Me, my Air Fryer and I… and You

[Mr Roper]

Big Stevie said:

PushedDover said:

What a time to be alive ^^^^^

True. Sometimes we have to take time out to reflect on how lucky we are.

Did it make that brown lump of toe jam taste any better?

[Big Stevie]

Mr Roper said:

Did it make that brown lump of toe jam taste any better?

It made it taste divine. Got a couple of slices saved for tomorrows breakfast too. Nobody does breakfast like Dominos.

[sc0tt]

CharlesdeGaulle said:

I did this at the weekend in mine. Stuffed chicken breast wrapped in bacon. Needed to do it lower and slower to avoid sacrificing the bacon. Potatoes worked well though.

You need to cook the chicken breast for ten minutes then wrap in bacon. HTH

[vladcjelli]

sc0tt said:

CharlesdeGaulle said:

I did this at the weekend in mine. Stuffed chicken breast wrapped in bacon. Needed to do it lower and slower to avoid sacrificing the bacon. Potatoes worked well though.

You need to cook the chicken breast for ten minutes then wrap in bacon. HTH

Or start upside down and turn halfway.

[CharlesdeGaulle]

vladcjelli said:

sc0tt said:

CharlesdeGaulle said:

I did this at the weekend in mine. Stuffed chicken breast wrapped in bacon. Needed to do it lower and slower to avoid sacrificing the bacon. Potatoes worked well though.

You need to cook the chicken breast for ten minutes then wrap in bacon. HTH

Or start upside down and turn halfway.

I think it's the rotation thing that's key. I did that last time and it was perfect.

[Ham_and_Jam]

Doofus said:

I've had my air fryer for a couple of weeks. Was going to do a fish pie this evening. Any advantage to using the Ninja? If so, what would I need to do differently from putting it in the oven?

It takes about 25% less time, if not more. Set the temperature to about 190-200C.

[Doofus]

Ham_and_Jam said:

Doofus said:

I've had my air fryer for a couple of weeks. Was going to do a fish pie this evening. Any advantage to using the Ninja? If so, what would I need to do differently from putting it in the oven?

It takes about 25% less time, if not more. Set the temperature to about 190-200C.

Thank you, but it's twenty to eleven. We've had our dinner. We waited as long as we could.



I forgot the egg.

[droopsnoot]

Ham_and_Jam said:

First time I’ve seen cooking instructions for Air Frying on a pack.

Spicy Chicken strips from Iceland.

Nice to know that this is exactly the times I’ve been using aswell

I was just trying to have a look through this thread to see how to work out times, maybe this will be handy, though I haven't read all 100+ pages. I've just acquired a small air fryer from the local Facebook "re-use" group and thought I'd have a go with it (nothing to lose) but cooking times are a bit of a mystery to me. I'm used to just sticking things in the oven for the amount of time specified on the packet, and so far my main confusion is how to deal with cooking chicken thighs that need 20 minutes at 180 at the same time as chips that need 25 minutes at 200, trying to decide which will handle the "wrong" temperature better.

Is it fair to say that the image posted is a reasonable pro-rata "formula" to use, or is it more complicated than that? Have I got months of experimenting and wasted food before I get anything edible out of it?

ETA - I've just googled it and found a few sites that talk about conversion rates, so maybe I have some answers, but you lot seem to know what you're talking about.

Edited by droopsnoot on Friday 17th February 09:34

[Big Stevie]

I don't really bother with timings, I just put the food in, select the temperature and then set for a longer time than is probably needed. I'm in the kitchen whilst its cooking so I just keep checking on it throughout, and when it's done, it's done.

Edited by Big Stevie on Friday 17th February 15:42

[Bonefish Blues]

Yes, we've got a feel for ours now and how timings compare.

[Collectingbrass]

droopsnoot said:

Ham_and_Jam said:

First time I’ve seen cooking instructions for Air Frying on a pack.

Spicy Chicken strips from Iceland.

Nice to know that this is exactly the times I’ve been using aswell

I was just trying to have a look through this thread to see how to work out times, maybe this will be handy, though I haven't read all 100+ pages. I've just acquired a small air fryer from the local Facebook "re-use" group and thought I'd have a go with it (nothing to lose) but cooking times are a bit of a mystery to me. I'm used to just sticking things in the oven for the amount of time specified on the packet, and so far my main confusion is how to deal with cooking chicken thighs that need 20 minutes at 180 at the same time as chips that need 25 minutes at 200, trying to decide which will handle the "wrong" temperature better.

Is it fair to say that the image posted is a reasonable pro-rata "formula" to use, or is it more complicated than that? Have I got months of experimenting and wasted food before I get anything edible out of it?

ETA - I've just googled it and found a few sites that talk about conversion rates, so maybe I have some answers, but you lot seem to know what you're talking about.

Edited by droopsnoot on Friday 17th February 09:34

Keep it simple, 20% off the basic oven temp and 20% off the time works for me.

