Air Fryer is an excellent kitchen appliance that can cook oil-less, crispy, and crunchy food items like vegetable cutlets, french fries, chicken nuggets, and deep-fried appetisers like samosa, vada, and kachoris, you can cook all these items using very less oil.
It is also used for reheating food items. Moreover, it is also used for baking cake, doughnuts, and bread along with deep-fried dishes.
Let us know some more facts about Air Fryer. So, let’s began.
What Does an Air Fryer Really Do
An air fryer is used for cooking different dishes using heat and dry hot air. It does not fry food, rather it combines heating elements and a powerful fan for circulating hot air which is the same as a convection oven. There are couple of health benefit of using Air Fryer.
The basket in the air fryer has tiny holes which allow the circulated heat to reach the food also from the bottom and cooks uniformly. The cooked food needs to be rotated or shaken to ensure browning and crispness.
It cooks as browned and crispy on the outside by staying moist and tender inside. It takes less time, uses minimal oil to cook, and makes less of a mess.
A few latest air fryers have a timer feature which reminds the user to shake the food. Moreover, the paddle-type air fryers can work fully automatic.
In this way, the air fryer cooks healthy food without losing its nutrients and taste. It is featured with free tools like oven to-air fryer converter which gives the perfect temperature and time for oven recipes.
Can I Put an Air Fryer on The Countertop
Yes, air fryers can be used on countertops by following some conditions. If you are using an air fryer occasionally, then you can place the air fryer on the countertop and use it. Because, if you use the countertop on the daily basis, it may damage the surface of the countertop. When the air fryer is cooking, it drips the oil down and makes the surface greasy.
Moreover, the countertop surface is also an important aspect to place directly on the kitchen counter. If the countertop is manufactured with porous stone, it absorbs the grease and strains your countertop and due to this grease, it may lose the colour and shine of the countertop surface. Due to the heat produced by the air fryer during cooking, the hard stones and concrete surfaces can withstand heat while the wood and laminates cannot. The stainless steel surface also can withstand heat but not over time.
Placing the air fryer on the stone surface or keep down the parchment paper down the air fryer is safe to use the air fryer on the countertop. Hence, using the air fryer on the stone countertops like marble, granite, or quartzite surfaces can withstand the temperature ranges easily.
Moreover, very high temperatures from air fryers may affect the granite surfaces, whereas marble and quartzite can withstand. After the use of the air fryer on the stone counter, it will be very hot and then recommended not to spray water or spray disinfectant on the counter until it cools down to avoid damage.
What Are the Best Foods to Cook in An Air Fryer
We can cook several dishes in an air fryer. Some of the best foods are bacon, roast chicken, tofu, burgers and patties, french fries, single-serve desserts, frozen chicken goujons, crispy bacon, crispy roast potatoes, doughnuts, and homemade chips.
How Long Does It Take to Preheat an Air Fryer
Preheating air fryers depends on two major things. One is your cooking temperature and the other is the size of the air fryer. The small-size air fryer needs lesser time to preheat and the larger basket needs higher time. Let us know the approximate time for preheating the air fryer based on the temperature.
- If the temperature is 3000 and below, then the air fryer needs to preheat for 2-3 minutes.
- If the temperature is 3000-3500, then it needs to preheat for 3-4 minutes.
- If the temperature is 3500-4000, then it needs to preheat for 5-6 minutes.
What Is the Disadvantage of An Air Fryer
Along with pros, there are a few cons to an air fryer. Among them, the major disadvantage of an air fryer is limited capacity. An air fryer can serve just one to four members at a time.
It cannot be suitable for cooking large quantities for larger families or parties because the cooking basket is limited in size.
Also, using the air fryer without any experience may cause some problems like burning food due to the selection of high temperatures than required.
In addition to that, the food cooked in an air fryer may dry out due to failing of watching your meal carefully. Moreover, a few foods like battered foods, cheese, muffins, hamburgers, popcorn, toast, and baby spinach are not well cooked in an air fryer.
Some of the other cons include being tough to clean, less affordable, requiring learning, noise, different taste, and bulky.
Can I Use My Air Fryer to Reheat Food
Yes, you can use the air fryer to reheat the food. Reheating the food is very easy and much better than microwaving. Because reheating foods in an air fryer never gets soggy or bland whereas the foods reheated in a microwave cause soggy.
