For me, the air fryer has worked wonders with frozen appetizers. I’ve been doing a lot of Asian and Indian cooking from scratch lately, but always like to have a pre-made frozen appetizer to accompany it, such as dumplings, spring rolls, samosas, etc. The air fryer has been absolutely PERFECT in cooking these little morsels through and giving them a nice crisp outside.
Pan-frying frozen dumplings has always been nightmarish for me because of oil splatter everywhere. Just the other night, I popped eight of them into my Chefman for 8-10 minutes at 400 (highest setting) and they came out browned and crispy, almost like if they were done in a pan. No grease. No splatter. I should have taken a pic but I was a few drinks into the evening.
The spring rolls and samosas come out better than an oven. I always ignore temperature and just use 400 (but I will check after the first five minutes to see how they are progressing and will sometimes rotate the trays if using more than one). Generally, 8-10 minutes seems to get the job done.
While I have not been crazy about doing the entree in there (chicken cutlets came out just like they would in the oven, and pretty “blah” at that), for smaller finger foods, I cannot complain. One of my favorite kitchen gadgets.
I’m thinking of upgrading to this model for various reasons - have you air fried wings? I’m wondering if it is a mess to clean up. My air fryer is easy - rinse and into the dishwasher. I’m wondering about dripping into the oven. Thanks!
I’m going to try wings this weekend, and I saw an interesting question on the other air fryer thread about whether we can roast or air-fry quails, which sounds like a delicious option.
I agree and I have to think about that. I guess you can actually stick the tray underneath. The basket that comes with the oven fits in one of the ‘racks’ so I guess that would allow you to slide the tray as a drip catcher, but I wonder if that might interfere with the heat circulation.
Questions for air fryers owners, do you think you can make this - crispy squabs or quails like on the photos below? Crispy skin and even coloring with dark soy sauce and unlike random burned spots when cooked with an oven.
I’ve been checking on line to see if anyone has advice and it looks like two options:
use the basket with the the tray on a rack underneath it as described
forgo the basket and use the tray with the enclosed rack to lift the food up. i wonder though if that lifts it up enough for as good as the circulation should be on the underside of the food. the video reviewers seem to say it works well. I was able to find small trays as an alternative to my old breville smart oven tray that was getting pretty beat up - so worst case scenario is there may be higher racks that can help with that if the basket proves ineffective.
I’ll try the basket this weekend with the wings and report back!
I would think using the roasting tray the wings would not be as crispy. It the basket with the elating tray underneath might work. Thanks for being my guinea pig!!
Edited to say - someone said to put a tray of potatoes under the wings and Let the chicken fat drip on them.
I like the crispiness of the wings and how they came out. I was so focused on the recipe, and trying to get crisp skin that I was not as prepared on using the basket. I should have rubbed a bit of oil on it, and forgot. Will help with some sticking (wings has some oil, so wasn’t as bad). The regular tray is slightly smaller than the basket, and I was freaked out that oil was dripping down the few spots that weren’t protected. I didn’t notice anything upon taking the wings out, but I switched or to a slightly larger pan when I flipped the wings. I also should have put some foil on the tray the first time, but again forgot.
As to the wings themselves, this recipe turned out a bit bland, which is a bummer, so needed some extra salt at the end. I think I’ll tweak this recipe, or try a different one next time. But at least a thumbs up from me on the surf getting in this oven.
Edit: I should also add that I coated the wings with the seasoning and baking powder overnight in the fridge, uncovered, to help with drying out the skin. This may have allowed these wings to get more crackly than usual.
I just got my Breville - what did you do to catch the drips? Did you put the roasting pan on the tray underneath? They look great! I have never used anything to crisp the wings, they just got super crisp in the stand alone air fryer. How long did you leave the wings in baking powder? They look great. Thanks for the report!
I started with the roasting pan, but switched over to a regular small baking sheet that is just a tad bigger. The roasting pan that comes with the Breville is fine, but you may notice that he “handle” ends is slightly rounded so the lip of the pan is thicker than a baking sheet of similar size with a thin rim. It just made be feel better than this was catching more of any potential fat dripping down. It didn’t drip that much, but I also had smaller, flatter pasture chicken wings. After I posted, I did clean up and probably noticed a bit more fat that popped and sizzled on the walls. I should have probably worried more about that.
I’ll be curious now to try it without baking powder, but use about 1 tsp of baking powder per pound of meat, mixed with sal. Rub it on the wings or any other meat you want to aid in drying out baking, roasting or air-frying the next day. and leave it uncovered in the fridge overnight. Per Serious Eats (where I first read about this), it does seem to help not only in drying out the skin but the browning. I had some wings that had nice bubbly skin, giving it an extra crisp texture.
I made wings last night. I used a larger baking sheet to catch the drips - boy did it drip - but it definitely affected the outcome. I saw the underside was not getting brown or crisp so I turned them and it took an extra few minutes. In the end they were juicy and crispy. Not sure what I will put under them next time.
That was definitely B.C. (before coffee).
