Air Fryer Oven Suggestions

[Troutman]

OK you know the Troutman is all about fresh food done simply . OK, truth be known I eat my fair share of junk and fast food. Hey welcome to the modern age. If its fast, convenient and encourages laziness, I'm there !! (I'd mention my love for the tube steak but I fear it would lead to another rash of postings so I won't )

Now to my question to all you air fryer heads out there, I recently saw one of these Ninja Air Fryer Ovens in a big box store and been contemplating buying one. My daughter (and college aged son when he blows in with the wind and a bag of dirty laundry) love to eat their frozen pizzas, chicken tenders, wings, fries, tater tots and just about anything fried and frozen. They end up turning on my large wall oven to 400*F or so for a 15 minute heat up of some frozen lump. The answer, something like this;

Now before I do my best impression of a Ron Popeil commercial, my question to you is this, what should I buy? In the "olden" days we just had those little toaster ovens but now they have these new fangled, air fryer oven thingies. I don't need to spend a lot of money here, $200 bucks or so is pretty much the limit.

Any suggestions in this price range, hopefully something that holds up beyond 6 months?

[crazytown3]

No recommendations (sorry), but following along because I am in the same situation, college aged son and all.

[Jfrosty27]

My son has the very one shown in your post above. He and DIL love it. I am amazed by the range if things they cook in it. Wifey and me will probably get one next time Costco has them on sale. Around $159 I think.

[smokin fool]

DIL got one for heating food for our grand daughter from Amazon Prime, will ask her what brand and size.
Not the same as your pic either, hers is taller and looks narrower.
Jfrosty27 nailed it, the food this thing cooks is amazing, they haven't used they're range/stove in ages, don't know the price.

[jfmorris]

Two of my kids have air fryers and swear by them - how it is super easy to put frozen wings or fries in, and get nice crisp food out.

The wife wants one and I I was very interested a week or two ago in the Ninja air fryer ovens until I started reading all the user reviews on their own website about them. If you read the reviews, there is a recurrent theme of how difficult they are to clean, and how dirty and greasy they get inside from standard air fryer cooking of items like chicken wings. If you go read the reviews on the regular air fryers on the Ninja site, the reviews are almost in the opposite direction, and many talk about how easy it is to simply wipe the basket out and you are done with cleaning.

That said, I still like the idea of the Ninja air fryer oven, as it flips up to the wall to save counter space if you leave it out all the time, and maybe its not a big mess if you are using it for toaster oven type tasks. And maybe the folks who complain are just the whiners, but many gave it high marks but still mentioned difficulty in cleaning as the only issue they had with it.

[jfmorris]

ComfortablyNumb that was what I told her the Vortex was - a gizmo to turn the grill into an air fryer!

[Oak Smoke]

I can only speak to the Ninja brand. We have one of their standard round air fryers and it works great. We chose it because Consumer Reports said the biggest difference in air fryers was how easy they are to clean. The Ninja is easy to clean. There’s no telling how many servings of chicken strips and French fries that thing has cooked for the grand kids.

[saneric38]

We got the round/box type ninja. We only use it to heat up frozen fried stuff or leftover fried stuff. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Ninja-4-Q...2?athbdg=L1200

[glitchy]

We also have the one you pictured and have been happy with it. It gets used several times a week. I make pizza rolls in it, reheat pizza, bake frozen entrees/pizzas/cheese bread, etc. We also use it to make a lot of frozen potatoes like fries and hash browns. My favorite are the hash brown patties similar to McD’s morning offerings.

I’ve also tried a few things like air fried chimichangas or flautas. I’ve diced up taters and made homemade ‘fried’ potatoes a few times. It preheats very quickly and for the frozen things that make sense to ‘air fry’, I just usually drop the temp 25 degrees and shave 25% off of the time from the ‘baking’ instructions on the package and have pretty good results.

I’m sure there might be better ones out there, but I’ve got no complaints other than vertical capacity. I tried making Hassleback potatoes and a couple of them rubbed putting them in and getting them back out. The nice part of that particular model is it folds up against the wall. It’s replaced our toaster too. With a small kitchen, those were more important than the absolute best in class performance.

