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Hot Air Fryer

Elan

Elan

TUG Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2005
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Location
Idaho
Anyone have one? If so, thoughts, advice, etc?

I've got a nice deep fryer, but I want to add capacity. Rather than getting a second (or larger) deep fryer, I'd consider an air fryer if I felt it would perform sufficiently.
 
Not sure what kind of hotair fryer you meant...We have a infrared fryer and use it every year at Thanksgiving. Turkey tastes almost like deep fried but without using oil. We also brine the bird before cooking. The drawback is ours has a size limit of 16 lb, mostly OK for us but may not be big enough for others.
 
Elan said:
Like this:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M8HZLZ3/ref=psdc_289918_t2_B00TR78QUI#dp-customer-review-header
Click to expand...
The other popular hot air "fryer" is ActiFry by T-Fal. It came out several years before the Phillips version. Have one (actually 3!) and LOVE it. Don't use it for too many items, but I know people who do tons of recipies in theirs.

Mine is limited to chicken wings and fries. The BEST and easiest chicken wings you will ever make. No need to add ANY oil, the chicken wings make their own. Plus all the grease drains off so the wings are super crispy and not greasy at all.

For fries you do need to add a tiny (and it is tiny) bit of oil, but again, nice and crispy without the grease.

And they don't take any babysitting. Throw your ingredients in, set the timer and come back to check it just before you think it should be done.

Easy clean up too!
 
PrairieGirl said:
The other popular hot air "fryer" is ActiFry by T-Fal. It came out several years before the Phillips version. Have one (actually 3!) and LOVE it. Don't use it for too many items, but I know people who do tons of recipies in theirs.

Mine is limited to chicken wings and fries. The BEST and easiest chicken wings you will ever make. No need to ad ANY oil, the chicken wings make their own. Plus all the grease drains off so the wings are super crispy and not greasy at all.

For fries you do need to add a tiny (and it is tiny) bit of oil, but again, nice and crispy without the grease.

And they don't take any babysitting. Throw your ingredients in, set the timer and come back to check it just before you think it should be done.

Easy clean up too!
Click to expand...

OK, now we're talking -- wings and fries -- two of my faves!! :D Exactly the type of info I'm looking for.

What about freshly hand battered products (not frozen), such as onion rings or fish?
 
I don't think you can do anything that is freshly battered. Batter starts to harden as soon as you drop it in hot grease. With no grease in an air fryer, you would just have a pool of batter under the basket and naked onion rings that have been air fried. I would think that frozen items such as onion rings, fish sticks, and cheese sticks from the freezer section would do pretty good, mainly because they are pre-fried at the factory and the batter thus holds up in the air fryer.

An air fryer is really just a compact convection oven. It circulates super hot air around the food. Being a small space and the hot air gives the look, taste and feel of fried foods, but it still isn't fried. I suspect things turn out okay, but nothing really will give you that true deep fried flavor and crunch.

I have considered getting one, but really don't have the space for it and am not sure how much I would really use it. I do love our electric pressure cooker and use it a couple times a week. We also have a small deep fryer for those few times we want something fried, which is rare. We actually like chicken wings out of the pressure cooker. We just put them in the oven for about 10 minutes after they are done to help crisp them up. They would probably do better in an air fryer after the pressure cooker.
 
dioxide45 said:
I don't think you can do anything that is freshly battered. Batter starts to harden as soon as you drop it in hot grease. With no grease in an air fryer, you would just have a pool of batter under the basket and naked onion rings that have been air fried. I would think that frozen items such as onion rings, fish sticks, and cheese sticks from the freezer section would do pretty good, mainly because they are pre-fried at the factory and the batter thus holds up in the air fryer.

An air fryer is really just a compact convection oven. It circulates super hot air around the food. Being a small space and the hot air gives the look, taste and feel of fried foods, but it still isn't fried. I suspect things turn out okay, but nothing really will give you that true deep fried flavor and crunch.

I have considered getting one, but really don't have the space for it and am not sure how much I would really use it. I do love our electric pressure cooker and use it a couple times a week. We also have a small deep fryer for those few times we want something fried, which is rare. We actually like chicken wings out of the pressure cooker. We just put them in the oven for about 10 minutes after they are done to help crisp them up. They would probably do better in an air fryer after the pressure cooker.
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That's what I figured as well, but some of the Amazon reviews I read indicated otherwise. Looking for first-hand experience.
I know how they work, I just want to know if they work well and how versatile they are. One review mentioned pre-cooking something prior to frying. That's not useful to me.

