I’ve tested many air fryers. At any given time, I have two or three air fryers lined up on my kitchen counter, giving the room the warm, welcoming feel of an appliance showroom.
As I used them more and more for work, I got out of the habit of automatically turning on my oven when it was time to cook – for simple tasks, at least.
I started to wonder if I really needed to use my oven. So I decided to replace all of my oven cooking with an air fryer for a month to find out. After all, an air fryer doesn’t actually fry food. It’s a mini convection oven that can cook almost anything a regular oven can.
The rules of the experiment were that I had to cook in the air fryer everything I would usually cook in the oven, and I couldn’t start eating beige frozen foods for every meal.
Here’s what I learned that month.
Warming up means rethinking
My first act of food violence was mindlessly reheating a few slices of pizza using the recommended reheating temperature of 170°C/340°F for a little too long, which quickly and efficiently turned them into olive green, mottled pieces of cardboard.
If you have a powerful air fryer and you’re cooking almost anything except frozen breaded chicken or French fries, the best cooking tip is to turn the heat down by 10°C/50°F.
Switching to air frying comes with a bit of a learning curve, and while you’re trying to figure out the ideal cooking temperatures, you can always add a few minutes of extra time. You can’t turn cardboard into pizza.
Microwave + air fryer is still faster than an oven
I made individual shepherd’s pies in stoneware dishes, because I’m that fancy, and reheated them the next day. I usually put them in the oven for at least 45 minutes (and they’re probably still cold in the middle) but since the oven was off limits, I used the air fryer instead.
They came out perfect and cooked quickly, with a light, crispy crust on the potato. But it was still a bit of a pain to have to keep testing the center of the pie to see if it was done.
The best option, in the end, was to microwave the shepherd’s pies to warm them through, then put them in the air fryer for 7 minutes to brown them. The microwave + air fryer combo also works well with jacket potatoes.
Don’t try to pre-bake puff pastry pies in the microwave: the results will make you sad.
Cooking is easier than you think
Baking a cake in an air fryer sounds like a novelty, like playing Moonlight on a kazoo. But not only is it possible, it’s faster and cheaper. Most importantly, and perhaps surprisingly, the cake will taste exactly the same.
The main limitation is the amount of cooking space in your air fryer. To cook in a 5-6 litre single drawer model, you will need a small 15cm round cake tin (buy one from Amazon UK/Amazon US).
However, the air fryer I used, the FlexDrawer, has enough space to cook a regular-sized cake.
Most importantly – and perhaps most surprisingly – the cake will taste exactly the same.
Emma Rowley / Foundry
Emma Rowley / Foundry
Emma Rowley / Foundry
Follow the recipe exactly as you would for an oven, but lower the temperature by about 20°C/70°F.
If the air fryer is too hot, the outside of the cake will cook much faster than the inside, which will prevent it from rising properly. The cake will end up dense and yurt-shaped, which is probably not the result you want.
I started using the air fryer for everything: even things I wouldn’t normally cook in the oven.
The experiment is worth it
Intoxicated by the success of the air fryer cake, I started using the air fryer for everything—even things I wouldn’t normally cook in the oven. I’ve crisped gnocchi, made grilled sandwiches, roasted vegetables, and defrosted peas.
While I usually steam vegetables, I air-fried them with a little oil and garlic. It may not be as healthy as steaming, but that concern was far outweighed by the flavor benefits.
Forget 10-inch pizzas
There is one thing, however, that a traditional air fryer simply cannot do. You can forget about cooking a supermarket pizza with it. It simply won’t fit.
Emma Rowley / Foundry
Emma Rowley / Foundry
Emma Rowley / Foundry
Once, to follow through on a challenge I set myself, I cut a pizza in half and air-fried them one at a time. They turned out okay, but honestly, it’s a weird thing to do.
Emma Rowley / Foundry
Emma Rowley / Foundry
Emma Rowley / Foundry
Unless you want to invest in an air fryer oven or a dedicated pizza oven, you’ll need to use your regular oven for pizza.
There are a few other foods you shouldn’t cook in an air fryer: leafy greens, including spinach, which can get mushy, and anything with a wet batter. I also wouldn’t cook a steak anywhere other than a skillet.
My oven now looks medieval
Why is it so huge? Why does everything take so long to cook? Why is it almost impossible to clean?
Opening my oven now is like traveling back in time to a dirty medieval forge, a place I really don’t want to eat lunch in.
After a month of exclusively using an air fryer, I rarely use my oven anymore. I haven’t reached the point where I can store vintage jeans in it yet, like Carmy does in The Bear, but unless I’m cooking a full roast or baking a pizza, I don’t turn it on.
It’s hard to judge the magnitude of the energy savings from this experiment (although air-frying will certainly save you money in the long run), but the time and hassle I saved cooking and cleaning was enormous.
Opening my oven now is like traveling back in time to a dirty medieval forge, a place I really don’t want to eat lunch in.
Which air fryer did I use?
I chose the Ninja Foodi FlexDrawer because, as the name suggests, it’s a flexible cooking appliance. You can use its two 5.2L cooking zones separately, or use just one, or remove the divider between them to create a huge 10.4L ‘megazone’. This gives you the space to cook whole roasts or full-sized cakes.
You can read my review of the FlexDrawer to learn more, or check out our top recommended dual-zone air fryers to see how it stacks up against the competition. The FlexDrawer isn’t available in the US, but the very similar Ninja Foodi FlexBasket is. Keep in mind that it’s a bit smaller, with a 7-QT capacity across both cooking spaces.
To get a similar cooking volume to the FlexDrawer, you can also use an air fryer oven. We’ve tested and rated some of the best, which you can browse in our air fryer oven roundup. We also have recommendations for the best Ninja air fryer and the best air fryer overall.
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