Do Air Fryers Work?

Do air fryers work?  You’ve seen the latest rave in frying, it’s called air frying.  Just what is air frying and do air fryers work…without oil?  Can they really “fry” a potato chip? As someone who loves potato chips and french fries, I just had to know.

Prices of air fryers have come down.  I was surprised to find one at my local Walmart for $79.  Still a little more than I’d like to pay, considering we already have a Daddy Fryer at home, but the question kept popping up in my head, “do air fryers work?” 

If you’re not familiar with air fryers, they work much like an oven but use air to flow all around your food to cook it evenly.  You can actually use the air fryer to fry, grill and roast your food with little to no amount of oil.

My husband always wanted a fryer at home.  For 18 years of our marriage, I resisted, knowing we didn’t need the extra calories and fat usually reserved just for restaurants.  I finally succumbed and we bought a Cool Daddy Fryer.

We had so much fun with the fryer, making french fries, chips, and our favorite…donuts!  But guess what? No one wanted to clean up afterwards and the kitchen smelled like a fast food joint.  We had a whole pan full of used oil, and never did find the proper way to dispose of it.  We typically let it cool, poured it into a kitchen garbage bag, and threw it away.  Talk about a waste!

And speaking of “waist,” that’s exactly what happened with our culinary delights, they went straight to our waist!  As much fun as we had making and eating everything, healthwise, I knew I wasn’t serving my family well with the extra fat.

I had always been curious about air fryers since I found out about them a couple of years ago, but I couldn’t help but wonder, do air fryers work?

So, Do Air Fryers Work?

The answer is yes, and their flexibility in ways you can cook food is very appealing.  But first, let me address the most burning question…

Using the Mediterranean Chicken Nuggets recipe from the Farberware Air Fryer cookbook, we pureed our own chicken nuggets and topped them with gluten-free crumbs.  Do air fryers work?  We were about to find out!

Does the food actually get crispy?

Yes, the food gets crispy and you can continue to cook it to get it even crisper.  We’ve made homemade fries and potato chips…and just like when we make them with the regular fryer, they disappear fast in our family.  

As you can see here, the food does indeed get crispy.  Our Mediterranean Chicken nuggets were crunchy and crispy, but not super crispy.

So now the second question…

Do fries and chips get as crispy as with a normal fryer?

No.  Although they are crispy, they do not get as crunchy as a normal fryer, nor as greasy tasting.  They have a lighter taste – still satisfying, but you don’t get that weighed-down greasy feeling you get by eating chips and fries from a normal fryer.

Didn’t these fries turn our beautiful?  These were made with the Fried Curry Potato Wedges, found in the Farberware Air Fryer cookbook.  They were delicious!  They were both crispy and meaty.

Do you add oil to chips and fries in an air fryer?

This is a question I had, but by reading the box at the store, I could not tell.  The answer is yes…and no.  You drizzle up to a tablespoon of oil over homemade potato chips and fries before you cook them.  Halfway through the cooking period, you take the basket out and shake it, and return it to finish cooking.

If you’re using frozen french fries from the store, you do not need to add oil.

Does it take longer to air fry over oil fry?

It depends how you look at it.  It does take longer to cook fries in the air fryer versus in an oil fryer, perhaps 2-3 times longer.  But, you don’t need to preheat the oil, which takes 5-8 minutes with an oil fryer.  You also don’t need to wait for the oil cool down before you can dispose of it, as you do with an oil fryer.

Of course, if you’re hungry, yes, you will have to wait a little longer for your air fried food.

Can kids safely operate the air fryer?

Yes! Unlike oil fryers that can spurt out oil, causing oil burns, air frying is self-contained.  You’d be surprised how many burns and how many fires are caused each year due to deep frying.

But with air fryers, the risk is deeply mitigated, as the air fryer is self-contained.  Just pull out the basket, put your fries in, drizzle some oil, put the basket back in, and set the temperature and timer.  For crispier fries, it is advised that you pull the basket and shake it and then put it back in midway through the cooking time.

Although there is some risk of burning when you shake the fries, there is no oil burn risk.  As the outside housing of the air fryer is cool to the touch, kids ages 12 and up should have no issues operating the air fryer without parent supervision.

My ten-year-old son, who loves to cook, uses our air fryer to make homemade potato chips and fries and loves being able to operate it by himself…and we love eating his chips and fries!

What else can you make with an air fryer?

Chicken!  Steaks!  Whatever you would normally make in an oven…and yes, even vegetables, cakes, cupcakes, churros, and brownies!  In fact, the Farberware cookbook even has recipes for these things.

I tried putting two fresh chicken breasts in the air fryer and brushed on some oil on both sides.  I cooked them for about 40 minutes at 250 degrees and they turned out beautifully.  Not crisped, but super tender and juicy on the inside…and I didn’t have to heat up the kitchen with our oven!

Features:

A Mom’s Perspective

Kitchen appliances are one of my favorite things to test because they stretch my imagination to what’s possible and broadens my arsenal of meal preparation tools.

Some of my favorite appliances found at Walmart over the past several years were the inexpensive electric carving knife, the Mr. Coffee Iced Tea Maker that I use every week, the Tiger rice cooker (we love rice!), the Vegetti Pro, and the crockpot we discovered that’s turning heads!

Our family has been enjoying our Farberware Air Fryer.  So, in answering the question, do air fryers work?  We found that they do not get our homemade fries as crunchy as a fryer would, but they come pretty close, are not as fatty, and don’t fill the house up with a fried smell.  And because it uses a LOT less oil, it’s healthier.

I also love the fact that I can use the air fryer as an oven.  Instead of heating up the kitchen with our regular oven (which is rough in Southern California’s hot summer season), I can heat up the air fryer to cook and crisp my meats and veggies.

Multi-functional kitchen appliances that produce tasty healthy food gets an “A” in my book.  How about you, have you used an air fryer yet?