Sent from my Moto G (5S) Plus using Tapatalk
 
We just bought one this week and my husband put no oil into to "fry" potatoes, zucchini and butternut squash (with lightly dusted breadcrumb), despite my strong suggestion to add a little oil. It was alright but not great as it was missing oil to make it crispy.
 
Ended up buying a Breville toaster oven with an "air fry" feature. Tried it the other night with hot wings. As any wing snob will tell you, there is no substitute for deep frying, but these wings were definitely acceptable quality. I've wanted one of these mini ovens for quite some time and I think it's air fry capabilities will likely suffice for adding capacity. Need to try hand cut french fries next.
 
We finally put the air fryer to good use this week. There was a Chinese/Filipino restaurant that we frequented for several months before it closed and we discovered and loved a dish that it served called Sisig Pork. We have not been able to find another restaurant that cooked it the way this place did.

The previous owner gave me verbal instructions on how to cook this dish. We did it his way but with an air fryer and it turned out fabulous. It is belly pork (found in Ranch 99) boiled in water first, followed by the air fryer until it is nice and crispy, with the last step of frying it on high heat with onions. It was WOW!

Our next "experiment" will be with chicken wings.
 
Seeing the other thread on Instant Pot, I dug this thread out. We did chicken wings this week and it was FABULOUS! Nice and crispy and without feeling like it was oily. For years we have been putting dry rub on our wings and roast them under convection oven. Air frying takes out even more oil from the wings compared with our convection roast setting in the oven. We love the air fryer - we have an Aigerek right now, and we are looking for something with larger capacity.
 
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Elan said:
Ended up buying a Breville toaster oven with an "air fry" feature. Tried it the other night with hot wings. As any wing snob will tell you, there is no substitute for deep frying, but these wings were definitely acceptable quality. I've wanted one of these mini ovens for quite some time and I think it's air fry capabilities will likely suffice for adding capacity. Need to try hand cut french fries next.
Click to expand...

Would love to know how you like your Breville Air toaster by now, since you've had it a few months. I've asked DH for one for Christmas--and I've also wanted one for years.

BTW, I saw a couple UTube videos of people using lightly battered foods in their Breville Air oven with a drip pan below. Looks like they turned out ok, but probably not as good as a stand-alone air fry machine.
 
PrairieGirl said:
The other popular hot air "fryer" is ActiFry by T-Fal. It came out several years before the Phillips version. Have one (actually 3!) and LOVE it. Don't use it for too many items, but I know people who do tons of recipies in theirs.

Mine is limited to chicken wings and fries. The BEST and easiest chicken wings you will ever make. No need to add ANY oil, the chicken wings make their own. Plus all the grease drains off so the wings are super crispy and not greasy at all.

For fries you do need to add a tiny (and it is tiny) bit of oil, but again, nice and crispy without the grease.

And they don't take any babysitting. Throw your ingredients in, set the timer and come back to check it just before you think it should be done.

Easy clean up too!
Click to expand...
I have the Actifry by T fal and where it makes good "fries", I really do not like it as it takes too much space. Being it has a mechanism that pushes the food round and round, no way to even lightly batter food, just comes off. I will be getting rid of it and upgrade my Breville that I love to the Breville air.
 
An air fryer may be on the Christmas list this year. I wonder if they are any better than my convection oven.

Bill
 
I tried handcut fries in the Breville last night. A swing and a miss. I didn't really use a recipe just put them on "AirFry" at 400' until they looked done. Came out about the same as frozen fries in the oven -- ok, but not nearly as good as deep fried. I probably will try again at a lower temp and perhaps add a little oil, but there's no way they will ever be close to double deep fried in terms of quality. So, I suspect that, as I've read about air fryers in general, if the item has some inherent oil or fat, air frying works ok. If not, probably not great. On the plus side, I did keep the fries that I deep fried warm in the Breville using the low temp "Warm" setting.

FWIW, I bought my mom the compact Breville oven years ago. She swears by it and my brother bought the same unit after visiting my mom. I've wanted one since, and once they added the AirFry feature, which is just super convection, it pushed me to finally buy. With 3 kids in the house, the AirFry feature was really just a bonus if it worked, which it seemingly kind of does -- for some things. Just the speed and convenience as compared to our gas convection oven makes it worth owning. My presumption, based on limited data, is that the Breville w/AirFry oven is likely better at "frying" than a standard convection oven due to better circulation (more air movement in a smaller space), and perhaps not as good as a dedicated air fryer. And that all 3 are insufficient for frying certain items if you're a fried food snob/junkie.
 
