I have one and I thought I was going to love it, but I'm actually relatively ambivalent about it. I find it fussy and it needs watching and messing with. The only thing I've made so far that was actually pretty good was "fried" chicken. I don't see that fries are much different than done in the oven on a sheet pan, the fish overcooked far too quickly and beet chips became little pieces of charcoal on the bottom of the fryer as they fell through the slots in the basket.

So, I'm still experimenting but I find it sits on the shelf more and more...

Annie

An air fryer is really a high speed convection oven.

I don't have one of my own and don't often fry, but when I do, I want it to be fried in oil. Same as Annie, I find I get just as good results in my good convection oven, if I want oven crisped, as the air fried I've encountered.

YMMV.

You didn't say what you wanted to use it for and what kind of kitchen equipment you already have. The first air fryers came out of Europe, where people live in tiny flats that may only have a hotplate. As one guy said, you can fry the schnitzel on the hob, and make the chips in the air fryer, and they're both hot and ready at the same time. Lots of people found other ovenish kinds of tasks to do in them when they removed the french fry stirrer. In a similar circumstance, it's marvelous, right? Especially if you make french fries often. There are also combo units that are like toaster ovens with an air fry feature, and one that's like an Instant Pot (i.e., "multicooker") with an air fry feature, but I don't know anything about how good they are or how they compare in a fully fitted kitchen.

I have one like this

https://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/B07N48BWQT/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I was worried about buying an elephant, but I use it several times a week. It has 3 open racks, a non stick sheet, a tumbling basket for things like frozen fries, a rotisserie and a thing for grilling brochettes.

It makes the best home made oven chips I've ever eaten.....yotam ottolenghi has a recipe.....cut your potatoes into chips (fries) and boil them for a few minutes. Toss in a little oil and bake. 5 minutes before the end of cooking, heat some olive oil with finely sliced garlic. When the garlic is golden, pour the oil and garlic over the chips and cook for 5 minutes more. When out of the oven, sprinkle with feta cheese and oregano. This kind of thing is much better in the machine. It's main advantage is economy of electricity and it's so quick. I love mine but I looked at the ones with a "drawer" and didn't fancy that.

The only items that actually come out resembling anything "fried" in an air fryer are things that have so much fat in the product you would be better off and healthier deep frying correctly. The correct term should be hot air baking.

We have a smallish 3 qt. air fryer and we use it a few times a week. It saves a lot of electricity over using an oven and it doesn't heat up the kitchen.

We've use it for fries, tots, onion rings, chicken wings, chicken strips, fried shrimp and fish fillets, baked potatoes, frozen meatballs, egg rolls, crab rangoon, reheating pizza and other leftovers, etc.

Ours is a Phillips with analog controls.

Bacon in the air fryer is the best! It comes out better than in the oven. I do use mine about twice a week. It gets really hot here and it doesn't heat up the kitchen.

The air fryer (AF) and Instant Pot (IP) changed me back to a happy cooker. I am a bit disabled and cannot stand long on my feet without my back beginning to severely cramp; therefore, standing over the stove to cook had become torture. I cook nearly everything in the IP or AF. The shortened cook time/not having to stand over attributes of the two have changed my life for the better. Such game/life changers for me. Very happy with them.

I think it depends on how you want/plan to use it. I've not used the style that has a drawer, so I know nothing about how they work. This is the one I have, and I absolutely love, LOVE it! ! ! Farberware Air Fryer. Probably the number of people you are cooking for would also make a difference. It's just me here, but I think this one would be fine for two people, maybe more, as well. I can easily 'fry' 4 good sized chicken quarters at a time. Actually, they come out more like rotisserie chicken than fried, but that's fine with me. The skin will be crispy and the meat juicy and delicious. I don't think food can be batter fried in them, it would drip and make a big mess. I haven't tried anything breaded, but I think the owner's manual gives instructions for it.

