Buying an air fryer is one of the latest hypes due to convenience and arguably healthier way to cook food. It is a very popular purchase when many Australians are trying to adopt a healthier lifestyle.
But buying an air fryer, choosing the right air fryer that is, can be a bit of a tricky business because as with everything else, there are so many options out there it can get a little overwhelming and you could end up buying one that doesn’t suit your family, meal prep plans or kitchen bench space.
In this blog article, I have subdivided different types of air fryers for you to help you make your decision easier.
And later I also outlined 5 main things you need to be aware of before investing your hard-earned dollars into this kitchen appliance.
1. First and foremost you should choose the right one for your needs, there are a few different types I listed below.
- Small with drawer 1-2 portions, great for small kitchen or small household. Sizes are usually measured in litres in Australia. These types will normally be able to fit 4 chicken breast portions without touching each other.
- Dual-zone, 2 drawers, great for cooking multiple foods, protein in one and vegetables in the other. You should be able to fit a whole large (1.3kg) chicken in one side and enough vegetables in the other drawer to feed a family of 4-5 people. The beauty of this air fryer is that you can set the individual setting in each section.
- Large 1 drawer, 4-6 portions, better for families or meal prep, and needs a bit more kitchen bench space. This type of air fryer is not ideal to cook multiple things. You can prepare a whole chicken, but vegetables will need to be cooked separately.
- Mini oven-style air fryer, like a small oven but doesn’t need pre-heating and cooks much faster. Great for families, or grilling things on a flat space, can fit a tray and a basket or rack. You can prepare a whole meal for the family in this air fryer easily. You can place the protein on the rack and the vegetables underneath on a tray, in a similar fashion that you would with the oven.
- Mini oven style with a rotisserie basket, if you are going to get a mini oven air fryer, definitely consider a rotating basket. It’s amazing for evenly crispy chips or even vegetables or nuggets. Anything that goes in the rotisserie basket will likely take up the entire room of the air fryer, you might be able to slide a tray underneath with something else that is very flat.
- BBQ/Grill style, a bit like George Forman mini grill, but you can use it indoors as it has minimal smoke and you can also use it as an air fryer.
There are a couple of other styles of air fryers I’ve seen as well, but those above mentioned are the most popular types.
I have compiled a list of the 12 best air fryers in Australia 2023, you can check it out right here.
2. The cheaper ones are not the best quality, but do the job for small cooking or if it’s something you only plan on using from time to time.
If you want to use your air fryer often then I would suggest going for something slightly bigger and better quality and also something easy to clean.
3. Some can be trickier to clean than others – use silicone liners.
It is a good idea to invest in some correct-size silicone liners for drawer-style air fryers, it will be easier to clean the air fryer and remove the food from the drawers.
In my list of the best 12 air fryers, I included suggested air fryer liners with each air fryer to save you the time and effort of trying to figure it out.
4. If you want your fish to have crispy skin, a non-stick frying pan is still a better option.
Most air fryers won’t give you a perfectly crispy skin on that salmon or barra. I personally still prefer to use a good non-stick frying pan.
I personally don’t think an air fryer replaces all other kitchens appliances, but it definitely is a super convenient addition to the kitchen especially if you are trying to avoid using a lot of oil for cooking and meal prepping healthier meals for a few days ahead without standing at the stove having to flip things and mix things in a pan.
5. Be careful not to burn things as an air fryer cooks faster than a conventional oven.
Be prepared that if you are used to a conventional oven, the air fryer cooks twice as fast. I burnt quite a few things because I kept it in the air fryer similar amount of time that I would cook that food in the oven. And I burnt things a fair bit at the start. But now that you know this, you won’t make the same mistake. Half the time in which you would normally cook your food and check on it frequently at the start of your use. Of course, that’s the whole point of the air fryer, it’s faster. But it took me a week or so to get used to it. A good rule of thumb is to set your air fryer to half the time what you would normally do with the oven and also the cooking temperature around 80c less and then see if it does what you want. You can always adjust it and play around once you figure out the right times for food.
6. Air fryers can dry some of the food out – you need to use a little bit of oil.
Also, beware that some things are too dry for an air fryer, I found roasting cauliflower worked better by slightly boiling or steaming it first to add a bit of moisture to it. Otherwise, it turned out dry. My oven doesn’t do that. But that’s an easy fix. It might be dependent on which air fryer you use, I have the oven style because I like to cook multiple things at once and grill things.
While things like chicken or most meats don’t need any oil as they will release their juices while baking in the air fryer, vegetables will need a light spray of oil to crisp up nicely without drying out. You don’t need a lot though which makes the meals a lot healthier and less calorie dense.
7. You can cook frozen foods in the air fryer.
Yes, even proteins. The beauty of air fryer is, it can help you quickly thaw out foods right from the freezer. Forget the dilemma of forgetting to take the meat out of the freezer to prepare for dinner. With air fryer it’s no longer an issue. But you need to know a couple of things.
- When freezing your proteins separate the pieces, like chicken breast or thighs, steaks, and fish fillets. Because it will be much quicker to defrost them when they are separate and it will do so more evenly.
- You can preseason your meats before freezing them or you can thaw it out in the air fryer for about 15 minutes then take them out, season and put them back in to cook.
- Ensure not to turn the heat too high when thawing/defrosting as it can burn on top and leave frozen inside. Use low to medium heat to do so, some air fryers will have a defrost function just like microwaves.
