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Air fryers are a more fun, healthier and more economical alternative compared to other electric kitchen appliances. Best of all, you don't have to use copious amounts of oil, which is perfect for your health and your wallet. Here are a few tips that can help you make better and healthier food with your air fryer.
1. Don't forget to mix
Cooking with lots of oil, while unhealthy, also has some beneficial effects on the cooking process. The oil helps the food mix properly while cooking. This doesn't happen when air frying since the circulating air isn't strong enough to move the food's different components.
Make sure to open the air fryer at least a third into the cooking process and mix the food at least once to ensure that everything is mixed properly. Some people rotate and mix the food halfway through the cooking process, but it all depends on the type of dish and the ingredients.
2. Leave some breathing room
One of the most common air frying mistakes is overcrowding the cooking chamber. Deep frying is easier for some people since there is a visual indicator of how much food can be cooked at an instance since the oil will just overflow if there's too much.
Air frying, however, doesn't have that and people can overstuff the chamber and the food won't cook properly. This is one of the main reasons why some people also get disappointing results. If there isn't enough space for the air to move around then the untouched areas of the food will remain raw or half-cooked.
3. Use a kitchen spray bottle
While air fryers don't use as much oil as deep fryers, the cooking process isn't exactly oil-free. Manufacturers just say that to get more sales. In fact, people need to cook with a small amount of oil to improve taste and texture. Cooking without oil also makes it harder for you to get the food since it can get stuck to the metal or plastic surfaces. A spray or two of oil can help lube things up. Use a kitchen spray bottle to control the amount of oil in your food.
4. Let it mellow
Despite what other people would say, do not air fry food straight out of the fridge or freezer. Let the food mellow down to room temperature without compromising its freshness. Air frying room temperature food help speed up the cooking process and also produce a crisper coating.
5. Experiment
Air fryers aren't just for frying. There is more to this machine that meets the eye. You can cook a wide variety of food such as lasagna, noodles and even homemade pizza. We can attribute the air fryer's flexibility to its design. Air fryers have more in common with a fan oven than a deep fryer.
A quick search online for air frying recipes will reveal thousands of fun and creative ways to cook food with an air fryer. Just make sure to read the manual first to ensure that you're doing things safely and properly.
6. Proper maintenance
Just like any machine, air fryers require the occasional TLC to ensure safe and proper performance. Air fryers aren't very complicated machines and don't ask a lot when it comes to maintenance but that doesn't mean that you should shirk responsibilities.
Some of the easy things you can do include regular cleaning. Clean the air fryer every after cooking to ensure that odours don't become permanent. Stray food bits can also attract pests and other bacteria. Don't forget to wash the removable basket if it has one.