I use mine almost daily. I use it for chicken, pork chops, fish, bratwurst and other sausages, french fries, oven fries, oven roasted vegetables of all kinds, toast. Probably more that I'm not thinking of right now.

Occasionally I splurge on a "Meal Simple" that our HEB has, a one serving entree with sides in an aluminum tray, meant to be cooked in the oven. I absolutely hated using my oven, heating up the kitchen, first preheating, then the 20 or so minutes for cooking for one little meal. Now I use the air fryer. No preheating, 12 minutes instead of 20. Doesn't heat up the kitchen and bound to be a lot less electricity used.

Yes, I love my air fryer!

Rusty

Thanks for all your feedback, I appreciate it. I've heard so many things about them that I'm exploring them. I don't really have anything in mind - but what everyone has posted sounds delicious.

I have two air fryers. The Gourmia GAF635 basket type purchased on sale at Kohl's and the Instant Pot Vortex Plus oven type with racks purchased at Macy's on sale. Ordered online and delivered to my door with no shipping fees.

I have a Farberware air fryer. I love it, I mostly use it for french fries, onion rings or any pre-breaded item. The fries taste the very best with not more than

a squirt of oil

Gadget Guy DH thought we needed one when they first come out 3-4-5 yrs ago. He researched, bought a Phillips Xlarge. We cook salmon, steak, pork chops, chicken thighs and wings. We cook Lots of our meats in the AF.... Love those meats from AF. I think it is a pain to wash, but DH cleans it up most of the time. If it crashed tomorrow he would have another ordered by bed time and that would be okay with me.

We started with a small one with the drawer. It worked for the 2 of us. We ended up upgrading to a Quisinart that has many functions. I'm just going to say that it's the first "toaster oven" that has toasted toast evenly in my life! We use it for almost all of our oven functions!

Cheese scones out of the air fryer.

Your scones look lovely, Islay. Would you mind sharing your recipe and your method for cooking them in the AF, please. My mouth is watering at the thought of them.

Thank you, Walnut. I use this easy recipe

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/user/896076/recipe/classic-cheese-scones

I put them on the open racks although a couple stuck and I cooked them on bake for 12 minutes. Bake is 175c. Just before eating them, I put some back in and did 5 minutes on 170c and they were lovely and crispy on the outside and light and fluffy inside.

I cooked a rhubarb crumble in it today. When i went to check on it, it looked as if it had been snowing in there. Luckily, not much of the topping flew about!

Thank you so much for the link, Islay. I am still laughing about the snow. Similar to an unexpected experience I had once with the AF. One thing about the AF, once something happens that you don't want to happen, it never happens again - we learn lessons quickly.

I have this one:

It's big and holds a lot, and I've not tried to bake anything in it yet. It kind of reminds me of a device I had a million years ago, a counter top "NuWave Oven".

I made pork chops in the air fryer last night and they were OK, I marinated them in a Korean BBQ type marinade. the instructions said 9 minutes at 370F, but they took closer to 35 minutes. They were large chops, but not thick, so I still haven't figured out timing at all. They also stuck like crazy, in spite of the copious amount of cooking spray I put on the rack.

Annie

"chest pain chicken?"

Yes. That's what other people call it when I tell them about it,so that is what i call it. It has lots of heavy,fatty ingredients. I do not make it very much...but it is one of SOs favorites.

@annie1992: I am surprised your pork took so long. I just recently cooked one in my new IP Vortex Plus oven type and a few weeks ago one in my Gourmia635GAF basket type at 380 for 7 minutess, flipped, and another 7 minutes. Here is a picture of the last one I cooked. It was done to perfection and was very juicy and extremely flavorful. Seasoned it with salt and a buttery steakhouse seasoning.

Annie, I’ve seen some pictures of your air fryer “fried” chicken. It looks like the real deal. What do you do? Are you using a batter? Crumbs? Or just dipping in egg and then in flour? I’m assuming you spray all the pieces with Pam or some sort of oil spray before cooking too.

