A couple of birthdays ago, I was making a list of gift ideas for my dad. I had been eyeing up Air Fryers but didn’t want to take the plunge. We’ve all been there. We don’t want to get ANOTHER kitchen appliance that is going to take up precious counter space if we wouldn’t really use it. I have an Instant Pot that takes up space and is essentially a glorified rice cooker for me. Hopefully, one day I will figure that thing out! Anyway, I threw the air fryer on my list and forgot about it. Fast forward to my birthday, and my dad ended up picking out the Air Fryer XL because he loves that “As Seen on TV” label.
Like a kid, I was excited to get started with my brand new toy. I unboxed it and gave it a special place on my counter. The first things I did were thumb through the cookbook that came along with the fryer and found a conversion website to convert oven temperature and time settings to Air Fryer settings. I use airfryercalculator.com. It is very helpful when you are making frozen foods. My first endeavor was some simple frozen seasoned fries from Aldi. I popped them in the air fryer and converted the oven settings from the bag with the website listed above. They came out crispy and delicious. I dipped them in homemade ranch dressing and it sent them over the top. Now I couldn’t explain all of the things that I love to make in my Air Fryer in detail in this post, so I will give you my top five.
Here are five recipes/foods, I like to cook with my air fryer:
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Frozen Food
You know when you come home from a long day of work, or you’ve been home all day with your rowdy kids, and preparing dinner feels like the weight of a thousand boulders on top of you? We’ve all been there. The ‘hanger’ for our children is going to set in, and they’re going to be throwing things in the living room. Soon everyone will be crying, including you and the dog. The air fryer will save the day. For these occasions, I keep a box of mini corn dogs from Aldi around (just over $2!). These corn dogs are done in 8 minutes! That’s it! No preheating! Other frozen foods I have prepared are chicken nuggets, tater tots, and fries, and I’m sure I’ve done even more.
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Healthy Lunch
I have always had a problem coming up with things to eat for lunch because I’m not a huge fan of lunch meat, and you can only eat so many salads before you turn into a rabbit. Recently I found a recipe for air fried boneless skinless chicken thighs, and it was AMAZING. It had a spice rub that included spices I already had in my cabinet and gave me protein to fuel me for the rest of the day.
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Air. Fried. Oreos.
Need I say more? Bringing the wonder of carnival food to you, any time of the year.
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Chicken Wings
Recently, I had a party, and I wanted to make chicken wings. I cooked the wings for about 10 minutes on each side at 400 degrees and tossed them in sauce (I used Frank’s Buffalo Sauce and Great Value Garlic Parmesan). That’s all it took to take plain chicken wings from Walmart and make them into a delicious appetizer. If you plan on doing several batches, be sure to empty the cooked off grease from the catch basket.
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Reheat Leftovers!
CHICK-FIL-A NUGGETS! In December of 2019, my Chick-Fil-A had a BOGO catering platter deal. It made for a great way to feed my family dinner and then a couple more lunches for me. I would take the cooled nuggets and pop them into the air fryer at 360 for two minutes, give the basket a shake, and then an additional two minutes. People, it was like the friendly employees of Chick-Fil-A delivered them right to my table! They were so delicious. I have also been very pleased with the reheating of a bloomin’ onion, egg rolls, crab rangoon, and many other things.
These are just a few ways that I love to use my air fryer, and it can be used for so many other things. Take the plunge! You won’t be sad you did!
