#Ninja toaster air fryer space saver professional#

Jenny Tschiesche, founder of Lunchbox Doctor and author of an air-frying cookbook, has tried a few different air fryers - but the Instant Vortex is the one that has stood the test of time in her kitchen. If you do in fact think an air fryer might work with yours, read on for recommendations from Mims and a handful of other experts. It’s just about if it fits your cooking lifestyle.” You either take to it or you don’t (I have friends who love it, whereas I prefer to braise in a pot in the oven for four hours).

I think of it as similar to the Instant Pot. I was never onboard with the air fryer fully replacing everything in your kitchen. As Mims said to me, “I use it as a kitchen helper. But it doesn’t necessarily have to be that way to justify buying one. I’ve spent some time now comparing air fryers to standard ovens, and some of the people I spoke to really do use the former with much more regularity than the latter. And some come with more than one function so it’s easier to rationalize giving up the kitchen real estate (more on that below). Air fryers are a breeze to wipe down after each use so you don’t end up with an eventual, terrible deep-cleaning project (as happens with your standard oven). They cook foods way faster than a regular oven, with very minimal preheating time (if any at all), which is beneficial if you’re in a rush to eat, live in a small space and don’t want to make your kitchen unbearably warm, or need to reheat leftovers without a fuss.

Besides, with an air fryer, you’re taking “that quality and putting it in a really small contraption, which magnifies it times ten,” explains Ben Mims, a Los Angeles Times cooking columnist and the author of a cookbook devoted to the appliance.Īir fryers can also be incredibly convenient. And while some are lucky enough to have a convection setting on their full-size oven, many don’t. It works just as well whether you’re making breaded onion rings from the freezer or roasting broccoli.

#Ninja toaster air fryer space saver professional#

This is because they’re essentially small convection ovens, meaning they have a fan-and-exhaust system that blows hot air all around your food for more even cooking and browning (this is why professional bakeries use industrial convection ovens). But it turns out they also work magic on vegetables, proteins, baked goods, and, yes, toast. Yes, the classic snack-y, crunchy foods were what people talked about most when air fryers started rising in popularity several years ago (“It’s akin to deep-frying without all the oil” is basically what I heard over and over again). But now, many interviews for this piece later, I finally understand their appeal. I used to be an air-fryer skeptic, believing them to be unnecessary, flashy appliances that were meant to make healthier versions of French fries, mozzarella sticks, and wings - and not useful for much else.