Table of Contents
Complete Guide on How to Use an Air Fryer
Air fryers are becoming more and more popular in our lives with the benefits of making fries with little or no use of grease, good for those who want to lose weight or those who suffer from cardiovascular disease, obesity. The advantage compared to traditional frying is that it will be clean without the smell of grease and not afraid of stains and smells. The fat in itself of foods has a lot of fat secretion, is quick, and extremely easy to use. Here are the guide on how to use an air fryer. Check it out!
What is an air fryer?
The air fryer technology is essentially a small grill, with an electric system on top of the convection fan and ventilation system to the outside. However, because of the compact size in the cooking cage, heat is concentrated, so the cooking is faster.
However, in using the air fryer for food processing, you need to pay great attention otherwise, it will not only cause the dish to burn, not delicious, even damage the air grill. Here are some notes when using an air fryer that does not use grease.
The advantage of the air fryer
The fact that the air fryer doesn’t get the golden crispness of a traditional deep fryer. However, the benefits it brings are significant.
Good for health
In foods with as much fat as animal meat when cooking, the amount of grease is reduced significantly, as advertised as up to 80%. In fact, we can see that after frying, some grease escapes and stays under the frying tray.
For foods that do not have oil, such as vegetables and spring rolls, if you want to fry well, you must apply a layer of oil as mentioned above. Compared with oil frying, the amount of oil here is negligible.
In short, this fryer is very healthy because it reduces a lot of oil compared to traditional frying. It is very suitable for people with fat, heart, diabetes.
Save cooking time
The air fryer design is quite optimal; the fryer tray is easy to disassemble, easy to clean, so the total preparation time and cleaning time are significantly reduced.
The time to heat the air inside is also very fast, only about 2-3 minutes. Due to the sealed design, less heat is released inside. Food cooks quite quickly, fries usually take about 15 minutes, chicken thighs about 20-30 minutes.
Optimal heat transfer, less loss out, the air fryer consumes less electricity. Add air frying, so it saves money significantly.
Luxurious and compact design
air fryers usually have an oval design like an egg. Look very compact, luxurious to create a highlight for the kitchen space.
The outer shell is usually made of shiny PP plastic, not dirty, and easy to clean. Inside there is an anti-nutritional layer that is easy to clean.
The disadvantages of the air fryer
The biggest limitation is the capacity and the price of the product (See the prices of popular air fryers today). Air fryers usually have a relatively small capacity but are expensive, like the Philips fryer each frying up to only about 0.8kg of food, with prices ranging from 300 – 500$ depending on the model. In the market, some brands produce larger fryers at a cheaper price, but the quality also deteriorates.
For the air inside to always switch fast and strong enough, the air fryer usually has to be small in design. Currently, there are very large pots or glass ovens that can put the whole chicken in on the market. It can also be called an air fryer, but it is the oven because the big design is difficult to create a constant, reflective airflow. These pots, when cooked, are often not cooked evenly; the top side quickly cooks faster than the bottom.
Another limitation is the difficulty in cleaning the heater and fan. This section is located on the top is less likely to get dirty, but sometimes grease still follows the air inlet.
Although the advertisers always say that the fryer can replace the traditional frying method the result is only about 80% compared to oil frying.
How to prepare food?
This is quite an important part of cooking with air fryer. Food needs to be cleaned and allowed to drain, avoiding the presence of dripping water remaining in the air fryer. For mothers who work late at night, before going to work, they can be marinated first and then put in the refrigerator, and when coming home from work, they always put them in the fryer without having to stand watch and worry about shooting grease. The meal comes extremely light and nutritious. Surely this will be a very smart secret that few people know.
In addition, you should also note the following points:
- Suppose you are preparing more than one food simultaneously. In that case, you should add foods with similar ripening times to the same price (for example, chips and fried chicken wings can be added together) to allow time to produce before or after to avoid the ripe condition is not yet.
- For varieties such as potatoes, fried sweet potatoes, or tubers that do not contain grease, you will need to spread a layer of butter or brush with the cooking oil outside to enhance the taste.
- After you have prepared the food, you need to clean the pot thoroughly before frying.
How to use an air fryer?
