Your fav Air fryer recipies

I made a beef burger and a small meat loaf today from a small packet of minced beef. The burger just had a few breadcrumbs and grated onion, I added some cheese after six minutes and it was done in eight minutes - very juicy! I bought a meat thermometer so I can check the temperature of my food as it’s sometimes hard to tell if it is cooked when the outside is lovely and crispy.

The meat loaf had more breadcrumbs p, grated onions and a spoonful of mayonnaise ( instead of the egg in the recipe) to bind it together. I lined a mini loaf tin with grease proof paper, squashed the meat into the tin then took it out with the paper liner. I cooked the meat loaf and burger at the same time and plan to have the meat loaf tomorrow with some homemade potatoes wedges - cooked in the air fryer of course!

I bought a Ninja max air fryer which was not cheap but reviews said the non stick surface was better quality than cheaper ones and can go in the dishwasher. Later in the week I plan to have salmon parcels with Mediterranean style vegetable, chicken fajitas and also some twice cooked stuffed jacket potatoes. That will be four meals using my air fryer rather than the oven.

Thank you @Charleygirl5, good advice - I would not have room for both an airfryer and the halogen, no space for anything else in our tiny kitchen!

kittylester AF100UK Ninja. Forgot to mention that the chips I did were home-made, hand-cut chips, not ready made oven ones.

Scotsmum air fryers are large- even the smaller ones and they become extremely hot so cannot be placed directly on a worktop surface or under a cupboard.

I personally would keep the halogen until it has seen better days unless you had space for a cheap air fryer as well.

Ours arrived today. A Ninja Foodi multi cooker with a 6 litre capacity. Not top of the range but I'm sure it will do for the 3 of us. Cook pot, pressure cooker and air fry crisper.

There is a little recipe book with it so that's where I'm going to start.

Hi everyone, This is really interesting and very informative, so following with interest.

I actually don't have one (or an IP) but I do have a little countertop halogen oven (12 L +) which is in use every day, and I never preheat it - even when baking scones or bread.

Fantastic for steaks and all grilling and roasting and baking, a full english breakfast but not so clever on solid items like baked potatoes: I use the combination microwave for that, done in 20 - 25 mins.

I like to see what is going on - it does take up a fair chunk of my tiny worktop.

My question is, can you please tell me, should I change over to an Airfryer?

Thank you Grannynannywanny, I look forward to trying! The increase in fuel prices has made us look more carefully at how we cook; when the oven goes on I try to get something else in there as well, no more casual turning on the oven just to bake a baquette for example. This could be a very useful thread!

GillT57 baked potatoes are lovely in it. I give a large spud 5-7 mins in the microwave then pop it into the airfryer for the last 7 or 8 mins of what’s already roasting eg a chicken breast or a selection of chopped peppers, onion, tomatoes. A lovely crispy jacket in a fraction of the time.

I’m new to it all so just experimenting and watching out for good tips.

We bought an air fryer about a year ago, it was a middle of Lidl bargain at £29.99 and at that price seemed worth a try. It is great for fish fingers/scampi, chips etc., but I am now keen to experiment more with it to avoid putting the oven on for just the two of us. This week I cooked Linda McCartney veg meatballs in it, 10 minutes as opposed to 15-20 minutes in main over, plus pre warming time. Today I am going to experiment with jacket potatoes; I read that initial cooking in the microwave then finishing/crisping them off in the air fryer gives the same crisp skin as doing them in a main oven for an hour or so.

I'll be watching this thread with interest.

I'm another who took the plunge and ordered one (the Tower 4.3 litre) after reading about them on another thread a few days ago.
It is due to arrive on Monday, so I'm trying to find out in advance as much about how best to use it and what sort of things I will be able to make on it.

I have to admit that I am a little nervous - I always am with new electrical appliances and gadgets!

Bookwormbabe* I only use French fries in my Pro Breeze and I find they are to die for. I decided to try Aldi's and at 65p there was little difference between those and Waitrose at a hefty £3.50. The chips are healthier because only a teaspoonful of oil is used in my fryer and it is hot air that cooks them.

My air fryer was made in London and not China- a huge difference.

Which ninja?

I have just bought a Ninja. Only done chips and fish fingers (separately) so far. The chips were a bit uneven, though I did toss them halfway through, I'll have to try and perfect my technique with those. The fish fingers (extra chunky ones) were fine, 8 minutes in the air fryer versus 22 in a normal oven. With the boom in air fryers, food manufacturers are going to have to include air frying instructions on the packaging along with oven/microwave.

I bought one second hand last week- only made chips so far. So will read with interest.

