OK I succumbed and got an air fryer.

[Workingman]

My fan assisted 20ltr mini oven gave up the ghost after six or seven years so I got an air fryer. What a waste of money! It does nothing my old fan assisted mini oven could not do, even chips / fries or whatever they are called this week, and I rarely eat them anyway. At 11ltr it is huge and will only do a small, small, chicken and it sounds like a jet engine taking off!

Decent sized pizzas, forget it. I now have to make two minis. Bread, only a small loaf. Curries, spagbols and c-con-c are carp because it does not do low and slow. Cheese toasties - no! Forget stir-fries and anything rice related, and how do you do a Cottage pie, braised steak and onions or a chicken chasseur?

I'll stick with it for a while, but it does not do the foods I eat anywhere near as well as the old mini oven - and it is no cheaper to run - it has a higher wattage but the times are similar. As autumn and winter set in I will be going back to the slow cooker and gas hob, and even the microwave to reheat my cookathons.

If anybody has any tasty meals I can try I will gladly accept suggestions.

[meriad]

Frank, what type of air fryer did you get; one with drawers or one that looks like an oven? And what brand?

I've got one that looks like an oven and do my pizza's in there now - I only use the big oven when I have lots to do (which doesn't happen often at all). Yes it's small and I have to either squish the pizza in or cut some of the sides off, but other than that pizza's come out really well. I made some puff pastry things the other day and struggled with them a bit because midway through cooking time you have to swap the trays around because the back top definitely cooks hotter than the front bottom. I've never done a whole chicken in mine, but regular chicken comes out just fine.

As for the curries, c-con etc..... I do mine on the hob or in the slow cooker so never used mine for that; but my airfryer the lowest temperature it goes to is 65 degrees and maximum time is 1 hour

I don't think there is all that much difference between a mini oven vs the oven air fryer that I have - it's when comparing to a big regular domestic oven that the energy and time savings come in.

[Workingman]

Ria, it is a Tower twin drawer machine and I already hate it.

My old mini oven was about the size of a microwave. It had a light, was fan assisted, had two trays. a toaster element and went from 80 to 220²C. It was effectively an air fryer before air fryers became a "thing". I could do a 10" pizza in it no problem and also loaves, Yorkshires etc. in my silicon cooking dishes. Stew type meals (spagbol, c-con-c) could be done in a casserole dish though I do prefer them from the gas hob or slow cooker.

It was my day-to-day cooker / oven as I have not used the main one for about 15 years - that is now a pan "cupboard".

I'll put it on Gumtree to see what I can get or it can go to someone on VV if they want it.

BTW what is the difference between a whole chicken and a regular one - more legs, wings, bigger breasts?

[Kaz]

Don't ever change, Frank xxx

[meriad]

:lol: Don't ever change, Frank xxx

Frank, my brother and his wife have a two drawer air fryer and recently when they were here and I was making a pizza in my oven like air fryer they commented that that's something they couldn't do in theirs. Equally, things like fries or breaded foods like chicken nuggets, schnitzel, mozzarella sticks etc definitely come out better in theirs than mine. For your needs I think the drawer air fryer is the wrong option and you'd have been better off with one similar to mine (which, as said previously, is probably more like a mini oven anyway)

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[Workingman]

You got it Ria, especially your observation of the foods they do well. They all seem to be good at the sorts of foods found in fast food places, and they are not for me.

This is the one I am looking at buying or something similar as I do not really need the rotisseris function, but I do want the fan-assist. It is very much like the one that died