Wednesday, September 16, 2020

To Air Fry or Not to Air Fry?

The Skinny on Air Fryers

Air fryers weren't on my radar until about a year ago.  I thought they were just for cooking high fat, deep fried food.  I didn't know how wrong I was!

It all started when a colleague asked if I'd be interested in buying one second hand from his sister-in-law.  Apparently, she's a hoarder and her family was staging an intervention. They were forcing her to have a yard sale to get rid of everything but the essentials. Among her other treasures were 5 air fryers, still in their boxes.   Other friends in the office overheard and said they use theirs all the time and I should jump on this.  I figured I'd it give it a try. Unfortunately, the air fryers sold out at the yard sale before my colleague arrived.  But I was intrigued so I looked on Amazon and found one that was under $80.

Contrary to creating non-skinny foods, air fryers provide an easy way to eliminate fat from your diet. They help you cook food that mimics the taste, texture and look of fried foods with a fraction of the fat and calories.  This is mainly accomplished by eliminating most of the cooking oil.  In most cases you only have to spray the food with a cooking spray like Pam.  And yet the food tastes anything but skinny!

Maybe equally important: they cook food in a fraction of the time of your conventional oven.  A large chicken breast takes 16 minutes. You can cook all of your dinner (veggies, potatoes, etc.) in the fryer and clean up is really easy.  Mine doesn't even require pre-heating. 

Here are pictures from a few skinny dinners:

You can cook good old fashioned fried chicken using a breast or thigh, bone in or boneless dredge them in flour, egg while and panko:



             Skinny classic fried chicken.  


 Boneless, skinless chicken breast, sweet potatoes and peas



But you can also keep it simple and skip the four, egg and panko and just use spices and oil:



Crispy skin, juicy meat


 

    Skinny and simple



And your options are not limited to chicken.  I will be posting recipes for fried eggplant, artichokes, buffalo cauliflower and other delicious, skinny options.  I will also have tips on what to look for when purchasing an air fryer.  They are not all created equal.  

Stay tuned for more to come!  Perhaps you'll be an air fryer convert, too.