In the frying process with the air fryer, the dishes can use the air fryer: all grilled dishes are delicious with fatty foods: fried chicken wings, deep-fried, grilled meat, steak, grilled chicken, grilled fish, fried fish, fried beans, crispy roast meat.
For traditional deep-fried dishes that want to taste delicious, you need to spread the oil on or fry about 20-30% of the oil, then put it in this pot, the food will be extremely crunchy and drained. As for french fries, it is considered not as good as traditional deep-frying, the finished product is crunchy but drier.
In addition, you can defrost foods, bake molten sweet potatoes, bake cakes, crispy bread very quickly, roast nuts, dry meat, and dry fruits.
While you can set it to auto-cook, to make sure the food is evenly cooked and tastiest, here are some things to note when using a air fryer:
- The timer knob should be turned to 3 minutes to warm up the pot before putting the food in the pot to fry and fry
- When placing food in the fryer, do not place more than “MAX” of food as it may become undercooked.
- Depending on the amount of fried food, you need to adjust the appropriate time, not just the french fries, it takes 15 minutes, the chicken thighs must be 25 minutes.
- During the cooking process, the basket should be stirred to allow the food to be cooked more evenly.
- After you finish processing, you should wait a while for the heat to subside before taking out the pan, then you can continue to fry, fry the next batch. Also, if the food is cooked before the set time, you can completely turn the pot off manually by adjusting the timer knob to zero.
How to clean the air fryer?
- After preparing food with the air fryer, you need to clean the pot clean, and here is the standard cycle to clean the air fryer and note that it takes at least 30 minutes to finish processing. fryer to avoid burns. If compared with the oven, cleaning is too easy.
- Wash pots, trays, and baskets in hot water with a little dishwashing liquid and a soft cloth. Note: Pot, baking tray, and basket can be washed in the dishwasher by soaking in water if the food is not too sticky.
- If the food is too stubborn to fill the pot with water, turn it on 200 degrees for 5-10 minutes (depending on the degree of dirt). Then soak, when free, bring it to wash with a soft rag. Very easy, without the need for dishwashing oil. Absolutely do not brush the iron bun.
- Clean the inside of the pot with hot water and a soft cloth.
- Clean the heating element with a clean brush to remove food residues.
- Before storing the appliance, unplug it from the electrical outlet, make sure all the parts of the device are clean and dry.
A common mistake when using an air fryer
Put too many things in the pot
Essentially, an air fryer works like an oven with hot air that can be moved around, so putting too many things in the pot can prevent the sides of the food from reaching enough hot air. According to Byron Puck, the chef of Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Group, you should just leave enough to ensure the food is cooked evenly, delicious and crispy, adding too much can make the food look bad and soft.
Do not dry food before placing it in an air fryer
If your food has gotten wet, and not crispy, after frying, there’s a good chance you don’t de-cook the food before you put it in the pot. There have been many cases of this incident with their pork cutlets, the steam layer “cooks” the surface of the meat while what we need is a brown, crispy and fragrant rind. The way to dry is very simple, you just need to absorb the napkin on the meat before you put it in the fryer. In fact, if you fry in a normal pan, you should also dry the food before processing, the food will then be better.
Don’t clean the fryer often
When you cook more than one dish, wash the pot inside the pot before adding another dish to cook to make sure the smell of the previous one doesn’t stick to the next one. After cooking is finished, it is necessary to clean the pot, avoid leaving it intact, and put it away, as the food stuck to the bottom of the pot may spoil, smell, affect hygiene.
It is also advisable to clean the exterior of the machine from time to time and its detachable parts, so be sure to read the manufacturer’s manual to see what can be washed away.
Do not preheat the oven before adding food
We find that all air fryers recommend preheating the oven before you put the food in, similar to an oven. But many times we are lazy or forget to do this stitch. According to many experts, heating the oven for a few minutes before cooking the food will help the main food be more even at the correct temperature.
Only use the fryer for frying
Actually, the air fryer is very versatile, you can use it to cook and even bake food, so remember to use the flexible fryer you have. Grilled chicken breast, pork ribs, grilled vegetables are some of the things you can do.
Conclusion
Above are our complete guides regarding how to use an air fryer. Please read these notes carefully to be able to properly preserve and prolong the life of the product. Good luck!
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