Over the last couple of years Air fryers have taken off in popularity, by now you may have heard your friends, neighbors and coworkers talking about buying an air fryer or receiving one as a gift. You might have also seen various YouTube, Instagram and TikTok videos and reels showing air fryer recipes’ or cooking tips.  What’s all the buzz about, what is an air fryer?, what can you cook with it?, is it worth it buying? Lots of great questions.  At Uber Appliance we will give you as much information as you can to make an informed decision on whether an air fryer is for you or not.

What is an Air Fryer?

We’ll start off by tackling the big question, what is an Air Fryer?. An Air fryer is a kitchen appliance that cooks and fries various foods without using any oil.  How is that possible you ask? Well, Air Fryers have a heating element and a fan positioned above the food basket, you set the temperature you desire your food to be cooked at and the heating element starts heating up.  The fan pushes the heated air away from the heating element and towards the food in your basket.  The hot dry air circulates around your food and in the basket creating a hot air vortex surrounding your food which is pretty much like frying food with hot oil except no oil is required.  This might be hard to visualize so we put a nice little gif to demonstrate how it works.

Air Fryers use a cooking technique which is called convection heating which relies on circulating hot air surrounding the food item.  The super heated circulating air is better at evenly cooking a food item all the way around, this heating process is superior at making food items crispy on the outside while sealing in the juicy and tender inside. Which is what you are looking for in a crispy fried chicken breast, crunchy fries with the soft golden inside, or even in a baked cake or cupcake/muffin with a nice crusty outside but soft inside.

Why use an air fryer instead of an oven?

How are air fryers different than traditional oven you ask? Good question, a traditional oven does not circulate hot air around your food, it just heats up the still in air occupying the oven enclosure.  The problem with traditional ovens is the un-even heat pockets, certain areas of the oven get hotter than other creating an uneven cooking experience when trying to crisp up foods like frozen wings, fries, onion rings and other food items. 

The other disadvantage of a traditional oven is the shear size, you need to heat up a large area to cook a small batch of food, this uses a lot of energy and makes your electric bill skyrocket compared to using a smaller self contained heating apparatus like an air fryer.

One more advantage that an air fryer has over a traditional oven is that its fantastic for college students, RV owners, On the road truckers and others that have limited space where a traditional oven cannot fit. Most college dorms allow students to bring small appliances with them.  College students love the Uber Appliance Air Fryers because they are able to make their favorite late night snack’s in their dorm without having to worry about whether their favorite grub spot is open or not, plus everyone comes over to their dorm when the smell of delicious golden crispy fries fills the dorm halls.

RV owners and Truckers also love the Uber Appliance Air Fryer, making their favorite food on the go especially since they are tight on space. Quickly pop a few frozen pizza bites, make a couple of burgers, or even a gourmet steak on the road. Beats eating fast food and other unhealthy meals when traveling.

What kind of foods can I cook in an air fryer?

Air Fryers are so versatile its unbelievable. You can Air Fry, broil, reheat, bake, and dehydrate foods in your Uber Appliance Air Fryer.

What foods can you prep in your air fryer?

• Fries
• Onion Rings
• Mozzarella Sticks
• Chicken Wings
• Whole chicken
• Chicken breasts and patties
• Steaks
• Burgers
• Fish (tilapia, Salmon, Cod, trout, cat fish and any other fish you enjoy)
• Vegetables
• Frozen foods like pizza bites, Hot Pockets, chicken tenders, chicken nuggets, and others
• Personal Pizzas
• Small cakes
• Small batch of Brownies
• Cup Cakes
• Soufflé’s
• Scones
• Croissants
• Biscuits
• Cinnamon Rolls
• Waffles and pancakes (with a waffle or pancake silicone mold)
• Eggs
• Bacon
• Sausage
• Trail mix
• Dehydrated fruits like, apple chips, banana chips, raisins and more
• Jerky (beef, venison or any meat or even mushrooms)
• Anything your imagination can come up with, experiment and let us know!

 Feel Free to check out our Air Fryer Recipes Blog for more inspiration

Are Air Fryers easy to use and easy to clean?

