Prepping for the challenge ahead...

JIL

Longwalker said:

bellabella said:

Well ladies i dont know what i did wrong with my chicken in the air fryer it was awful i  had to throw it away tasted funny and went very rubbery and tough

I have the ninja AF400 and whilst it recommends putting it on the roast function, a colleague in work advised to use the air fry function. Breast down for 25 mins, turn and another 25 mins and it really was/is moist and tasty.  There was a tiny bit of pink in one place, not enough to worry me, but I know in future to use a meat thermometer and maybe give another 5 mins

I agree, I dont know why I got a ninja when all I use is the airfry setting. 
That's how I cooked a whole chicken and it was very like a rotisserie recipe, when it was cooked.

wannalot

I’m glad I came across this thread tonight. I’ve been thinking about how to cope with rising prices. I’ve been shocked by how much cash I have spent over the past few months, without really noticing. I’m currently overdrawn and really want to clear that over the next month or 2.

Someone earlier in the thread mentioned using up freezer stocks. I’m doing this too. Over the next month or 2, I want to use freezer stocks of meat so I can spend more of my grocery budget on tins (salmon, sardines, mackerel, tomatoes, etc.), tea, squash, soft drinks. 

I want to use my freezer a little bit more intelligently from now on. I tend to just load it with meat, but I want to have one at least one drawer filled with homemade tomato sauces, and frozen veg and fruit.

I’ve also been thinking of how to avoid making horrendously high energy bills even worse over the winter. I think I may try to get into a habit of filling a thermal travel mug when I make tea, so I can boil the kettle once and get 2 teatimes out of it. 

I might also get into the habit of batch cooking once a week, and spend an evening in the warm kitchen to avoid having the central heating on too.

I’m also planning to go back to the office at least 2 days to keep my heating bills down. I’m also going to get into the habit of having a cinema night on one of those days. I have a cinema pass anyway, which I usually use on a Saturday afternoon, but if I use it on a weeknight i will save on heating, I think.

GaleSF63

Longwalker said:

GaleSF63 said:

I'm planning on getting an air fryer but not sure about the size. What size cooks a whole chicken? It will give me some idea, and can you bake in the smallest ones? There's only me but I don't want to find that I get one too small and end up using the oven just because of its size. On the other hand I don't want an enormous thing taking up a lot of space. 

I went for the Ninja foodie double basket one, the AF400. And yes you can get a whole chicken into one basket ( on sale on their website, interest free payments and I think you can go via a cash back site )

If you want a very versatile one, then dont go for the round basket types, you get more surface area in a square/ rectangle one, one the you can use existing pans in

There are a few FB groups for the Ninjas , they are excellent resources . Basically anything you can cook in the oven or under the grill, you can cook in the Ninja and use the pans you already have. Just make sure there is clearance around the sides and top so the hot air flows.

Theres 3 of us here, we like different food and mum struggles with things that she deems to be tough ( she can find gristle in a chicken fillet ). So far shes eaten everything Ive cooked in the Ninja so far

My only other outlay for it has been silicone tongs and a sunflower oil spray. Dont use the one cal stuff, it bakes onto the non stick. Get strong tongs, ones with a good grip. Obviously as I get more proficient I may buy more bits but so far, what I have in the house already is doing the biz 

The steaks and jacket potatoes came out fantastically , as did the tomatoes and onion rings - steak and tomatoes one side, spuds and onion rings the other - onion rings added to the last five minutes of spud cooking.

Thank you for the time you spent answering. The Ninjas seem to be among the best but cost more than I want to spend unless they are way better than all the others.
If I can I will try and get a square basket one, though they seem to be in the larger ones (I don't want it to take up too much room) so I'm still investigating that. But I think I may have to end up with one larger than I was planning anyway. The worst thing would be to get one too small or limited and regret it as none of them are cheap! 

Effician

GaleSF63 said:

Longwalker said:

GaleSF63 said:

I'm planning on getting an air fryer but not sure about the size. What size cooks a whole chicken? It will give me some idea, and can you bake in the smallest ones? There's only me but I don't want to find that I get one too small and end up using the oven just because of its size. On the other hand I don't want an enormous thing taking up a lot of space. 

I went for the Ninja foodie double basket one, the AF400. And yes you can get a whole chicken into one basket ( on sale on their website, interest free payments and I think you can go via a cash back site )

If you want a very versatile one, then dont go for the round basket types, you get more surface area in a square/ rectangle one, one the you can use existing pans in

There are a few FB groups for the Ninjas , they are excellent resources . Basically anything you can cook in the oven or under the grill, you can cook in the Ninja and use the pans you already have. Just make sure there is clearance around the sides and top so the hot air flows.