I have an air fryer but I don’t use it often. I’ve had good luck with roasting potato chunks and heating some leftovers. But I’ve also had some busts. So I’m not ready to say it’s a great addition to my kitchen. I get more use out of the Instant Pot.

shambo, the chicken was marinated in buttermilk then dipped in a mixture of flour, salt, pepper, a little paprika and garlic powder. I sprayed them with a mist of olive oil, I have a oil sprayer that I love, it has a "trigger" instead of those pump Misto types that work twice and then stop. Anyway, spray the chicken, put it into the preheated fryer, bake for about 12-14 minutes depending on the size of the pieces, flip them, spray the other side, cook until they test done. It's not quite as crispy and not quite as moist as real fried chicken but it's close and it's a lot healthier!

Walnutcreek, here's my pork chop after nearly 35 minutes in the fryer. I wasn't a fan, so I just cut a piece off the end for my portion at supper, and I didn't finish it, but that's because the marinade was a bit too spicy for me.

You can see that it wasn't particularly over cooked or too browned, although the fatty edge got nicely crisp and it temped out at just a little over the minimum 145F, in fact I'd have liked it a bit more done.

It was a big chop, not thick, but big, it weighed about 13 ounces and had that large center bone, much like yours. I have to use a thermometer on everything, the fish is overdone, the pork is underdone and the cooking guide they gave me with the machine is so far off it's useless.

Annie

I totally agree with you Annie that the manuals are really worthless. I just experiment, makes notes, and when something is my liking type up everything so I know what to do the next time I want to cook that particular thing. Did you have the AF on "air fryer" or "bake" setting?

Thanks, Annie. I’ll have to give it a try. I’ve been hesitant to make much from scratch with my air fryer for fear of having a big mess to clean up and having to deal with batch-cooking. I’ve done chicken wings tossed with rice or potato flour, and they were very crispy. But when we eat chicken wings, I make a lot. So I had to cook in batches even with my super large Phillips air fryer. After a couple of times, I went back to the oven and a big sheet pan that held everything.

Does your machine have “racks” as opposed to the big basket I’ve got? That kind of air fryer sounds easier to use when doing something that lends itself to cooking on a rack without having to turn the food over. But things like roasted vegetables, including French fries, I think the basket would be superior. You just need to toss with tongs or shake the basket.

Some oven-style air fryers have rotating baskets. How hard is it to set that up? I’m still hoping that I’ll become enamored of my air fryer. Maybe I need both kinds — basket & oven racks — in order to get all the benefits. But I couldn’t possibly fit one more thing on my countertops. The Phillips I’ve got now is humongous as it is. Maybe a combo toaster oven/air fryer is a better choice for me.

I cooked one batch of chops on the "bake" cycle, the other on the "air fryer" cycle, but neither seemed to make a difference. The recipe instructions I used in the last batch said to "bake" at 370F, so I did. However, it said bake 7-9 minutes per side and that was definitely not enough...

Shambo, mine has racks, which is why those beet chips just fell through the racks and charcoaled on the bottom of the basket. The racks are pretty close together, though, so I can do something like sweet potato fries and they won't fall through. They are not significantly different than the ones I roast in the oven, on a sheet pan though. It does have a "drawer" that opens from the front, so I can shake the fries or whatever, but still can turn a piece of chicken if necessary. the other issue with it is that the rack has four little pieces of rubber that "snap" into holes and hold the rack stable and off the bottom of the drawer. But they come right off when the rack is washed or when shaking food, so that's a terrible design, and I'm always picking them out of the sink drain basket where they fall when I wash the rack.

Annie

Mine is like a little oven with 1 solid tray and 3 mesh trays. The cylindrical tumbling basket is easy to fit and remove. With the 2 of us, I just use the trays.

Islay & Annie, thanks for the descriptions. I guess I've got to make more of an effort to use my air fryer. It was expensive and is huge, so I shouldn't let it go to waste.