7 Reasons Your Kitchen Needs an Air Fryer

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If you’re wondering if your kitchen needs an air fryer, I’ll admit this right up front: I’m to convince you that, YES, you do. I can’t believe how much we have come to love and use this handy small appliance. Below are my 7 Reasons Your Kitchen Needs an Air Fryer tips.

7 Reasons Your Kitchen Needs an Air Fryer!

Howdy! Chef Alli Here. Let’s Get You Cookin’….Shall We?? 🙂

Anyone who knows me knows how much I constantly rave about my Cuisinart air fryer (model TOA-6O if you’re wondering). 

And nobody has been more surprised than I am at how much we’ve fallen in love with the darn thing. We came to it rather begrudgingly, worried it would be yet another small appliance that took precious counter space and something we’d wind up not using after awhile. 

Well guess what?? The Cuisinart air fryer is the bomb, and totally worth every inch of counter space it requires.  We use it nearly every day!  

When your heart is longing for something with a crunchy, crispy exterior…..such as onion rings, French fries, fish sticks, and pizza, an air fryer is the ticket.   

We’ve had a good bit of trial and error as we learned to air fry over the past couple of years, but it’s been exciting to see how crispy everything gets without all the oil required for deep-frying. 

Plus, we’ve been pleasantly surprised at how many different things we can cook in it. Every thing from appetizers (like Pepper Jelly Cheese Dip) , to breakfast potatoes with bacon, to sugar doughnuts your kids will flip for. 

If you lean more towards savory, I bet you might like air fryer steak bites and air fryer brats with peppers and onions.  I also really enjoy air fryer pulled pork nachos – a great way to use up leftover cooked pulled pork. 

The Top 7 Reasons Need an Air Fryer

1. Less Fat/ Fewer Calories
   Because air frying uses circulating hot air instead of oil to cook our favorite fried foods, we are consuming less fat and calories without sacrificing taste and texture. Everything gets crispy and browned – no foods are submerged in oil like when we deep-fry.
2.  Multipurpose Cooking
   Do you realize that an air fryer isn’t used just for FRIED foods? It can be used for grilling, roasting, and baking as well. If the pan will fit in your air fryer and it’s a recipe that calls for baking, you can use your air fryer instead of the oven.

   As an example, I often cook cinnamon rolls (the can type), quiche, biscuits, chocolate chip cookies, chicken breasts and thighs, vegetables…the list goes on and on. 

3. The Need for Speed (Cooking)
   No preheating is required for our air fryer! What a definite surprise AND A bonus. You just turn on the air fryer and pop in your food – the air fryer is instantly hot. Talk about a huge savings of time.

   No preheating is due to the fact that the air fryer is a pretty small space to heat up and there is hot circulating air much like a convection oven offers.

   I think this speed feature is mainly why my sons and husband have adapted to cooking in the air fryer so quickly – they definitely love the efficiency and the crispy-ness that the air fryer gives them. 

4. Hands-Off Cooking That’s Clean
   Once you put your food onto the flat basket that sits on the air fryer tray, it requires very little attention to finish cooking, though you do need to keep an eye on things somewhat since they cook so much more quickly than what you may be used to.

   Halfway through the cooking time I sometimes rotate the air fryer rack or turn the food if I want it especially crispy on both sides.   

   We also appreciate how there’s no grease splattered all over the place when you cook BACON. Bacon is cooked and ready to go in just 8 minutes in the air fryer….can you believe it??

5. Keepin’ It Cool
   Is there anything worse on a hot summer day in Kansas than to have to turn on the oven to cook dinner?? With the air fryer, all the heat is contained in the unit. We love how we can cook a hot meal…without heating up the entire kitchen.
6. Family Shift Eating
   I don’t know about your family, but mine is often eating at all kinds of weird times of the day and night, even though we do try our best to sit down together for a meal as often as we can.

   I call it “shift eating” and because of this, the air fryer is really quite perfect for our family since it’s often just one or two of us at a time that are eating.

   Nobody feels bad about cranking up an air fryer (as opposed to a big oven) when you’re cooking for just one.

7. It’s a Brand New Day for Leftovers
   And this may just be what I’ve realized is best of all. Why?  Well, I’ve noticed that I’m not throwing out a bunch of leftovers that have been abandoned in the fridge, like usual.

   An air fryer magically makes your leftovers “like new” again!  Leftover pizza is crispy once more (instead of soft and mushy like when it’s reheated in the microwave), quiche gets a little bubbly and golden on the top, and left over French fries are crunchy again in just a couple of minutes.

What Seems to be the Main Objection to Air Fryer?

SIZE. “It’s too small” is hands-down the number one objection I’ve heard over and over.

If you happen to have a large family that doesn’t eat in shifts like mine does, the air fryer probably isn’t for you. But guess what? That’s perfectly okay. You can’t cook large quantities of food at one time in an air fryer like you can in a deep-fat fryer or the oven. 

Which Air Fryer Should I Purchase? 

There are a couple of things to consider when purchasing an air fryer, and size is definitely one of them.  I’ve talked to a lot of folks who love their air fryer but wish they would have purchased the bigger size up front. 

Because they love the air-frying process as well as the crispy food textures, they wind up purchasing a second (larger) air fryer pretty quickly.  Keep in mind that if you get the bigger air fryer right off the bat, you don’t have to cook large amounts of food in it – you can still reheat just a single piece of pizza or a few French fries for one, no problem. 

There are two main types of air fryers, to my knowledge.  The basket style or the rack type.  I’m a fan of the rack and that’s why I have the Cuisinart TOA-60. I like the rack style since you can spread the foods out much more, allowing them to get a lot more crispy and also helping to make the cooking process much quicker, too.  

The rack style of air fryer is often described as a very large toaster oven or a very small convection oven and I’d say that both of those descriptions are pretty accurate. 

Tips for Getting the Best Results From Your Air Fryer

• When you first begin cooking in an air fryer, you’ll need to learn to keep a close eye on what you’re cooking! Due to the hot air circulation (just like a convection oven) foods cook super quickly.  I “blackened” a few things at first. 🙂
• Just like with any new kitchen appliance, don’t be afraid to try it out as soon as you purchase it. Nothing is a failure if you LEARN something from it, and that includes anything you COOK. Practice makes perfect.
• Don’t be afraid to experiment. Try new things and see what you like – I bet you might just be surprised. Remember – nearly anything you prepare in the oven can be cooked in the air fryer as long as it fits okay. 

Okay.  Have a I convinced you yet? It’s time to get on your horse and ride! Go get that air fryer for your family. 

More Air Fryer Recipes to Enjoy – 

• Buffalo Cauliflower
• Easy Air Fryer French Bread Pizzas
• 4-Ingredient Honey-Glazed Salmon 
• Stuffed Pizza Breadsticks 
• Air Fryer Dill Pickle Chicken Wings 

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Let’s Get You Cookin’,
Chef Alli

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