Theres 3 of us here, we like different food and mum struggles with things that she deems to be tough ( she can find gristle in a chicken fillet ). So far shes eaten everything Ive cooked in the Ninja so far

My only other outlay for it has been silicone tongs and a sunflower oil spray. Dont use the one cal stuff, it bakes onto the non stick. Get strong tongs, ones with a good grip. Obviously as I get more proficient I may buy more bits but so far, what I have in the house already is doing the biz 

The steaks and jacket potatoes came out fantastically , as did the tomatoes and onion rings - steak and tomatoes one side, spuds and onion rings the other - onion rings added to the last five minutes of spud cooking.

Thank you for the time you spent answering. The Ninjas seem to be among the best but cost more than I want to spend unless they are way better than all the others.
If I can I will try and get a square basket one, though they seem to be in the larger ones (I don't want it to take up too much room) so I'm still investigating that. But I think I may have to end up with one larger than I was planning anyway. The worst thing would be to get one too small or limited and regret it as none of them are cheap!

If you have a pressure cooker i'd recommend cooking a whole chicken in that as it's far cheaper at around 0.4kwh, then transfer the portions you want  to the airfryer for crisping costing about another 0.3kwh. Doing it this way costs around half of cooking the whole bird ( 1.8kg ish) in the airfryer.

I have a thing for injecting  a basic homemade garlic & ginger ( or other herbs/spices) infused olive oil into the bird before cooking , it keeps the meat moist for cold cuts & the flavour goes all the way through unlike a marinade rub.

I do like the airfryer for some things & it has it's place but it's only the cheapest method & best tasting for a few items we like to cook & eat.

Edit,  for reference ours is the actifry genius+ ( bought s/h & as new for less than 1/3rd of new price) , also have bosch induction hob & sharp 40l combi oven & 3kw small commercial deep fat fryer..

GaleSF63

Effician said:

GaleSF63 said:

Longwalker said:

GaleSF63 said:

I'm planning on getting an air fryer but not sure about the size. What size cooks a whole chicken? It will give me some idea, and can you bake in the smallest ones? There's only me but I don't want to find that I get one too small and end up using the oven just because of its size. On the other hand I don't want an enormous thing taking up a lot of space. 

I went for the Ninja foodie double basket one, the AF400. And yes you can get a whole chicken into one basket ( on sale on their website, interest free payments and I think you can go via a cash back site )

If you want a very versatile one, then dont go for the round basket types, you get more surface area in a square/ rectangle one, one the you can use existing pans in

There are a few FB groups for the Ninjas , they are excellent resources . Basically anything you can cook in the oven or under the grill, you can cook in the Ninja and use the pans you already have. Just make sure there is clearance around the sides and top so the hot air flows.

Theres 3 of us here, we like different food and mum struggles with things that she deems to be tough ( she can find gristle in a chicken fillet ). So far shes eaten everything Ive cooked in the Ninja so far

My only other outlay for it has been silicone tongs and a sunflower oil spray. Dont use the one cal stuff, it bakes onto the non stick. Get strong tongs, ones with a good grip. Obviously as I get more proficient I may buy more bits but so far, what I have in the house already is doing the biz 

The steaks and jacket potatoes came out fantastically , as did the tomatoes and onion rings - steak and tomatoes one side, spuds and onion rings the other - onion rings added to the last five minutes of spud cooking.

Thank you for the time you spent answering. The Ninjas seem to be among the best but cost more than I want to spend unless they are way better than all the others.
If I can I will try and get a square basket one, though they seem to be in the larger ones (I don't want it to take up too much room) so I'm still investigating that. But I think I may have to end up with one larger than I was planning anyway. The worst thing would be to get one too small or limited and regret it as none of them are cheap!

If you have a pressure cooker i'd recommend cooking a whole chicken in that as it's far cheaper at around 0.4kwh, then transfer the portions you want  to the airfryer for crisping costing about another 0.3kwh. Doing it this way costs around half of cooking the whole bird ( 1.8kg ish) in the airfryer.

I have a thing for injecting  a basic homemade garlic & ginger ( or other herbs/spices) infused olive oil into the bird before cooking , it keeps the meat moist for cold cuts & the flavour goes all the way through unlike a marinade rub.

I do like the airfryer for some things & it has it's place but it's only the cheapest method & best tasting for a few items we like to cook & eat.

Edit,  for reference ours is the actifry genius+ ( bought s/h & as new for less than 1/3rd of new price) , also have bosch induction hob & sharp 40l combi oven & 3kw small commercial deep fat fryer..