I love sprouts in the air fryer! Just chuck them in with a drizzle of olive oil and some salt and pepper. Air fry for about 10 mins. (Timing may differ on other models) The outside of the sprouts are charred and crunchy and hopefully the inside is tender. They taste just amazing. I wont ever cook them any other way now! I have a Ninja Foodie Dual Zone. It has 2 drawers so you can cook 2 different things at once. Literally never use my oven these days.

I have a Ninja one - and it's brilliant, just a mini-oven really (with a strong fan). Preheat for 3 minutes, then reduce your usual oven temperature and time a little - and do check frequently for 'doneness' too.

The reheat setting is good and fast for anything that would go soggy in a microwave (like pizza). It's very cheap to run compared to the big oven. You can use smaller tins or pyrex dishes to bake in it. I'm obsessed with making toasted sandwiches lately.

For cleanup, the parts can go in a dishwasher but I usually just hand wash. Clean with kitchen roll, wipe with a soapy sponge, then rinse under the tap - easy.

kittylester

Would posters mind saying what make they have please.

Mine is a Tower 4.3 litre costing £44 on Amazon last week. It has a 60 min manual timer. The digital timer model was another £10. I love the product but I’m slightly regretting not going for the digital timer. I’m finding the manual dial and timer tricky to see. Other than that it’s great.

Any beige freezer food (like oven chips or chicken goujons, onion rings etc) are much better in the airfryer than in the oven. Not healthy or sophisticated, but most of us will have evenings where we resort to that kind of thing!

Love this thread. I am dithering about buying an air fryer but I think you are convincing me.

Would posters mind saying what make they have please.

Grannynannywanny- each is different. Mine fits in my dishwasher and the result is perfect.

Yesterday was my first disaster. I cut up a 4 cheese pizza into pieces and cooked in two lots. I forgot to rub some oil over the base so the pastry stuck and the melted cheese once dry really stuck like a limpet so I had to soak both overnight and even then I could not remove all of the pastry so the dishwasher did a fabulous job. Never again.

Tonight it will be celery and seabass on the hob but corn on the cob, mushrooms, tomatoes, green beans and French fries in the air fryer. I find the latter is to die for and one teaspoonful of oil is enough for the chips. I add butter to the cob afterwards.

There are many recipes on Pinterest, especially a lady called Binto writes. A lot of the ingredients are American and I have never heard of them but the basics are there.

Teacheranne the instructions on my Tower air fryer say that none of the parts are suitable for the dishwasher as it will affect the non stick surface. Yours may be different of course.

I also recently bought an air fryer and am looking for recipes so thanks for starting this thread. So far, I’ve only used mine for basic foods such sausages, bacon and chicken thighs but have been looking on Pinterest for more ideas.

I want to try using a dish in it to make a meal with liquid in it, like a casserole but am not quite brave enough yet! Last night I precooked some sausages, black pudding and bacon then put in small pieces of potato and onions until crisp then adding the sliced meats - delicious but next time I’ll add the onions a bit later!

This week I’m planning to try chicken fajitas and twice cooked filled potatoes. I might also try the reheat programme to warm up a Cornish pasty, hopefully it will be more economic than using my main oven.

I’ve bought a meat thermometer so that I can check that chicken in particular is cooked as I find it harder to judge than when I use my oven.

My only complaint so far is the washing up! It says to wash after every use which is a pain, as the pull out basket is quite large and does not fit easily in my washing up bowl. I’ve not put it in the dishwasher yet as it would fill most of one tray and I try to only put on the dishwasher twice a week.

Thanks for starting this thread SeaNain and I’ll be watching with interest as I just bought one at the weekend. My main reason for buying it was in the hope it will be more economical than using the main oven. I was very heartened to read a post on another thread, I think by Charleygirl, saying she’d been using one since last year instead of main oven and her fuel consumption had noticeably dropped.

Mine isn’t a top of the range one so I can’t use liquid. Chicken breast roasted lovely in it. Sausages dry roasted in it were delicious. I roasted red peppers, tomatoes and onions with a light spray of olive oil and that worked really well.

I’m still experimenting with the basics and will look forward to any suggestions here.

My IP/air fryer was used for the first time yesterday.

I’m thrilled, I made Marry Berry’s hot mustard beef in under an hour start to finish, the oven would have been on 3 hours.
I sautéed the meat and vegetables, added the liquid then pressure cooked, perfect, all ready for Friday evening.

We had home made fish and chips for supper, I wanted to trial the air fryer function so did the fish in the oven but the M&S oven fries were amazing.
I could easily have layered the fish and chips, will do next time..