Elan said:
Ended up buying a Breville toaster oven with an "air fry" feature. Tried it the other night with hot wings. As any wing snob will tell you, there is no substitute for deep frying, but these wings were definitely acceptable quality. I've wanted one of these mini ovens for quite some time and I think it's air fry capabilities will likely suffice for adding capacity. Need to try hand cut french fries next.
Click to expand...
How has the Breville worked for you in the past year? Sorry I dug out this old thread but I’ve just bought the Breville Smart Oven Air and am excited to try different recipes. Just an FYI, it’s on sale at Bed Bath & Beyond, and you get an additional 20% off with its coupon. I have waited the entire year to see it on sale again :)
 
LisaH said:
How has the Breville worked for you in the past year? Sorry I dug out this old thread but I’ve just bought the Breville Smart Oven Air and am excited to try different recipes. Just an FYI, it’s on sale at Bed Bath & Beyond, and you get an additional 20% off with its coupon. I have waited the entire year to see it on sale again :)
Click to expand...
That is patience!
 
klpca said:
That is patience!
Click to expand...
Haha...wasn’t needed until now. I have a regular oven and a convection/microwave oven, plus a counter-top Cuisinart toaster oven. They are sufficient for most of the year, except Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year when we cook big meals for more than 10 people...:D
 
I have a Phillips XL. Makes the best chicken wings and fries. I'm from Buffalo, so I like my wings. The other good thing about cooking wings in an air fryar is you dont get that deep fry chicken stink in the house. I have tried cooking a steak that didn't turn out too bad. I cooked a whole chicken, but the basket just wan't quite big enough. Still turned out OK. I've tried frozen shrimp and eggs rolls with limited success. Sometimes it takes a little practice to get the temp and time down correctly. Thank god for YouTube. All in all, an expensive appliance, but worth it in my opinion.
 
rosebud5 said:
I have a Phillips XL. Makes the best chicken wings and fries. I'm from Buffalo, so I like my wings. The other good thing about cooking wings in an air fryar is you dont get that deep fry chicken stink in the house. I have tried cooking a steak that didn't turn out too bad. I cooked a whole chicken, but the basket just wan't quite big enough. Still turned out OK. I've tried frozen shrimp and eggs rolls with limited success. Sometimes it takes a little practice to get the temp and time down correctly. Thank god for YouTube. All in all, an expensive appliance, but worth it in my opinion.
Click to expand...
Next time try brushing the egg rolls with some oil before putting into the air fryer.
 
Fries, biscuits, shrimp and Hasselback potatoes so far in my Crux. First three very good, hasselbacks will take more experimentation.

It’s perfect for me as a single guy.

Cheers
 
LisaH said:
How has the Breville worked for you in the past year? Sorry I dug out this old thread but I’ve just bought the Breville Smart Oven Air and am excited to try different recipes. Just an FYI, it’s on sale at Bed Bath & Beyond, and you get an additional 20% off with its coupon. I have waited the entire year to see it on sale again :)
Click to expand...
Sorry, just now seeing this.

We like the Breville. In terms of air frying, it's ok. I've found that if the product has some inherent oil or fat content (wings, tater tots, etc) it does pretty well. Otherwise, not. Raw potatoes, for instance, don't turn out well, IMO.

But, overall, it's fantastic. We have 3 kids, so the quick heating aspect is great, particularly for frozen foods (popcorn shrimp, taquitos, etc). I do like the convection and super convection settings for their ability to crisp things.

Would definitely recommend the product.

Sent from my Moto G (5S) Plus using Tapatalk
 
rosebud5 said:
I have a Phillips XL. Makes the best chicken wings and fries. I'm from Buffalo, so I like my wings. The other good thing about cooking wings in an air fryar is you dont get that deep fry chicken stink in the house. I have tried cooking a steak that didn't turn out too bad. I cooked a whole chicken, but the basket just wan't quite big enough. Still turned out OK. I've tried frozen shrimp and eggs rolls with limited success. Sometimes it takes a little practice to get the temp and time down correctly. Thank god for YouTube. All in all, an expensive appliance, but worth it in my opinion.
Click to expand...
I was in Buffalo in the mid 80s and really miss the chicken wings from Anchor Bar and Duff’s. Do you by any chance have a recipe for air fried wings?
 
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