Yes. You can use aluminum foil and baking paper in most air fryer models. However, it really depends on your specific models, and what type of food it is cooking. Before doing that, make sure you read the instructions.
Do I Need To Preheat The Air Fryer Before Placing Food In?
It really depends on the air fryer models. Some manufacturers may recommend you preheat the empty air fryer for several minutes. For most models, preheating 5-10 minutes before placing food in creates evenly and beautifully brown air-fried food. So follow the instruction in user-manual.
Should I Season Food Before Cooking In The Air Fryer?
Yes. Add a little oil and some simple seasonings, such as salt, pepper, and breadcrumbs. Rub on each side of meat or stir the vegetables evenly with a silicone spoon. Pre-seasoned food will be more delicious after air-fried. Wet-batter-coated meat should be frozen or pre-fried before cooking in the air fryer.
Can I Remove The Basket To Add Seasoning Or Stir Food During The Process Of Air Frying?
Follow the instructions on the user manual. Most air fryers often allow you to remove the basket from the cooking cycle to stir the product and add seasoning. If this feature is available, the air fryer should automatically shut off.
Does Air-fried Food Taste Dry? How To Prevent Moisture Loss?
Because the air fryer works by continuously circulating hot air around the food, some people may think that air-fried food will be very dry. In fact, foods that contain oil and moisture don’t taste dry at all. It tastes just like oven-baked food—crispy and moist. For food without oil and moisture, you can add a teaspoon of oil or wrap them with a layer of aluminum foil to prevent moisture loss.
How To Prevent The Grease From Getting Smoking When Cooking Fatty Food?
Pour 2 tablespoons of water into the bottom of the air fryer basket.
Can I Cook Different Foodstuff In One Cooking Cycle?
Most models have dividers that allow you to keep different foods separated during cooking. To avoid overcooking and undercooking, we recommend that you only combine foods with similar preparation times or temperatures.
Accessories