I hate pressure cookers! My mother used hers all the time and when I was young I was afraid of it when it hissed and she'd gone outside or upstairs and I was sure it was going to blow up before she came back! (It never did but that didn't make any difference to me.)

bouicca21

I listened to that BBC broadcast as I’ve been wondering about buying an air fryer ever since my friend raved about his Ninja. 

 I assume the costings  were based on a full size oven and although I have 2 small ones, it would probably still work out cheaper.  The question then is, how long would it take to recoup the cost of buying the air fryer?  For me probably years if I bought the cheap one that they discussed, and more like decades for the super pricey Ninjas.

Longwalker

I bought my ninja in the sale which is on at the moment and they offer 5 or 6 interest free payments - thats how I paid. I couldn't afford to outlay the cost in one hit

The two basket 9 in 1 foodie is the one I got. And believe me I done tons of research on what would be best for my lifestyle and cooking habits  Same as @GaleSF63 , I dont like pressure cookers so the 15 in 1 was out - I wasnt going to use its best function. The oven/grill did catch my eye, but user reviews compared to the 9 in 1 - came out below par. 

So my cooking is cooking for 3 people as quickly as possible after a hard day in work. Mother, is 85, She struggles now with chewing, everything is always too tough, its not but it is for her - she could find gristle in a fish finger

So for me the 2 drawer made a good choice, for us, I can cook her something she loves, whilst I cook something we love without having to put two main ovens on dealing with different timings and temps. I can put hers one side, ours the other, set the timings and temps, and sync so everything is ready at the same time

The Ninja is a mini oven/grill/toaster. Whatever you can cook in your full sized oven/grill/toaster you can cook in the Ninja for a lot less time using less electric.No preheating,  I would say each basket of the 9 in 1 is the size of a 3 litre chip pan, will hold 2 decent sized steaks, four jacket potatoes, 10 sausages , 3 pork chops . So far what I have found when cooking meat, its bloody tender, really tender and moist, yet fully cooked and any fat is crispy

There are some good FB pages as well as Youtube channels . I dont know how long it will take me to recoup its costs until I become more au fait using it. All I know is electric is only going one way and if I can shave 20 or 30% of oven cost use, its got to be a good thing?

Floss

bouicca21 said:

... The question then is, how long would it take to recoup the cost of buying the air fryer?  For me probably years if I bought the cheap one that they discussed, and more like decades for the super pricey Ninjas.

I have had my larger airfryer for 3 months and have only had my top oven on once & the main oven once in that time. It is on for less time at a lower temp than the bigger ovens and as I'm now off my fix I am happy to use less electricity.

Effician

Floss said:

bouicca21 said:

... The question then is, how long would it take to recoup the cost of buying the air fryer?  For me probably years if I bought the cheap one that they discussed, and more like decades for the super pricey Ninjas.

I have had my larger airfryer for 3 months and have only had my top oven on once & the main oven once in that time. It is on for less time at a lower temp than the bigger ovens and as I'm now off my fix I am happy to use less electricity.

The problem with air fryer comparisons is that almost always they are only compared to full sized ovens to make the case for time & energy savings. As a very low energy user at under 3Kwh / day ( electric only with log burner for winter heat, no solar ) , 2 of us in all day & having at least one hot meal a day there are plenty of options apart from an air fryer to save on cooking bills.

Don't get me wrong i have an actifry genius air fryer & some foods it does well & fairly cheaply but it doesn't save much money at all & will probably take some considerable time to pay for itself even though it was bought cheaply s/h, it was as much to do with experimenting with different ways to cook foods & see what all the fuss was about.

When buying it i didn't expect to make great savings anyway as cooking was close to the top of the list when we started modifying our energy usage with the help of the new smart meter & in home display , this enabled us to see exactly what the cooking costs were using various methods & portion sizes. Very anoraky i know & it's taken a few months of learning & monitoring to make this a habit while making very little difference to lifestyle but the current & potential savings from this little exercise will be in the many thousands of pounds over the coming years.

Siebrie

We bought an Airfryer XXL after the deepfryer stopped working properly, and we decided we were tired of dealing with the sticky mess of a deepfryer. The health benefits came second

We bought it on a discount about 5 years ago and use it at least once a week to fry frozen fries (almost-cheapest sm brand), sometimes with frozen meat snacks. This has saved us a lot of money and time already, compared to going to the chip shop or a fast food restaurant. Due to the energy crisis I have started looking into using it more often, and have reheated some baguette I got through the Too Good To Go app and had frozen, and it worked a treat. I'm inspired by the messages above and will look into what else I can make, and what baking trays etc I already own that I can use in the Airfryer. Anything I would use in a normal oven, right? It just needs to stay clear of the sides and top?