AirFrydays: Are you still in love with your air fryer?

Three years, three air fryers and, in my case, no microwave oven, but also no big old conventional oven. That stayed behind in Cradock when we moved to Cape Town last December. There was in fact a fourth air fryer, a tiny one that my late sister gave me, but that was put to use in one of The Foodie’s Wife’s guest house units in the Karoo.

Our much smaller big city kitchen (I miss my old Karoo kitchen with the eight-seater table in the middle of it) has no oven and we decided not to install one in Cape Town. Instead, we bought that third air fryer, though it’s more of a smallish countertop oven, complete with glass door, racks, a rotisserie and a nifty, useful drip tray that pulls out in a jiffy and is easily cleaned.

Oh, about that rotisserie with its spit rod and brackets for supposedly securing a chicken on it: I have been less enamoured of that countertop oven than I had expected to be. The rotisserie struggles to hold the weight of an average chicken, so I roast it on an oven rack instead.

Excellent toasties

The machine turns out excellent toasted sandwiches, surprisingly so, and also produces decent toast. Before I invested in a new toaster, I used it for that purpose often. But I still prefer that pop-up moment of an old-fashioned toaster. I did have some early successes with the large Kenwood machine, as I described in this piece.

My first air fryer came with us, as did the second. The first is an Instant Vortex 5.7 litre one with a fairly large single drawer/basket, and it works as well now as it did when I first acquired it about four years ago. The second, a twin-drawer Kenwood, is equally good. Both clean easily (that’s the one complaint about air fryers that I don’t understand, I have no problem cleaning any of the three. You just wash it like you do a pot or any other pan, dry, and shove it back in the machine).

Just last night, I cooked chips in one drawer of the older Kenwood. And, yes, it’s true that the best thing to cook in an air fryer is potatoes of any kind except mashed or fondant. I’ve done thick, long chips, quartered potatoes, shoestring chips, halved baby potatoes, hasselbacks, roasties, the works. I don’t time them any more – there’s no need. All you need to know is to:

• Use just enough oil to coat the potatoes.
• Cook them at a moderate temperature (say 160°C) at first, then switch it up to 200°C to finish them off and turn them golden and crispy. When they are in this state is when they’re done.
• To achieve that, open the drawer every few minutes so that you can see when they’re just right, and of course test one. Salt them quickly, and tuck in.

The second best thing to cook in an air fryer – in fact, it’s virtually a tie with potatoes – is chicken. Not one of those scallopine dishes, obviously, but I have never cooked better golden, crunchy chicken thighs in any other vessel than an air fryer. And that applies to all three of my machines.

It takes about 30 minutes to roast or bake chicken thighs (or legs) in an air fryer, though wings may take about five minutes less time.

As for that whole bird, I have had many successes when roasting a fowl in any of my three machines. The only pity is that rotisserie in the larger (25-litre) machine, which is also a Kenwood by the way. I chose the brand precisely because I was so happy with the twin-drawer by the same manufacturer, but seriously, Kenwood, that rotisserie is an embarrassment.

But my roast chickens, done without the use of that rotisserie, have turned out well. I have also roasted beef, lamb and pork belly in an air fryer, with happy success.

The third most effective style of dish I cook in one of these machines is a bake. That could be a cottage or shepherd’s pie, lasagne, a traditional English fish pie (such as this hake one with mashed potato topping), and pretty much anything that you’ve topped with cheese and want to brown off. As long as there isn’t a wet, sloppy mixture underneath it of course. Air fryers are not for anything stew-like.

For the first three months of living in our new home, the gas hob, which we had inherited on moving in, was not yet connected to gas. Then, in mid March, we had professionals come in to fit and connect the gas properly and safely. This was a priority for me – I’d rather pay more for the best possible gas installation than take any risks with it.

And since then, I’ve cooked many more dishes on the stove top than in any of the air fryers. Does this mean much if anything at all? I think it means that I am still attached to the traditional ways of cooking many things.

A traditional scallopine dish – such as florentine chicken – has to be cooked in a large frying pan on the hob, for example. And although I can grill bacon in an air fryer, and have done a few times, I just enjoy that sizzle in a pan on the stove top, even if there is more fat left over in the process.

Steak in a skillet or frying pan is the only way to go and, although it’s possible to cook one in an air fryer, it comes with eye-popping risks. It was cooking steaks too close to the upper element – a foolhardy choice on my part, I readily admit – that caused that bigger, newer air fryer to (almost) catch fire at one point, The machine itself did not burn, thanks to my swift action of opening the door, pulling the plug out and literally blowing out the burning steak with my own breath.

On balance, I’m happy with the three machines, and I will rank them in order of preference: The twin-drawer Kenwood, the Instant Vortex, and in third place that Kenwood countertop oven with its rotisserie that drops the chicken to the floor, every time. Well, I stopped using it after the third attempt and now it sits behind the machine, ignored and unloved.

No eggs please

Just please, don’t cook your eggs in an air fryer. As we all know by now, despite being called air fryers they do not in fact fry anything, especially not in air. They are just little ovens, quite nifty, and once you know how to use them – including giving them some space on all sides when in use to encourage that hot air flow inside – my experience to date suggests you’ll get a pretty long life of use out of one.

I have seen air fryers that look rather tatty after frequent use, but mine show no signs of wear and tear. Maybe I’m lucky, maybe my simple care of them (washing in soapy water, using a sponge) is all they need to stay clean.

Where to from here in my strange city kitchen? Maybe I’ll turf out that bigger Kenwood and have an old-fashioned oven installed. Hmmm. Maybe.

PS: If anyone has use for a rotisserie spit rod and forks – I dunno, maybe to prop up a herb in your kitchen garden – give me a shout. DM