Figured I’d start a new thread (somehow couldn’t find the old one)…
Finally broke it out after almost a week. It’s an Instant brand (I did ZERO research, was grief-shopping). I’ll be honest, the chicken was of unknown vintage (cleaning out the freezer at Mom’s) and was wrapped kinda funky for the freezer, and had been left to thaw for about 4 days (couldn’t get motivated to unbox the beast)…
But I washed the chicken good and it smelled okay, so rolled it in flour and went to town…
Put the fryer through it’s pre-use cycle. Okay. Burn off all the plastic residue. 380 degrees for 20 minutes… turned it, and did another ten…
It was okay. Kinda like real fried chicken. Just need to adjust my spices and stuff (Omit the Sage next time). Turned out good enough that I won’t pack it up and take it back. I’ll give it a few more attempts…
Maybe some Pork Dumplings that I normally make a big mess with. I guess I’m gonna need an oil spritzer.
But the touch-screen! I gotta grab it with both hands and JAM my finger into to make it understand. Might be a deal-breaker. I’ll give it a little. Maybe I should have never had my fingerprints laser removed…
Now, if fried chicken is back on the regular menu, this new mustache has got to go!
All recipes encouraged. Especially if they involve drinking beer.
Just about any frozen appetizer. Many of them have air fryer directions on the package now, and if not, there will be instructions online. Everything from frozen egg rolls to flautas/taquitos to pizza rolls to steak fries to tater-tots to beer-battered fish comes out great, and in minutes.
Listen to Auntie ThelmaLou: watch FabuluesslyFrugal on YouTube! Here’s an intro video:
You don’t have to reinvent the process. Seriously! Stand on the grease-soaked shoulders of your Air Fryer Elders. Cathy’s videos are 10-15 minutes and well worth watching. Don’t make me come over there!
I was skeptical about air fryers until I started using one. Now I love them.
I don’t even always use the basket (though I know that it gets things fried a lot better). I sometimes just put something on a sheet of aluminum foil and flip the stuff over halfway through, that way I don’t have to wash the basket after everything I cook. It’s not as good as the basket, but it’s still better than just baking it (or worse, using the microwave).
I like to get fresh green beans, toss them in a little olive oil and spices (typically just garlic salt and pepper), and then air fry them for a while (I think 8 minutes at 375, flipping halfway, I might be remembering wrong). They come out amazing.
I have NO counter space at all in my 1925 kitchen, so I have the air fryer on a separate table along with my coffeemaker. I have the smallest size air fryer.
I have an instant Pot Duo Crisp. I’ve done flank/skirt steaks and baby back pork ribs that turned out great. Hit or Miss with the FF, it must be my recipe. better luck with baked whit and sweet potatoes. The recipe that wowed me was shrimp scampi. Start with whole frozen raw shrimp and uncooked rotini along with the evoo and garlic and everything else. Layered in the pot it was just a few minutes on pressure cook, quick release and it was perfect.
It is honking huge, I had to rearrange a cupboard to make it fit in pieces. It sat on my counter for months in the spot the bread maker would go. Now that it’s put away I forget I have it.
We haven’t notice any terrible smell of something gone rancid etc.
We moved to clean and found stains underneath—we think from heat. We also found stains in the group between the subway tiles—we think from aerosolized oil that blows out the vents. We wish we’d known, since the countertop and tiles are white.
So you should consider how you place it, monitor the surrounding area.
Many years ago I saw something like this on “This Old House.” It might be something to consider. We use our air fryer so much that it probably be worth getting for us.
Before the pandemic Mrs. L and I were thinking about towing a fifth wheel all over the USA. We thought the air fryer might replace the oven in a fifth wheel, which would save space.
Did some Bibigo Pork Dumplings tonight. Totally inferior to how I normally cook them. They were dry and tasted like creamains. Cleaner, maybe, but you can’t eat clean. Could barely eat them dumplings.
This might be the wrong appliance for me. Like I say, I grabbed it on a whim. No thought at all.
Eek! Dumplings are supposed to be soft and juicy, you air fry stuff you want crispy.
If they were like cremains, the temp might have been too high and/or it went too long.
Tonight I air fried seasoned sliced bell peppers. I didn’t cook them long enough to get crispy, but they did cook down enough to be good. Even my wife liked them.
I was trying to cook them as I cooked sausage on the stovetop and wanted to serve them together. If the sausage didn’t cook so fast I would have cooked the peppers more,
They turned out fine though, so I can’t gripe too much.
I returned it today. Wasn’t my thing. Bought it for all the wrong reasons. Took up way too much space on the counter. Messy. Made the house smell funny (and hot) and the food taste weird.
Used the trip as an excuse to go the Home Depot, which was an overwhelming success.
I don’t have an air fryer, but our oven has a convection feature. I use the air fryer directions for the convection oven. I get good results that way. Based on that I don’t think I’ll get an air fryer.
