New gadgets - air fryer and dehydrator

I just bought both of these. Basically for free, because I used gift cards for both of them.

Both are compact models - Dash brand air fryer and Hamilton Beach brand dehydrator. Neither are high-end products, but both get generally good reviews with a handful of poor ones mixed in, so hopefully will be suitable for my needs (one person, tiny kitchen, not intending to use daily).

Just curious who else has these and what you make with them. I’m planning to make veggie fries, chicken wings, and chips with the air fryer (and maybe vegetables as well), and am planning to make vegetable leathers, crackers, cereal, and chips with the dehydrator.

I have an air fryer and I use it every single day… I make tons of stuff in it… now that I have one I couldn’t live without it. I’ve made everything from steaks, to fresh fries, shrimp, toasted kale chips, toasted pumpkin seeds, pork loin, chicken nuggets, whole chickens, game hens, wings, fish, oysters, bacon wrapped scallops, crawdads, lobster, crab, pretty much anything else you can think of.

One nice accessory is a spray bottle that’s specifically designed to mist olive oil (I don’t thibk general purpose spray bottles will really cut it)

You will love it. The small size might be frustrating at times.

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Might I suggest, when you get good at air frying, is to invest in a Breville Smart Oven. It’s small and does everything, including roasting, toasting,you name it. Not cheap, but worth it.

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Yummy. You are making me hungry!

Yeah, it’s a bit of trade-off. I either get a small size (which also means cheaper unit) and may have to do some things in multiple batches, or I get a big size and then have to live with no counter space. Everyone told me to get a 6 qt Instant Pot and I went with the 3 qt one and love it, even though I have to do things like an entire butternut squash in two batches. So I think the small size will be OK for me for now. But my dream is to have a giant kitchen where I can fit full sizes of all appliances, have a giant freezer, a ton of counter space, two sinks and a dishwasher, and a walk-in pantry… (I think I need to win the lottery…)

I have a MISTO bottle that I use to spray olive oil. So that is taken care of, at least. The air fryer comes with a recipe book, apparently, so that should be good to get me started. :smiley:

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I have a toaster oven…is this similar to that? (I basically only use my toaster oven for warming up leftovers, melting coconut oil, and making toast for breakfast or sandwiches. I would get rid of it if not for the fact that I use it daily.)

If you get the SmartOven you can put away just about everything else. It even takes the place of a full sized oven.

We’ve been using it as our primary oven while our kitchen is.being remodeled, and may not give it up!

I was reading about this after you mentioned it. They look pretty complicated.

So if you were to sum up the advantages of a SmartOven in 3 sentences or less…

Air fryer, dehydrator, proofer, roaster,Baker. Very simple to use just looks complicated.

One benefit to having different devices is that if you batch cook for the week (which I do), you can have multiple things cooking at once.

Scotch eggs are fun in the air fryer too…

I frequently make whole meals in mine too… like I’ll crack a couple eggs into a small Pyrex bowl, dump in some hash browns and sausage links around the bowl and cook the whole thing together… so far just today I’ve mads hash browns and French fries in mine and will be using it for meatballs tonight… I use it for everything

Check out “this old gal” air fryer group on Facebook

One big reason I ordered this is because I can literally never eat anything deep-fried, because all restaurants use potatoes in their deep fryers. So I am looking very forward to being able to eat some freid food! Can’t wait to try low-carb fries, onion rings, chicken wings—yum!

Thanks for the Facebook group recommendation, too!

Ok, now you have crossed into the land of sacriledge. I am all for cooking substitutes for most things, but onion rings are damn near perfect coming out of the fryer. We break out the deep fryer each summer, and make onion rings every weekend. I choose not to believe that an air fryer can make a decent ring.

Challenge accepted. :wink:

And not only will it be with an air fryer, it’ll be without wheat or egg. :smiley:

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Can you make that completely and totally gluten free onion rings that are low carb?

Looking forward to seeing that recipe.

Yep, that’s the goal!

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