Table of Contents
- Introduction
- How Does an Air Fryer Work?
- 10 Reasons to Buy an Air Fryer
- Which Air Fryer Should I Buy?
- Air Fryer Accessories
- Our Original Air Fryer Recipes
Introduction
Welcome to GradFood’s Ultimate Air Fryer Guide. Ever since I got Zoe an Air Fryer for Christmas, we’ve kind of been obsessed with it (as you can probably tell by all of our recent Air Fryer recipes).
In this article, we walk you through everything you need to know about Air Fryers including how Air Fryers work, which Air Fryer is right for your needs, how to properly use and clean your Air Fryer, and lastly (and probably most importantly) we share with you our favorite recipes using an Air Fryer, ranging from Orange Chicken to Teriyaki Beef Jerky to Gorgonzola Sweet Potato Fries.
We hope you enjoy it and feel free to comment below what you think or if you have any comments/suggestions!
How Does an Air Fryer Work?
The first think you’re probably wondering is how an Air Fryer works. How is it any different than a regular deep fryer or an oven? Most importantly, Air Fryers are different from regular deep fryers because they don’t actually fry food, meaning you don’t actually submerge your food in hot oil to cook it.
The actual mechanism of Air Fryers is most akin to that of a convection oven. Basically, your food is placed in a perforated metal basket. At the top is a heating unit with a high powered fan that blows the hot air all around the food, creating a convection effect that nicely and evenly browns the outside of the food. And unlike a convection oven, Air Fryers are compact, allowing for faster and more efficient preheating and cooking times.
10 Reasons to Buy an Air Fryer
1) It makes delicious food (duh!)
When you bake food in regular ovens (especially not convention ovens), you are often left with uneven results, with some parts burnt and other parts undercooked. The mechanism of Air Fryers described above allows hot air to circulate all around the food, maximizing surface area-to-heat ratio and allowing for perfectly even crispiness and crunchiness. While an Air Fryer won’t taste exactly like if you used a traditional deep fryer, we really love the end result of each recipe we’ve tried so far.
2) It is a healthier option
Love the taste of fried food but not the way it makes you feel afterwards (for instance Zoe tends to get heartburn with fried food)? Are you disappointed with the end result when you try the oven-roasted version of the same recipe? If yes to these questions, then an Air Fryer might be the solution!
You can usually get away with using little-to-no oil when cooking with an Air Fryer, which can cut calories. Furthermore, one study (Sansano et at., 2015) showed that compared to traditional frying methods, using an air fryer reduces acrylamide (a compound associated with certain types of cancer) by up to 90%.
3) It is time and energy efficient
With their compact size and efficient circulation of hot air, Air Fryers out-compete your oven. With most recipes only needing 8-20 minutes of cooking, Air Fryers reduce cooking time by up to 25% (they also only need a fraction of the time to preheat, unlike your oven), saving you both time and energy.
4) There’s an air fryer for every price range
With prices as low as $40, buying an Air Fryer doesn’t have to break your wallet. We are obviously more than happy with our investment in an Air Fryer. And don’t worry, even the lower-priced ones still produce great results! Keep reading this Ultimate Air Fryer Guide to see the specific products we recommend.
5) They are easy to clean
With removable parts, nonstick materials, and most being dishwasher-safe, cleaning your air fryer is no hassle at all! And compared to the grease that coats your kitchen walls after deep frying foods, an Air Fryer produces no mess.
6) They are versatile and can make all kinds of recipes
See below for a sample of all of the different types of food you can make using an Air Fryer. From meat to vegetables to even pizza, we’ve been able to incorporate air frying into a ton of our meal preparations.
7) Many have different modes, allowing different types of cooking
Not only used for frying foods, an Air Fryer can also be used for reheating leftovers, thawing frozen food, and much, much more. Ours lets you change the settings to “air fry”, “roast”, “dehydrate”, and “reheat”. It’s up to you to experiment!