Whether the food is restaurant leftovers or an extra batch from last night’s dinner, it will turn perfectly cooked and flavorful when reheated in an air fryer.
Can You Put Glass in An Air Fryer
You can use glass cookware in the air fryer by ensuring it is oven safe. Do not place the glass bowl when it is cold because it may cause thermal stress and shatter the pyrex. For added safety, pre-heat the glass bowl with mild hot water before using it in the air fryer. Pyrex bowls are fabricated from borosilicate glass which is oven-safe & freezer safe labelled but not totally thermal shockproof.
As we know air fryer heats very faster compared to an oven, and the cookware also gets heated faster which is a risk to the cookware. The fast changes in temperature are vulnerable to glass and may shatter in a few cases. By following a few conditions, we can avoid the cause of glass breaking.
- Do not change the temperature suddenly.
- Do not place the freezer food directly in the air fryer.
- Always use oven-safe or tempered glass bowls which can withstand a higher temperature and avoid the normal drinking glasses and serving glass bowls.
- Maintain the limited temperature such as oven-safe glass bowls that operates under 350 F to 450 F.
However, heating food in glass containers has advantages like they are non-toxic, easy to clean, retain heat longer and have a transparent surface. Besides, it has disadvantages like the glass cookware does not allow air to flow freely around the food. This makes cooking the food for a long time and results in the food not being crispy.
Can You Air Fry a Small Frozen Pizza
Air-fried frozen pizza is done in the air fryer very faster and ends with a crispy crust. There are many kinds of pizzas. First of all, decide the thickness of the crust, and the types of toppings. Adjust the cooking times according to those factors. Depending on the type of pizza, the cooking time depends. Let us learn the cooking process of air fryer frozen pizza.
- First, preheat the air fryer to 400 degrees temperature.
- Place the frozen pizza in the air fryer and cook for a few minutes (approximately 6-8 minutes) until the pizza is cooked to desired crispness and the cheese has melted.
- Spraying oil lightly on the top of the pizza prevents burning the top until the crust cooks.
- Remove the pizza and enjoy the flavour.
By using the parchment round paper under the frozen pizza, it causes a softer crust. It is better to prepare without this paper which gives a crispy crust. If you use a silicone basket air fryer, you should start the temperature at 380 degrees and need to cook for a few minutes longer. Otherwise, the basket set the food up slightly higher and makes the cheese a bit more brownish.
Can I Wrap the Chicken in Foil in The Air Fryer
You can wrap the chicken in foil. Cooking the meat and vegetables together in a foil pack gives the best results as the food stays moist and flavorful. This process is very simple and can do faster. You can use the aluminium foil without covering the critical parts of the appliance to avoid uneven cooking or damage. You just need to cover the bottom of the basket or wrap the food that needs to transport.
You can bake any type of chicken in foil, not only boneless, skinless chicken breasts. These steamed chicken breasts keep their moisture and tenderness by cooking faster along with vegetables or starches. Use high temperature, a low baking temperature, and foil to make the chicken breasts juicy and perfectly cooked.
To prevent sticking food to aluminium foil, place the shiny side down facing the food and the dull side up when the aluminium foil is used to wrap or cover food. Cooking using an aluminium foil patch, the air fryer took nearly 20 minutes to cook and without this foil, it cooks in less than 10 minutes. Baking the chicken at 4250 F is the ideal temperature. Take care of the food in the oven having the temperature only between 3500 to 4000 F to avoid overcooking.
Is An Air Fryer Better Than a Microwave
Yes, an air fryer is the best appliance compared to a microwave. Because the air fryer can cook the dishes without any trace of oil and no loss of nutrients. As we already know, using less or no oil in cooking a meal is highly good for health. In addition to that, it helps in killing various pathogens that are present in food.
Moreover, as the air fryer is small in size and compact, it needs less space in your kitchen. But the microwave oven takes up a lot of space and the maintenance is also difficult.
However, among all these advantages, it has a major limitation in that it is not meant for cooking huge quantities. Anyway, an air fryer is best for reducing calorie intake and providing quality food whereas a microwave is best for multipurpose uses in day-to-day cooking.
Conclusion
However, we learn a few things about the air fryer and its uses. We can cook various dishes in the air fryer using less oil, in less time and that keeps you more healthy. The air fryer does not fry, it just generates the hot air to cook the food. So, the food cooked in this baked crispy & browned outside and stayed moist and tender inside.