If this belongs somewhere else in the forum, please move it. We have never had or used an Air Fryer, but am wondering about it. All we've ever used to make French Fries was a Deep Fryer. However, a friend of ours told us that an Air Fryer is much more healthy for cooking. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
We had a small air fryer and Bobby used it for cooking things in. I do not remember if he made potatoes in it or not, we seldom make French fries or even eat them if we go out to eat. Then, I found an Emerille toaster oven that is also an air fryer, and we use that ALL of the time. Walmart had it on sale half price, so it was around $50-60 when I bought it. I use it without the air fryer function when I am baking something, and we use it with the fan on if we are roasting a chicken or making baked potatoes or baked squash, and it comes out wonderful. If you are only going to use it for making a small batch of fried potatoes, then one of the small ones would probably work fine; but if you want one that is versatile, I definitely recommend getting one that is also a toaster oven and maybe rotisserie as well.
We recently got a little air fryer and we now use it quite often. It is useful since there are only two of us now. When we had a family of eight living here, I don't think it would be used much. As far as health goes, you do use less fat but most recipes do coat the food to be fried with oil to prevent drying. I don't think the air-fried food is quite as good as deep fried, but it certainly easier and not as messy.
I used a deep fryer for years but we got a Kalorik deep fryer / cooker which we firstly used in place of our regular oven but then tried it for deep frying and found it much quicker and easier for most oven cooking or oil based deep fryer. After a bit of playing around we have found the results just as good as deep frying, generally quicker and surprisingly easy on hydro. Personally I would highly recommend getting the big unit that does it all and not just the fryer, my daughter got the little unit but it is not nearly as usefully!
We bought us an Oster Toaster-Oven for Christmas last year. Haven't used it much, but it's on our counter. Lately, I sort of lost the energy (?) to cook at home and we've been going out for dinner quite often. We go out for breakfast every Saturday AM. If we have any leftovers, we will have them on Sunday AM. If not, we will go out for breakfast on Sunday as well.
Well, should have talked to my wife before doing this thread. We have decided to keep the deep fryer we have, because we only cook a couple of things in it, like fries or frozen shrimp. But, thanks for the info. Definitely may get one later, but for now, the deep fryer will do.
@Cody Fousnaugh I bought an air fryer. I may have used it 2-3 times to make onion rings. The results were disappointing and I've not used it since. One video extolled their virtue for making really good chicken. I've not tried making chicken yet. I fear this is destined for Goodwill. My Breville toaster oven has an air fryer feature, but it is only for non-greasy stuff like making potato bites out of riced potatoes. The baskets are in the open oven cavity, so grease (like from chicken wings) would drip down onto the bottom heating elements and onto the floor of the oven. I use it to reheat stuff, and put a baking sheet on a rack below the food to catch the grease. I had a Fry Daddy once, but dealing with the grease was a pain in the butt. And if you fry anything but unbreaded/unseasoned French fries ("naked veggies," as the instructions say), the saved grease goes rancid real quick.
We use ours most often for fresh veggies and they come out fine. We haven't used our deep fryer for decades now, but I still have it stashed in the garage.
The deep fryer we have, we bought in November of 2021. Used it again last night to make some French Fries, but I don't think our stomachs can handle the veggie oil anymore that cooks the fries. And, on top of that, the deep fryer is getting pretty messed up with dried-on oil. After I emptied out the oil this AM, I looked at the fryer and said "yuk!". My wife said the same thing. So, we will be buying, from Best Buy, an Air Fryer. A Bella Digital Air Fryer for $50. We simply can't handle the amount of veggie oil is used in the deep fryer to cook fries.
I make french fries once in a blue moon, but when I do I just use vegetable oil in a deep frying pan on the stove. I can put the used oil in a container to use again or throw it out, and the pan goes in the dishwasher. I also have an air fryer but calling the food from it "fried" is a real stretch. It is convection baking.
Well, tried the Air Fryer today to make some French Fries. There was basically no taste to the fries, so we are returning it tomorrow. As soon as I tasted a few fries, I went "Yuk, no taste". IOW, the fries just didn't taste the way we thought they would. Because the Deep Fryer we have was bought in 2021, and it's been used quite a bit for making French Fries, we will buy a new one from Amazon. The same Deep Fryer.
It works better (flavor and texture) if you spray them with oil. It's sort of a compromise. The problem I had with my Fry Daddy was storing the oil...and the messy grease down the sides. It looked like a '64 Falcon I had.