8) They come in all different shapes and sizes
It’s true that they take up some counter space. But there’s an Air Fryer of every size to fit your needs. If you mostly cook for one or two people, you can get away with 2 to 3 quart sized Air Fryers. If you usually cook for a family of 3-5, consider 5 to 6 quart ones. But generally, air fryers between 3 to 5 quarts are versatile enough for most types and quantities of cooking.
9) They make for a great gift
What a perfect gift for the budding home chef?! I got ours for Zoe for Christmas. But whether its for a birthday, wedding registry, or any other special occasion, an Air Fryer makes for an ideal long-lasting and useful present.
10) They let you join the Air Fryer community
With niche Air Fryer blogs to Air Fryer recipe books, buying one of these lets you drastically expand your culinary repertoire and connect with a whole new community of home chefs.
Other Air Fryer Resources
Woohoo! This GradFood article was featured on Rent.com with their article “13 Air Fryer Tips That Will Change Your Cooking Routine This Year”. Check it out here for even more tips and tricks with Air Fryers!
Which Air Fryer Should I Buy?
With so many Air Fryer products on the market, it can be overwhelming to have to choose one. That being said, don’t sweat it! We’ve already done all the work and research for you and compiled our Top 7 Air Fryers, categorized based on your specific culinary needs and budget. And no need to worry about quality, we’ve only selected Air Fryers with at least 4.5/5 stars on Amazon based on hundreds to thousands of reviews.
Most Versatile Air Fryer
With a 5.8 quart capacity, an easy-to use digital interface, and 11 One-Touch Presets, this Air Fryer can cook just about anything you can think of and is one of the easiest to use.
Best Family-Sized Air Fryer
With a whopping 8.5 quart capacity, this Air Fryer is probably the best large-capacity one on the market right now, suiting your needs for feeding your family and friends with large-batch meals.
Best Compact, Budget-Friendly Air Fryer
While this Air Fryer might not have all the bells and whistles of others listed here, it still gets the job done without breaking your wallet. And with a 2 quart capacity, this air fryer certainly won’t take up much counter space, making it perfect for any small kitchen, dorm, office, RV trip, etc.
Best Rotisserie-Style Air Fryer
This device works great as an Air Fryer (using the unique tumbler) and also has a rotating rotisserie-style option if you feel like making your own homemade rotisserie chicken or fresh gyro meat.
Best Air Fryer/Oven Combo
Ninja is known for making some of the best Air Fryers on the market. This unique spacious flat design allows you cook large meals that wouldn’t be feasible with the traditional bucket handle design. In fact, it can fit a 13″ pizza or 9 slices of toast.
Best Air Fryer/Slow Cooker Combo
The fact that Ninja is the only company to appear twice on our Ultimate Air Fryer Guide list attests to its high quality. This particular product has a large 6.5 quart capacity, and lets you choose between air frying, slow cooking, and pressure cooking.
Most Innovative Design
Philips is another big name in the Air Fryer Market, and this product, with a sleek black finish and unique technology make it the best designed in our opinion. Specifically, its TurboStar design causes air to efficiently circulate, allowing for even heat distribution throughout, letting you crowd the basket more food than you could with other products.
Air Fryer Accessories
Once you’ve picked out your perfect Air Fryer, it’s time to think about cooking accessories to compliment your brand new machine. Below are a few essential accessories we use with our Air Fryer and recommend for you.
Remember that food that comes out of the air fryer is HOT! Place it on these cooling racks before handling
No need to use much oil with your air fryer. We found that a few spritzes of oil from these sprayers is just perfect!
Especially when using meat in an air fryer, you should use a thermometer like this one to check for doneness.
You should first try our original recipes below, but also consider getting a high-quality air fryer cookbook like this one!
Our Original Air Fryer Recipes
At last, what you’ve been waiting for in this Ultimate Air Fryer Guide! After talking about how much we enjoy cooking with our Air Fryer, here is a selection of our favorite recipes using it.
Ok that’s it folks, hope you enjoyed reading our Ultimate Guide to Air Fryers. Let us know what you think, especially if you try out any of our recipes! And remember that sharing is caring– if you liked this article, feel free to share on social media!