If you recently purchased an air fryer or received one as a gift, you may not be comfortable cooking with it yet. Or perhaps you haven’t even taken the appliance out of its box. If this sounds familiar, you might be experiencing FOAF (Fear of Air Frying). It’s a fairly common and completely understandable condition—no one wants to waste food by cooking it poorly and throwing it away. But the fear of air frying can be overcome easily with a few tips and tricks.
Perhaps the very name “air fryer” fosters a certain degree of uncertainty and confusion: how can one “fry” using mere air? The air fryer is essentially a small, supercharged countertop convection oven. Like a convection oven, the air fryer uses a fan to circulate air and speed up cooking time, but the air fryer’s small size helps it heat faster and more evenly, making food crispy but without hot spots. In other words, the air fryer doesn’t actually fry your food but instead produces the crunchy texture of deep frying with a fraction of the cooking oil.
That, in a nutshell, is why air fryers are all the rage. They require significantly less fat than deep fryers, which can use up to 50 times more oil. While the food in the deep fryer does not absorb all of that oil, air frying can significantly cut down on the overall fat content of any dish. But to get that crispy “fried” texture faster and with less fat, a little learning may be in order. Here are five tips and tricks that will defeat your fear and have you air frying like a champ in no time:
At the bottom of this page, find 10 recipes our Test Kitchen developed specifically for your Proctor Silex air fryer:
What makes Proctor Silex kitchen appliances simply better? Our high-quality, easy-to-use appliances give you exactly what’s essential, every time. No frills, no fuss, no guesswork, no surprises. Just what you need, when you need it.
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