What All Can You Do With Your Air Fryer?

We all go for shopping, sometimes we go when we actually have to buy something, while sometimes we go for only window shopping. Imagine yourself going to a shopping mall and seeing a banner outside saying – “the best price on air fryer”. We all are quite familiar with that feeling of getting discounts on items. Oh how exciting it is! When we see discounts, even if we were not visiting the mall to buy anything, our mind changes, and we immediately feel like buying the good just because we are getting a better deal on it.

In our example above, when you get to know, the prices on air fryers that you are getting here are comparatively low, you might want to buy it (if you do not have one at your place), and when you do buy it, you should be aware of what all you can do with an air fryer.

What is an Air Fryer?

An air fryer is an electronic appliance for your kitchen. They work on a technology that allows your food cooked in it to be very crispy and crunchy. They have a fan that constantly blows hot and dry air, it helps to make the food crispy. They are compact and thus do not occupy much space in your kitchen. Therefore, if you are planning to buy an air fryer but are not sure because of the limited counter space in your kitchen, you can definitely buy it, just make sure that you have a power socket nearby as an air fryer is an electrically driven appliance, thus it would need a power socket to plug it in. The best part of an air fryer is, it uses less or in fact no oil and is thus healthy as compared to a deep fryer. Also, an air fryer does not produce much heat as a convection oven does so, these air fryers are best suited for the summer season. Without having to sweat in your kitchen, now you can enjoy healthy, crispy, and crunchy food that too at the comfort of your home. But as you know “Every coin has two sides”, so there are few things that are not good of an air fryer:

•       First, is that they are very noisy. They produce a lot of noise when at work and can be a real headache at times.
•       Second is that, they are not enough for cooking food for a large family.
•       Third, they get very hot and that too very quickly. So, one needs to be careful and not touch the main unit with bare hands.
•       Fourth, they would not work in the case of power cut as they are an electrical appliance.
•       Fifth, because they are compact so you can not cook a large piece of a chicken or any other food all at once. You will have to cut into half or small pieces. So that they can be cooked evenly.

For Even Cooking in Your Air Fryer, What Can You Do?  

Would anyone have the real taste of your food if your food is cooked partly? How would your meal taste if it is cooked well on the outside but is still raw on the inside? A partly cooked food would not taste as good as it should. Just as “A Little Knowledge is a Dangerous Thing”, a half-cooked food is a dangerous thing, when you have guests arriving. It could ruin the taste and the mood as well. So, what can you do for it? Here are few things which you may try:-

• Do not over fill the air fryer basket – As mentioned above, an air fryer is a compact appliance, overfilling it would not let it cook the food completely and evenly. Air fryers blow hot air with the help of the fan installed in it and if you over fill the air fryer basket, the air would not be able to circulate properly. This shall prevent the food from getting cooked properly inside out, rather the air fryer would produce steam instead of getting the food crispy. To prevent overcrowding, you can cut the larger chunk of your food for example, meat into half, and then cook. You can try cutting smaller pieces so that they can get a proper and even cooking.
• Flipping and rotating the food – In an air fryer, it is always recommended to keep on flipping and rotating the things inside being cooked after every few minutes. This can be done by taking out the air fryer basket (which will be hot so, be careful!) and flipping the pieces from time to time. When you keep flipping the food, it helps in air circulation and thus, the hot air reaches every part of the food, making it crunchy and crispy.
• Use a bowl to toss the food – The air fryer baskets have a handle with the help of which you can easily flip and toss your food but this might get you uneven cooking. So, what you may try otherwise is, use a bowl, transfer the food from your air fryer basket into the bowl, toss them in the bowl itself, put them back in the basket, and then place the basket back in the air fryer. French fries and other vegetables can be cooked evenly by using this method. Also, by adopting this technique you will have a chance to add seasonings to your meal like grated cheese or herbs, partway through your cooking.
• The right arrangement of your skewers – Do you enjoy eating kebabs? Ever tried cooking them in an air fryer? If no, then now is the time. Kebabs allow for spacing out food in the air basket. You just need to arrange them in the right alignment. Keep that in mind and have fun eating kebabs.

Problem Having a Better Browning in Your Air Fryer?  Try Doing These:-

• Drying the food – If you pat dry your vegetables and meat, removing the excess water it can help you have a better browning because by getting the excess water removed, you prevent your food from steaming. Also, it would make the food crispy.
• A little oil or no oil at all?- You might say no oil at all because that sounds healthy and less fatty but the reality is, a little amount of oil actually helps in the browning process. Many recipes require adding a small amount of oil to have crisper and browner outcomes.
• Would honey help?- Oil is a way to help browning but it is not the only way. So, what else can help? The answer is honey! Yes, you read that right. Honey has sugar that helps in browning when it gets heated in the intense heat of your air fryer. Also, adding honey would give altogether a different taste to your food.
• Using egg wash – You may also try brushing your dough with egg wash for when preparing pastries and similar foods. When you brush the dough with egg wash, it gives you an even coating which is brown as well.

Want Your Food to be Crunchy?

• Try pre toasting your crumbs – Bread crumbs have coarse outer surface and thus they help in giving you a crunchy taste. This helps in most of the air-fried dishes be it, chicken nuggets or zucchini fries. So, you can try quickly pre toasting them in your microwave with a small amount of oil. This will give you the expected result i.e., golden-brown dishes which are mouth-watering and crunchy.
• Using vegetable oil spray – To get your food crunchy, just spray the bottom of the rack of your air fryer basket with vegetable oil spray. It would be of great help.

You Can Also Use Your Air Fryer to Cook Fish, See How 

• First, you need to set the right temperature. Air fryers by now you know cook with a lot of hot air but fish needs to be cooked at low temperature. Therefore, you need to set the right temperature.
• You can use a skewer. It will help you to take out the small pieces from the air fryer after being cooked.
• You may use a foil paper and place it well in the air fryer basket. This would prevent the delicate fish from sticking and breaking. Also, this will be helpful to you too when removing the fishes after being cooked.

Using an Air Fryer for Complete Meals

1.     Arrange everything in the air fryer basket properly, giving them enough room to breathe, and letting the hot dry air circulate properly through each and every item inside.
2.     By now you know that air fryer gets hot very quickly and your food gets cooked in no time (depending on your recipe). Now what to do? The answer is, utilise your time wisely. If you are getting your food cooked quickly then you can use rest of the time in preparing dips, snacks, salads, etc.
3.     Make use of your microwave as well. Although using another stove is not required when your air fryer is at work, you may use your microwave for preparing sauces or any other thing wish you wish to add to your complete main course. You will be serving well enough in front of your guests with a lot of variety and options to choose from, according to personal taste and preference.

Conclusion 

Air fryers are very handy and give you variation in your cooking regime because of them being versatile. What is it that you can not use them for? From baking to preparing a complete meal, an air fryer is one thing which can cook all. You may definitely try different things in it. Have them at your counter top and enjoy cooking meals.

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