If you enjoy eating moist brownies or crispy fries, an air fryer is an equipment you must have in your kitchen. The benefits of an air fryer are numerous. Your food is cooked quickly and with less effort in an air fryer, and cleanup is super easy.
You could be wondering if it's worth the hype or if everything doesn't go as expected. Like you, I was initially skeptical of air fryers, but I eventually decided to buy one for myself, and now I'm going to share with you both their benefits and drawbacks. Before purchasing one for yourself, there are a few things you should think about. Cost, size, capacity, design, usability, electricity use, brand, etc.
Overall the experience of using an air fryer has been good for me. I cook almost everything in my air fryer, and it's never let me down. However, if you have a small family of 4 air fryers from 4-6 quart is suitable. You should definitely check out this blog if you want a low-wattage air fryer. To the extent that you don't pick the worst model, buying an air fryer won't let you down, I can tell you.
What is an air fryer and how does it work?
An air fryer is a countertop cooking appliance. This new kitchen device cooks meals with little or no oil at all.
They cook food by circulating hot air around the food. Without even using any oil, it creates that crispy texture on the food.
What are the benefits of an air fryer?
There are numerous benefits of using an air fryer.
Here's the list of 10 benefits of an air fryer:
Healthy Cooking:
The main advantage of purchasing an air fryer is that it makes food more healthily. little or no oil is needed to cook the food to perfection. However, you can spray additional oil on some items, like homemade fries or breaded chicken, to get a crispier outcome. Nevertheless, adding oil spray is optional and up to personal opinion.
On the other hand, if you're cooking items with a lot of fat most of the fat is drained and gathered on the tray while cooking in an air fryer. While deep-frying involves cooking the meal in the fat itself, which makes the food even more unhealthy. In this case, cooking in an air fryer reduces the number of calories and fat we consume.
Preserves Nutrients of Food:
The majority of cooking techniques, such as boiling, grilling, or deep-frying, remove certain nutrients from the food as they are prepared. The air fryer is helpful in such circumstances.
As an air fryer uses convection heating, hot air is circulated around the food as it cooks. As a result, the majority of the vital elements in the meat or vegetables you cook in an air fryer are preserved. Therefore, using an air fryer to cook is more beneficial.
Crispy and Crunchy Food:
An air fryer's ability to cook food more crisply and crunchy than other appliances is one of its key features. The main benefit of air frying is that it produces food that is crispier than oil frying.
Everything from fresh to frozen food can be cooked in an air fryer. With a crispy final result, you can quickly cook fresh or frozen french fries and chicken wings. because an air fryer uses a convection cooking process, which evenly distributes hot air across the food's surface. resulting in a dish that is crispier and crunchier.
Easy and Safe to Use:
We cannot deny the fact that using an air fryer is quite simple and safe. If you're a beginner at cooking, having an air fryer is one of its many advantages. Because air fryers are self-contained appliances, you don't need to watch them constantly. Simply place your favorite food, and it will be ready in a short time.
Additionally, using an air fryer is safer because you won't have to worry about burns or hot splashes.
Cooks Faster than Ovens:
Many of us, including me, prefer to eat home-cooked meals but lack the time to do so and rather go for fast food and takeaways. In these circumstances, an air fryer comes in handy and helps you save time by cooking food quickly. This can be considered one of the important benefits of an air fryer.
The food cooks more quickly in the air fryer because it heats up quickly and uses convection heating. This explains why an air fryer cooks food more quickly than any other type of oven.
Versatile:
The air fryer's versatility is insane, not only it cooks crispy fries or chicken tenders. You can roast a whole chicken in it, and delicious desserts can be made in an air fryer within a fraction of the time.
Plus, it is great for cooking frozen food and store-bought food.
Reheat Food Easily:
The air fryer not only cooks frozen food, fries, chicken, or delicious desserts. It is equally amazing in reheating the leftover food for the next day.
Reheating leftover chicken or reheating pizzas has never been easy. But with an air fryer, it’s really easy and quick.
Affordable and Saves Electricity:
There is a huge range of air fryers available in the market. They are from $45-$300. However, choose the best suitable capacity and price while getting an air fryer for your family. I would like to suggest you not go for a cheap model anyway.
An air fryer usually cooks food faster than any other convection oven, so it can save a lot of electricity.
Less Messy:
Deep-fried foods cannot be replaced or compared with any other cooking version. However, while deep-frying the kitchen gets messy, and all the oil splatters everywhere. This is the kind of pain I feel while cleaning my kitchen after deep-frying.
With an air fryer, we don’t have to think about our messy kitchen with oil splatters. The excess oil is collected underneath the basket which can be easily removed after cooking.
Easy to Clean:
As we all hate cleaning as much as we love cooking. But one of the benefits of an air fryer includes easy cleaning. As much as it is easy to cook in an air fryer, cleaning an air fryer is easier. Plus most of the air fryers are dishwasher safe so they are very easy to clean.
What are the best food to cook in an air fryer?
The air fryer is an all-rounder when it comes to cooking food. You can cook veggies like zucchini, sweet potatoes, Brussels sprouts, mushrooms, cauliflower, broccoli, pumpkin seeds, etc. They all turn out very delicious when cooked in an air fryer.
You can also make main dishes in an air fryer like whole chicken, meatballs, Meatloaf, pork belly, lamb chops, chicken wings, chicken drumsticks, etc. Not only veggies and protein you can also make dessert in an air fryer. These are the benefits of an air fryer that makes it worth buying one for yourself.
What oil is best for the air fryer?
You can find various types of oil in the market. However, you should always know that each oil has a different smoking point. So, while choosing the oil to use in an air fryer, you should ensure the temperature of the recipe. This will help you to analyze the smoking point of the oil to use for a particular recipe giving you the best result.
For more information about the best oil for air fryers, I have a full detailed article written on this topic. You can check it out.
Are air-fried foods better for you?
In my opinion yes, air-fried foods are better. Because you cook food in less than 80-90% less oil in an air fryer compared to deep-frying. This helps in cutting down the calories as well. This way air-fried foods are better for you and this is one of the benefits of an air fryer.
If you’ve tried this recipe, please let me know how it turned out in the comments below.
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