The Uber Appliance Air Fryers are super simple to use, most of our air fryers feature a simple to use touch screen to set food temperature and cooking time.  That’s pretty much all there is to it, simply put your food in the basket, set the temperature and cook time and let it cook until you hear the end of cooking time chime go off and your done.  We also have various pre-set buttons for popular food items like bacon, fries, steak, fish, cakes and more. Simply place the food in the basket and choose the pre-set cooking setting et voila, you are good to go.

How easy is it to clean an Uber Appliance Air Fryer? Very easy, the basket and crisper tray are both dishwasher safe.  After you are done cooking, wait till the basket has cooled off and you can just place it in your dishwasher. That’s it, its that simple.  If you don’t have a dishwasher the basket and crisper tray can be washed by hand using a soft sponge and some dish detergent, once clean and dry you are ready for your next Air Fryer adventure.  We go the extra mile by taking a damp rag and wiping down the inside of the air fryer every couple of weeks, this is not required but recommended.

PRO Tip for making air fryer cleaning easier, use some aluminum foil in the basket to hold any oil or grease that comes off the food you are cooking.  After cooking simply discard the aluminum foil and that should make cleaning your air fryer that much easier with out having to deal with nasty baked on grease.

Do Air Fryers take up a lot of kitchen counter space?

This answer depends on the size of the air fryer you choose, for a large 10 – 15 quart air fryer, it can take up a bunch of space, but those air fryers are really big and can fit a whole turkey.  If you buy the average sized air fryer a 4, 5 or 6 Quart air fryer which is plenty big for a family of 4, they do not take up a lot of counter space.  For example our Uber Appliance Premium Air Fryer Stainless Steel 5 Qt it is cylindrical shaped with dimensions of 12in in diameter and 13in tall, pretty small foot print for a large cooking capacity.

To Sum it all up:

We believe Air Fryers are a must have kitchen appliance for anyone that loves to cook delicious healthy meals at home. They do a great job of doing more with less, frying foods with air reduces calories compared to deep frying with oil, being able to concentrate the heat in a small basket versus a large oven enclosure will definitely help keep your electric bill in check as well. 

College Students, Bachelors and Bachelorettes love it making home cooked meals for a single person in a small dorm or apartment. Campers, RV owners and on the Road Truckers love it also making their favorite meals on the road with limited space in a vehicle.

The sheer number of different foods you can cook in an air fryer is mind boggling, from you can literally cook breakfast, lunch, dinner and pastries in your air fryer.  If you like to dehydrate foods the air fryer does that also, homemade beef jerky and apple chips? Yes please

With a large 5Qt capacity it has enough basket capacity to cook for a family of 4 with ease. Easy to use, Easy to clean and they don’t take up a whole lot of counter space either.  We think Air Fryers are the best thing since sliced bread and highly recommend it.  This is one Kitchen appliance that is truly a game changer for single people and families a like. Really so much you can do with one appliance it’s great.

If you liked this article and are looking for how to choose the right air fryer for you we put together a fantastic Air Fryer buyer guide here that you can check out.

WHERE CAN I FIND THE BEST AIR FRYER?

Uber Appliance offers one of the best air fryers on the market today, our Uber Air Fryer XL is perfect for any family with its roomy 5 quart basket you can air fry a whole chicken. The dishwasher safe basket and grease separator with non stick coating make cleaning a breeze just wipe it down with a damp soapy microfiber towel and toss it in the dish washer.

The Uber Air Fryer XL features an easy to use touch display for temperature and time setting with temperatures ranging from 150F to 400F, the digital display also has several pre-set cooking temperature and time to perfectly cook chicken, steak, fries, wings and so much more with a single press of a button. Every Uber Air Fryer XL with a free recipe book so that you can explore tasty meals as soon as you get it with plenty more recipe’s on our site.

The Uber Air Fryer XL’s plastic is pre-vented from the factory which eliminates any plastic smell or taste in your foods from the first use. This is one of the biggest complaint from air fryer users and at Uber Appliance we listen to our customer’s feedback and strive to provide the best experience from the first use!

Last but not least buy from Uber Appliance with confidence, we guarantee the quality of our air fryers with our “love it or leave it” 30 day free returns and free exchanges warranty. Our Uber Air Fryer comes standard with a 1 year warranty against any manufacturers defects and we offer extended warranties for up to 2 years. We have been in business for the last 5 years and we have a reputation to protect which is why we place our customers first, our friendly Customer Service Rep Jennifer is available via email 24/7 to answer any questions you might have!