
10 Reasons You Should Buy An Air Fryer
We know, everyone won’t shut up about air fryers, but the truth is, there’s a reason for that. In fact, there’s more than one reason, there’s 10. Learn why we love air fryers!
1. Easy To Clean
Almost all air fryers allow you to completely detach the basket section and place it in a dishwasher. This sets the air fryer apart from a lot of other kitchen gadgets (like toasted sandwich makers) which can be hard to clean. You can also buy single use or reusable air fryer basket liners that fit inside and help to collect excess fat as your food cooks.
2. More Energy Efficient
When you use a standard oven, you have to heat a large area, even if you’re only cooking something small. With the exception of Christmas or Thanksgiving, it’s unlikely you’re ever using up all the space in your oven at once. However, you still need to heat the entire oven even if you’re just reheating a single piece of pizza. This is inefficient.
Because an air fryer is much smaller, it’s more energy efficient as you need less electricity to preheat it, and less to keep it at a stable temperature. This makes air fryers a great option for 1-2 person households as you do not need to use a large oven just to heat two portions of chicken or two burgers etc.
3. Quicker Than An Oven
Not only does an air fryer cook most things quicker than a standard oven, it also pre-heats in a much shorter time. My COSORI 5.5L air fryer takes only 5 minutes to pre heat to 200c, compared with over 10 minutes for my kitchen’s large BOSCH oven. As a general rule, I’ve found that air fryers cook food in about 80% of the time. So, something that normally takes 10 minutes to cook would take 8 in the air fryer.
4. Exact Digital Temperature
This feature isn’t exclusive to air fryers, but it’s also a feature that a lot of standard ovens lack. You can select your exact temperature and time using a digital display, more akin to a microwave. This can make a real difference when you are cooking dishes which require an exact temperature.
5. Easy To Shake Basket
Being able to remove the air fryer basket safely using the handle and quickly shake all the items is great. It’s quicker than turning each item over individually with tongs, meaning your food is out of the heat for a shorter time, and you are much less likely to burn yourself thanks to the handle.
6. Better At Heating Up Leftovers Than A Microwave
While reheating soup in the microwave is fine, we all know how disappointing soggy, floppy microwave-reheated pizza can be. When you use an air fryer to reheat food, you get perfect, crispy, reheated leftovers just like you would get from an oven, but super quick. Honestly, if all that an air fryer could do was reheat leftovers, it would still be worth the price.
7. Allows You To “Fry” Food With No Oil
An air fryer isn’t really a “fryer”, but you can get an excellent, crispy “fried” food effect by using it at high heat. the upside of doing so is that you hardly need to use any oil. A basket of freshly cut potato fries will only need a teaspoon of oil rather than the whole vat of oil you would need if you were deep frying them. Not only is this much healthier (over 30% of the calories of many deep fried foods come from the oil), it’s also less messy and much safer a you do not need to deal with a large pan of boiling oil. You will be surprised with how little oil you need. In fact, I would recommend using spray bottles of oil to minimise the amount you use.
8. Being Easy To Use Means You Use Them More
Something I’ve noticed is how much having an air fryer has changed the type of food I cook and how much I cook. Because it’s easier, quicker, and healthier to use, I use it more often. This has really helped break some bad habits. I used to be a bit of a KFC addict, but now I keep chicken tenders in the freezer knowing that I can throw a few in the air fryer and they’ll be done in less than 15 minutes.
9. Affordable
Surprisingly, given how versatile they are, air fryers are very affordable. My COSORI XXL 5.5L Air Fryer, which I would happily recommend, was just over £100 when I bought it. However, I’ve seen other makes and models going for as low as £50. I would recommend getting a larger model if you have the money and space for it.
10. You Can Make A Rotisserie Style Chicken In One
My absolute favourite thing to do when I’m feeling lazy is to buy a whole chicken and put it in the air fryer. My 5.5l COSORI air fryer just about fits a small to medium sized whole chicken. I cook it for 30 minutes, then flip it over and cook for another 15-30min. This gives near-perfect rotisserie style chicken with zero effort.
Hopefully you can now understand why I love air fryers so much. I’ve been a bit of an evangelist for them over the past year. I’ve recommended them to several friends, and at around £100, they make a great gift. My partner and I have bought one for each for our parents.
Unlike other kitchen gadgets, people really seem to keep using them. I never hear anyone say “I bought one, but I only used it for the first couple of weeks” while that seems to be what everyone says about almost every other kitchen gadget (when did you last use your pasta maker?!).
I think they are perfect for 1-2 person households, and I would definitely recommend buying one as a housewarming gift or for a young person that’s moving out and living on their own for the first time.