We recently got a new range with a built in ‘air fry’ function. We still use the Ninja unless we need more capacity than it has, which has been like twice.

[glitchy]

Oh and the vertical capacity is taller when not using the air fry basket, it slides into slots a little higher up.

[Troutman]

How easy is it to clean?

[glitchy]

I haven’t found it bad, it has a tray on bottom that catches stuff that pulls out to be washed, then you can flip it up and open bottom if you need to clean out more. I haven’t cooked a lot that would be real messy though.

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

My personal opinion, just go big and upgrade to a new oven with air fryer and jerky modes. I don't have one of those ovens nor an air fryer (unless you count my convection oven which lacks a few features the newer ovens claiming air fryer features have)

[IFindZeroBadCooks]

I have a standalone air fryer and can confirm the clean-up is super easy following on to Jim's comments. I also think it works quite well in terms of making fried foods as my chicken was excellent. So, if the goal is to make it easier to make fried foods, then I think the ovens and stand-alone units work very well.

https://pitmaster.amazingribs.com/forum/food-recipes-techniques-show-us-what-youre-cooking/show-tell/1047985-show-us-what-you-re-cooking-suwyc-volume-22-summer-2021/page2?pp=1048649#post1048818

[IFindZeroBadCooks]

FWIW, SWMBO bought it from Aldi for $20.

[bbqLuv]

We have an InstaPot and the air fryer attachment. seems to work for us so far.But it is not the same.

[mcook2201]

I did a lot of reading before purchasing an air fryer and pulled the trigger on the Cosori 5.8 quart. It is not an "oven style" however has been an excellent air fryer. We use it several times weekly and the better half cooks everything from wings to salmon to numerous frozen foods with great results. Treat it like a mini convection oven and avoid heavy breaded frozen food (okra, mushrooms as example). We love this addition to the cooking tools and now have 2; one in the house, one at the outdoor kitchen setting.
note: we already owned a nice toaster over and Instantpot. Wasn't looking to replace either of these.

[Murdy]

mcook2201 What happens with the heavier breaded items?

[mcook2201]

Murdy. They tend to become very soggy on the inside and create a hard shell. Often the frozen batter will remain uncooked as well around the food item leaving an unpleasant mess. Other than those type of frozen foods, we have no other complaints.

[fzxdoc]

I think this is the brand that Sam the Cooking Guy used for his steaks. Here's the video link that @glichy posted for us on another topic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xRRdKt3_tk

Kathryn

[T-bone]

We've had this one for about 4 months and have found it really handy. It's great to heat / crisp up to go orders as well as toasting buns, bagels, etc.

[bmiller3]

This is the air fryer I have and I absolutely love it. It has a rotisseri option, I cooked a 4.5 lb chicken in it the other day and it turned out amazing. I have a young family so its great for cooking frozen foods. Other than that it has tons of space and is very easy to clean

[Red Man]

I’ve got a Ninja basket style air fryer. For me it’s mostly just a potato cooker, but it’s by far my favorite way to cook potatoes. It’s great for frozen fries, but more importantly it’s really great for fresh cut fries and diced potatoes.

[MBMorgan]

Got into the AF game cheaply and quite happily with this one.

[leol2]

I got that Ninja air fryer /toaster for Christmas last year. I absolutely love it!! It is great for pizza, wings and about anything else you want to air fry with it. The only downside is it does not allow for anything very tall. It also works well as a dehydrator

[treesmacker]

We have this one set up on the covered patio. Use it about once a week. It is OK, but kinda small. Lotsa functions, from air fry down to dehydrate... I don't think I paid as much as it is now.

https://www.amazon.com/Cuisinart-TOA-65-AirFryer-toaster-oven-6/dp/B07MRG5F4J/ref=sr_1_5?crid=179BYPL8TTUIN&dchild=1&keywords=cuisinart+air+fryer+toaster+oven&qid=1632287687&sprefix=cuisinart+air+%2Caps%2C260&sr=8-5

[Troutman]

I’m looking at a similarity model at Costco. I’m thinking this may be what I’m going to get. Thanks !!