My New Toy

 
I have been intrigued with air fryers for a while, and when a friend told me how much she loved the one she bought, I was sold. I just needed to figure out where to store it. I’m running out of room in my kitchen. 

I bought the Big Boss because I got a good deal, and I could see the food cooking in it. I’m not going to lie, that weighed in my decision making.  I wanted to see what was going on. 

The first thing I made was teriyaki chicken thighs. The recipe was in the book that it came with and I try to do things by the book so to speak, before I play. The marinade was soy sauce, (or tamari for us GF folks)  honey,  garlic and ginger. Simple enough… It said to cook on the bottom rack, though I had too many, so I used both racks. 

 
Because of the sugar in the honey and the closeness to the heat source, the sugar burned, I swapped them out halfway through the cooking process. 

   

 

Because of this, I was not able to check the crispiness of  the skin, but that was my fault. 

Next up I found some sweet potato fries in the freezer. These came out perfect. Not mushy like they can be from the oven. I’ll try fresh cut fries in the near future. 

  
Even my ever skeptical husband was impressed, but next came the clean up. Which was basically two wire racks, a mesh pan, and a giant glass bowl. I hate washing mesh and wire racks. So much more surface area, so many more nooks and crannies. It wasn’t to bad though. I got them cleaned pretty quickly, and basically I just wash the big glass bowl (and worry that I will drop and break it) then I use it as a big basin to wash all the other stuff.  

The next day I was like a little kid, looking for things to cook in it. I made a pork roast, corn on the cob, avocado fries, roasted asparagus, and heated up a frozen pizza in it.  All of them turned out great except the frozen pizza, but that is hardly the fryer’s fault. 

As someone with a high maintenance baby, an almost four year old, and someone who doesn’t always feel great, I don’t always remember to get something out to thaw in the morning, and if I do, it’s wishful thinking because cooking is a luxury these days. If the stars align when the kids both nap in the afternoon, haven’t whooped me down, and I feel good all at the same time, AND I remembered to thaw something…. I should buy a lottery ticket.  With this, I can pull a frozen roast out, rub it with salt, and throw it in there to be done in 90 minutes. Now it’s not fall off the bone tender, but it’s not shoe leather either. Plus, it browns the outside as if you were cooking it on the stove. I have a lot more experimenting to do, I’ve read that taking a frozen steak, browning it with a torch or some other high heat, then baking it will give an extremely tender steak. I want to try that in this. I also want to bake with it. I want to make donuts, turnovers, maybe a cake in it. I’m glad I bought it, and can’t wait to experiment more with it!  

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