Air fryer to replace oven

Personally, I find them way over hyped. No where near as good as an oven or BBQ.

Yes. I wouldn't have commented if I didn't.

Yep, you and me both. Suckered into buying one from all the hype.

I have a double drawer Ninja and it’s great. Sausages, frozen chips, cheese on toast, chicken wings. Really good at reheating too and crisping.

The only thing it doesn’t do great is roasties with a large piece of meat. They’re okay in the AF, but to me roast potatoes need to be done around meat in a larger oven. The flavour is better.. but for most everything else it’s spot on. Quick & efficient.

My MIL has an air fryer and it must have a baking function as she has baked a delicious fruit cake recently. She’s a great baker and loves the AF.

That said, I’ve never used mine for baking. I use the main oven.

I wouldn't be without my oven but our AF is handy for frozen chips if not using oven for anything else. Does gougons fish fingers and so on really well.

But i like roasts and frozen pizza and casseroles and just don't think AF would do for those.

It really all depends on what your meals consist of.

Two air fryers would pretty much make an oven obsolete.

A twin drawer one for say chips and veg., then a large one for the roast meat.

Breadmaking is not easy and if you are into sourdough your dutch oven is going to be a thing of the past.

In fact anything that rises will need serious scaling down and some thought about shielding the top from the direct radiated heat.

Nothing that a bit of creativity with foil and greaseproof paper won't overcome but bread and cakes would be out for entertaining visitors unless the portions were minuscule.

I've had on since the days of Phillips 1st air fryer days.

They're convenient but no where near as good or versatile as an actual oven

Not true , well apart from joints and toasties

I actually think the biggest drawback with the airfryers is counterspace, the real estate they take up. Maybe consider where it would sit and the space you have left available on the counter.

Depends on your kitchen layout, but for a lot of kitchens, the oven is built into a kitchen cabinet. Our oven has the slide away door, it's at waist height, beside the counterspace. No swinging around with hot pans, just very easy ergonomically. If I was to have an airfryer on the counter too, I'd definitely miss the chopping space.

Interesting. We have a single drawer 1300w 6.5l air fryer. Its handy and saves on cooking for 1/2 people for sure. I always assumed a 2 drawer wouldn't be a big saving compared to doing a big roast with all the trimmings which is really the only reason we use the oven now at all. Maybe I'll buy another single 6.5l and stick it beside what we have 😄

"Healthier"

Chips, sausage etc. all cooked without oil.

There was a program on UK TV over Christmas.

Covered all this stuff like calories, flavour and electricity consumption.

Air Fryer won hands down.

Except for microwaves. They are cheaper to cook in.

Roll on air fryer shaped frozen pizzas I say!

As @Ezeoul said above, Airfryers are good for things like chips, sausages, gougons............things I rarely eat! However I cube up potatoes and they cook quickly and very well in it along with root vegetables.

I would never get rid of my oven , in fact I'm buying a new one this week, single Neff oven. You can't beat traditional ovens for baking especially and large tray bakes, large roasted veg dishes, cottage pie, fish pie............proper good nutritional traditional food.

Thirdly I can't stand the space the Airfryer takes up on my worktop!!! My kitchen isn't big.

It's very dependent on the food you cook, I don't have an air fryer but have a halogen oven, haven't been without one for over 20 yrs I'd say, bought one of the originals when they came out, been replaced several times obviously but find it great.

That said I still use my oven, baking would be one of the main things I use it for, yes you can bake a few things in halogen oven/air fryer but a bit limited if you are a big baker. Oven is used obviously when family visiting when you need a bigger amount of food but day to day I use my halogen oven an awful lot, I never had a deep fat fryer but I use it for wedges/chips when I do want some, it will roast a chicken very nicely and even a second small turkey at Christmas when needed. Great for fish/chicken fillets/sausages and I actually use it for the roast potatoes when doing them instead of oven, think it makes a better job of them, now you do have to move stuff a bit as no shaking option. Bakes good scones and a few cookies from freezer if you need a sugar fix but wouldn't bake a good cake for example.

So while I think some sort of quick alternative cooker is very handy for some things an oven to me would be essential as well. There is the counter space issue as well, my halogen oven luckily has space to live in utility room.

i do chicken breast fillets, beef, plenty of healthy things. not just chips and goujons.

silly comment.

Did tandoori cubed chicken fillets in ours last night. Turned out lovely. We dont have it on our main kitchen counter as that would be annoying. Our air fryer is at the back door on a draining board beside the deep fat frier. Its a small room with an extractor fan so works well for us. Or can just open the back door slightly let any steam / hot air escape.

Exactly, there's a certain amount of snobbery in that other poster's thoughts, to be honest. Since Christmas I've done chicken breasts, homemade kievs, chicken parmesan, baked fish fillets, meatballs, crispy chilli beef, roast cauliflower, stuffed mushrooms, stuffed peppers, padron peppers, halloumi, arrancini, wings, nachos, roast potatoes, baked salmon.......and that's before we get to homemade goujons / fish fingers / wedges / chips etc. Doesn't all have to be processed.

The ninja dual drawer one even fits a whole chicken on one side and your choice of spuds in the other.

we have a double oven set up, one large main and one smaller oven above that doubles as microwave. Have them yrs, and they have been fantastic. The main oven is great for cooking different dishes at once, the way it cycles the air etc or full chicken and the likes....and we would cook a lot to give you a picture.

we bought a Nlnja 5.2 ltr air fryer a few months ago, have not looked back. just two of us in the house. it cooks quicker than the oven, more efficient for chicken , sausages etc. even cooks the likes of homemade sausage rolls to perfection. As well as baking frozen shop bought pastries -that we dont eat too often anyway. Also reheating is good.

We eat well in general and not much processed food, so the likes of the butcher chicken stuff etc would go in the nlnja and sausages at the weekend. The 5.2 ltr is a bit small if cooking multiple sutff, like say sweet potato fries with fish and other stuff, so maybe go the the dual drawer. we wouldnt be without it now. and its used for smaller meats / fish more than the oven now. They are worth the purchase imo.