Air Fryer Virgin Here, 🥸 Have Some Questions…..

[jfmorris]

I am late to the game, but have an air fryer of some off brand I picked up at Target on Black Friday for $30-40 one year. We use it a LOT. It just heats up so much quicker than the regular oven, and the air flow makes for crispier quicker results. I store it on a shelf in the laundry room, but it comes out at least once or twice a week.

While I tend to use it more for heating frozen stuff, versus the regular oven, a couple of nights ago I used it for "pan fried" potatoes, tossing chopped up potatoes in olive oil, and into the air fryer basket they went. I tossed 2 or 3 times during a 20 minute cook, and they came out great. I may have hit with some spray olive oil once or twice during the cook.

You will find cleanup pretty easy even without the liners. The liners would block air flow through the grate at the bottom of the basket, and affect cooking.

Have fun with your new cooking toy!

[Santamarina]

We’ve got a couple air fryers we picked up at Costco for about $40. They work like champs.

We don’t add oil, but I recently stumbled on a great fry hack. Born of laziness…I made bacon one morning and left the grease in the bottom. Made fries for lunch that afternoon and as I tossed the fries mid-cook they got coated in bacon grease. Delicious surprise!

When I do potato’s O’Brien I’ll lay a slice or two of bacon on top for flavor. Once the potatoes are done cooking I’ll remove the grate and mix up the potatoes in the bacon grease.

Speaking of bacon, the air fryer really is my favorite way to cook it. Easy, consistent, hands off.

Wings, chicken nuggets/strips, fries, onion rings…basically anything frozen when you don’t need the full capacity of the oven. Taquitos, egg rolls…

The main trick is to not overfill it. When cooking for one that shouldn’t be an issue.

Its also one of the best tools for reheating leftovers! You’ll think twice about throwing out those leftover fries after you find out they have a real second life in the air fryer!

I don’t use any liners. It’s such an easy cleanup they’re unnecessary.

[jayjordan]

Leftover fries? What's that? Seriously though air fryers do a great job on reheating fries.

[Skinsfan1311]

In my opinion liners on the bottom of the air fryer are a no go. My air fryer has a grate that the food sits on that allows air through it. Allowing the air though the bottom helps crisp up the food from below. Any liner in my opinion would block the air flow.

Agreed.
I lay a out a flat sheet of aluminum foil that just covers the bottom, without affecting the airflow. It makes clean-up easier when I cook brats, bone-in breasts or chops.

[Panhead John]

Has anyone done a frozen pot pie in their air fryer? Asking for my girl Marie.

[gboss]

yeah, sweet calendar girl.

[WI Bubba]

I haven't but I think the crust would burn before the inside was done. I could be wrong, so try it and report back.

[Panhead John]

Will, after googling I found that you can in the air fryer, but should cover the top with foil for the first 3/4 or so of the cook to prevent burning.

[58limited]

I thought an 'air fryer' was someone outside in the open air deep frying over a camp fire.

[SheilaAnn]

Or what it really is….. convection.

[Sid P]

Thought you might like this, John. I haven’t made nachos in mine, but the LW has a two week business trip coming up, so I’ll be giving them a try. Also, note that he uses parchment paper because it makes it easier to get all the ingredients onto a plate. Without it I can envision half the cheese melting and falling through the cracks…