In the example above I'd be more worried about properly cooking the chicken than the chips, and I usually find chicken needs 20 minutes on air fry at 180 and chips need 15 minutes on air fry at 200. I'd do it all on 180 then give the chips a few minutes on max crisp if they needed it.

It would be worth getting a meat thermometer to check the chicken is cooked through

[98elise]

Big Stevie said:

I don't really bother with timings, I just put the food in, select the temperature and then set for a longer tome than is probably needed. I'm in the kitchen whilst its cooking so I just keep checking on it throughout, and when it's. done, it's done.

Same here.

I treat it more like using a frying pan than an oven with a timer.

[droopsnoot]

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll do some experimenting. I think I agree about the chicken taking priority, being more harmful if done wrongly. I am new to all this cooking lark, so if there are no instructions I'm in trouble usually. It's only a little 1.5l fryer, but I'm only cooking for me so it's probably enough.

[Big Stevie]

Collectingbrass said:

In the example above I'd be more worried about properly cooking the chicken than the chips

My dual drawer air fryer is good for this, put the chicken and the chips in separate drawers, set the time and temp for each drawer and then press 'sync finish' and they both finish cooking at the same time, with the shorter cook drawer being paused at the start.
The negative is that there isn't one big cooking space for a whole chicken etc.

[blueg33]

Big Stevie said:

Collectingbrass said:

In the example above I'd be more worried about properly cooking the chicken than the chips

My dual drawer air fryer is good for this, put the chicken and the chips in separate drawers, set the time and temp for each drawer and then press 'sync finish' and they both finish cooking at the same time, with the shorter cook drawer being paused at the start.
The negative is that there isn't one big cooking space for a whole chicken etc.

We have the Ninja dual 9.2 litres. You can get a small to medium whole chicken in one drawer, apparently. I am yet to try it

[droopsnoot]

Big Stevie said:

Collectingbrass said:

In the example above I'd be more worried about properly cooking the chicken than the chips

My dual drawer air fryer is good for this, put the chicken and the chips in separate drawers, set the time and temp for each drawer and then press 'sync finish' and they both finish cooking at the same time, with the shorter cook drawer being paused at the start.
The negative is that there isn't one big cooking space for a whole chicken etc.

My issue was in the normal oven where I have to do it manually. It came out OK, I did it on Wednesday and since then I haven't spent any more time than usual in the bathroom. Unfortunately my air fryer is a 1.5l single drawer thing, so the things I can do with it will be limited.

[trixical]

blueg33 said:

We have the Ninja dual 9.2 litres. You can get a small to medium whole chicken in one drawer, apparently. I am yet to try it

I got a 1.7kg chicken in my 5.2L ninja 160 so you shouldn't have an issue Blue.

a 1.5L air fryer sounds tiny droopsnoot, is the drawer wide but shallow? what can you actually fit into it?

[Doofus]

trixical said:

I got a 1.7kg chicken in my 5.2L ninja 160 so you shouldn't have an issue Blue.

a 1.5L air fryer sounds tiny droopsnoot, is the drawer wide but shallow? what can you actually fit into it?

Four cans of coke and a mars bar.

[droopsnoot]

trixical said:

a 1.5L air fryer sounds tiny droopsnoot, is the drawer wide but shallow? what can you actually fit into it?

I don't know, I haven't tried it yet. It looks like it might be big enough to do some chips and a piece of chicken or fish, though I think that might be a bit risky if it's raw chicken in terms of not being able to separate the two. The drawer is about 15cm diameter and 8cm deep.

[pavarotti1980]

droopsnoot said:

I was just trying to have a look through this thread to see how to work out times, maybe this will be handy, though I haven't read all 100+ pages. I've just acquired a small air fryer from the local Facebook "re-use" group and thought I'd have a go with it (nothing to lose) but cooking times are a bit of a mystery to me. I'm used to just sticking things in the oven for the amount of time specified on the packet, and so far my main confusion is how to deal with cooking chicken thighs that need 20 minutes at 180 at the same time as chips that need 25 minutes at 200, trying to decide which will handle the "wrong" temperature better.

Is it fair to say that the image posted is a reasonable pro-rata "formula" to use, or is it more complicated than that? Have I got months of experimenting and wasted food before I get anything edible out of it?

ETA - I've just googled it and found a few sites that talk about conversion rates, so maybe I have some answers, but you lot seem to know what you're talking about.

Edited by droopsnoot on Friday 17th February 09:34

A good guide to start with

https://pinchofnom.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/...

blueg33 said:

We have the Ninja dual 9.2 litres. You can get a small to medium whole chicken in one drawer, apparently. I am yet to try it

I have managed a 2kg chicken in the Ninja Dual but have to take out the crisper plate and shove it in. I start it off upside down for 30 minutes and turn it the right way up for the remainder

Edited by pavarotti1980 on Tuesday 21st February 11:17