Why air fry foods? Air frying is a fantastic way of cooking foods with hot circulating air. It’s one of the most popular ways to cook crisp foods and it growing in popularity everyday.

25 Reasons to Love-Hate Air Frying with your Air Fryer | AirFryerWorld.com

Why Should You Air Fry Foods?

Obviously, we’re obsessed with it that’s why we have this website dedicated to this appliance. But there’s some reason why we think you might hate it too. Let’s dive deeper into all these possible reasons to love and hate air frying. Our resource below talks about all the tips with owning an air fryer.

Why We Love Air Frying: Reasons to Air Fry 

  1. Crispy foods : The hot circulating air close to the food make it crispy and amazing.
  2. Heating leftovers. The air fryer is perfect for reheating foods to get a crispy texture: pizza, chicken tenders or anything that could use quick crisp without turning on the big oven.
  3. Cooking frozen foods. Yes, you can really take food straight from the freezer and cook it in the air fryer. Just like that. Here’s our crazy awesome list to get you started with frozen foods in the air fryer. 
  4. Cooks quick because of the hot circulating air. No need to pre-heat your big oven for a small serving of food. Within minutes you can have your easy meal. 
  5. No preheating necessary. You can if you want but it still cooks quicker without preheating. We talk about this subject about preheating here. 
  6. Perfect to cook for 1-2 people or even up to 6. There’s so many different styles out there on the market, it’s crazy fun to follow all the new styles. Yes, you can even have a whole big conventional oven dedicated to air frying. Here’s our Guide to Best Air Fryers. Have fun!
  7. Uses less oil. You can get crispy food without using a lot of oil! Yes, it’s true. Try our crispy chicken wings recipe without adding any oil at all.
  8. Healthier ways and options to cook your favorite foods. If you love vegetables or lean meats, you can cook them quick and easy. All you need is a spray bottle and a light spritz will do the trick. Here’s our discussion on what oils are best for air frying.
  9. Better than deep frying. You can still get a similar texture without all the grease, calories and cook healthier food.
  10. Easy to clean. So many of these models have non-stick or ceramic interiors. All it takes is a few minutes to soak in hot soapy water. Then all the food wipes away easy peasy.
  11. Great secondary cooking device when your traditional oven is full. Awesome for holidays or big parties where you need to cook side dishes or appetizers or side dishes.
  12. The air fryer can cook a full turkey! It’s a game changer for Thanksgiving and holidays. Trust us. Here’s how.
  13. Perfect For chicken wing lovers: air frying is awesome and no oil. 
  14. Bacon bacon and more bacon! WOW, this is the total game changer if you love bacon without all the hassle of splatters of cleaning. Here’s our recipe to get you hooked.
  15. You don’t have to heat up your house in Summer when you’re craving something warm, roasted or deep fried.
  16. It’s great gift to give everyone for birthdays and holidays. If you’re tired to giving Mom or Dad the same gift certificate every year, then gift them with an air fryer. They’ll love it!
  17. Great for RV or Trailer Camping. We’ve heard that many folks love taking it on their camping trips in their RV. It’s a quick way to get food crip without having to start a bon fire.
Air Frying the Chicken

Why You might Hate Air Frying: 

  1. Takes up alot of countertop space. Yeah, if you live in a tiny NYC apartment even a small capacity air fryer will take up a lot fo space. Then you’ll have to decide if you’ll be cooking with it enough to justify the space. 
  2. It starts smoking when cooking fatty foods. This can be a problem, especially if you like to cook greasy, fatty foods or have little circulation in your house. Here’s our talk on Why your Air fryer is smoking.
  3. So many different styles and sizes hard to choose. It’s a fast paced industry and it seems like everyone is coming out with this appliance. Too many choices. 
  4. Because it cooks so crisp on a small container, you can’t cook a ton of food. Sure, previously there were only small options out on the market. But there’s new and larger ones being developed as we speak!
  5. You food doesn’t taste good and gets dried out. If you’ve only tried fries and it tastes dried out, then you’re probably not cooking it hot enough. Or quick enough. It takes time to familiarize yourself with the air fryer. If your first dish is a fail, do you research and try again at a different time or temp.
  6. You’re burning your food before it gets cooked through. Same as above.
  7. They’re loud and you hate the noise. True, there’s some models that are very loud. And there’s others that are more quiet. But it’s true there has to be some level of noise to get food hot, crispy and yummy. There’s always a trade off.
  8. They’re not cheap. You’re looking at investing an average of $125 for a decent air fryer. Don’t buy the cheapie little ones for $30 because if you’re serious about using it, a $30 model won’t last. Our advice to you is to start saving or ask Santa for a nice Christmas gift.
  9. You tried it once and your food sucked. You can’t give up on just your first try. It does take time and all models cook a little differently. There’s no “one recipe fits all for air fryers”. You’ll need to make adjustments here and there to finally get the food the way you want it.

Hope we gave you enough reasons to you should air fry food! Let us know what you think in the comments below. Thanks!

Visit our Complete Air Fryer 101 Tips and Troubleshooting Guides!

Best Air Fryers for Air Frying | @AirFryerWorld

Here’s our list and discussion–> Best Air Fryers

Different Styles of Air Fryers (Models or Categories)

  • Basket/Bucket Style – Food is added to a basket or a “bucket” and then air fried with a hot circulating fan on top. Bucket styles have one main compartment and has an insert that keeps the food slightly elevated, allowing grease and oils to drip to the bottom. Some basket styles have a handled basket that actually separates from the main bucket. This basket is what keeps the food separated from the oil drippings. This is the most common style where recipes will say “shake” because the basket/bucket allows you to do that.
  • Oven, Rack or Countertop Style – These are normally larger than basket styles and usually have wire shelves to cook foods in 2-3 layers. These interior styles are laid out similar to your regular ovens, only difference is that they are much smaller. These styles allow you to cook more food or different foods on the racks. Because the heating element is on top, the top rack gets the most heat so what ever you cook on the top rack cooks and crisps quicker than the bottom racks. If you want more even cooking on all the racks, you have to rotate the racks often to the bottom can be switched to the top and vice versa. There’s no “shaking” the food with these models. You have to pull out the rack, then flip the food.
  • Hybrid Styles (pressure cooker/air fryer combo in one unit) – These are usually the largest of all the units because they have two different cooking elements. There’s a pressure cooker feature and air fryer heating element all in the same appliance. It’s great if you want to cook something in the pressure cooker that normally doesn’t crisp, then use the air fryer element to finish it off.
  • Halogen Air Fryers

    – These models have a top heating element with a handle that covers the main glass cooking compartment. It’s heated halogen light that circulates starting from the top heating element. The hot circulating heat then cooks the food in the large glass bowl. You can’t “shake” the food in these models. You have to flip the food. Yes, you can cook a whole turkey in them. Here’s our detailed whole turkey recipe and write up.

  • Stirring Paddle or Stirring Blade Style – These styles normally have a lid that you lift up and down to cover and air fryer the food. Sometimes you can lift out the cooking compartment to “shake”. There’s small rotating blades that that gently turns or stirs the food while air frying. This helps maintain even cooking without having to stop and shake, stir or turn the food.

  • Air fryer lids– The newest toy to the air fryer world. You can your existing pressure cooker and these air fryer lids fit on top. These lids make it easy to air fry food or crisp food that was cooked in your pressure cooker. They’re a convenient way of adding an air fryer feature to your cooking without having to invest in a dedicated air fryer. If you’re limited on space and are already a fan of pressure cooking, these lids are great.

    • Oil-less deep Fryers – these aren’t marketed at “air fryers” but it essentially uses air fryer technology. Unlike traditional “deep fryers”, these big drums look just like the deep fryers but they don’t cook with oil. They cook by circulating hot air up and down the large drum where you place your food. It’s made for cooking whole turkeys, roasts and big meats without all the oil. Here’s our oil less whole turkey recipe and write up.
    • Rotisserie Feature: Some air fryers offer a Rotisserie feature or a rotisserie cage to add you food into. The turning “rotisserie” feature cool, but expect these models to be large in size. This feature is normally found in oven style air fryers.

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    25 Reasons to Love-Hate Air Frying with your Air Fryer | AirFryerWorld.com

    This article was originally published in 2020.