My Air Fryer Joy Continues - Nuggets, Bacon, Burgers & Sausages

Wuahahahaha....my air fryer joy continues!  I'm having so much fun with my latest toy.  I'm still enjoying myself cooking frozen processed food for my family's snacking happy hours and becoming constantly amazed at just how quick and easy it is to churn out food in the air fryer.

Next on the list was to make a snack of chicken nuggets (our favourite).  I got me some Ramly Chicken Nuggets  to try for the first time.  I actually saw a buyer's photo on Shopee and she was able to fit 10 nuggets into the basket and that was the reason that swayed me to get this size of airfryer in the first place. Just 4 nuggets is sufficient as a snack for one (with portion control in mind)...lol.

Ramly's nuggets have a bit of a breaded coating on the outside and are probably bigger, so I could only fit 7 - 8 at one time.  The coating came out crispy and the texture of the chicken good (almost like the texture of real chicken), not soft and mushy like some.

Again, I used the magic number (for me) of 200°C and 12 - 15 minutes for most (frozen) food...so I don't have to bother remembering all the different temperatures and timing.  Leave it a little longer if you like yours with more browning and flip it once (or twice) around the halfway mark.

Of course we needed to get the First Pride Chicken Nuggets that's allegedly rumoured to be the same ones used by McD to test if they taste anything similar.  These nuggets were slightly smaller and do not have a batter coating, so I could fit more pieces in the air fryer.

Look...does that look like McD nuggets?  We were pretty happy with the end result and it did taste quite similar to McD's as far as the texture of the chicken is concerned, just that the outer coating didn't turn out as crispy.  Then again, it may due to us air frying the nuggets instead of deep-frying.

Of course I can't vouch how far all this is true but they did taste quite similar to me (though I personally prefer KFC's nuggets).  Even if they're not, it's still worth it to make these "almost similar" McD nuggets yourself at home (with the help of an air fryer) at only a fraction of what McD charges.

Another crispy snack that everyone would want to make in their air fryer is none other than bacon, of course! ;)  I put in 3 rashes of streaky bacon but as each piece is rather long, it had to be cut in half to fit into my small air fryer basket.

The first time I made these, I had a tiny little boo-boo.  I heard this noise coming from the air fryer (after just 2 minutes) and quickly opened the dawer just to catch it in time to see the edges of the paper liners starting to burn.  The reason for this is that the paper liners are very lightweight so there's a tendency for it to be lifted (or fly up) as your food cooks.  Luckily I didn't walk away as I wasn't sure how long the bacon would take to cook.  So what some air fryer reviewers said about not putting paper liners in your air fryer without food is true as the paper, due to its light weight, will get lifted up while inside the air fryer once it's turned on (even for food that's light in weight like bacon).  So be careful.

So, the second time round, I improvised and used a small (5-inch) steamer rack to add some weight onto the paper liners.  As you can see, laying the small bacon pieces on top of the rack isn't the most ideal as they curl/shrink when cooked.  Using a small wire rack would have been better (since it'll have a much closer/tighter grid for the food to lay on) but I don't have one small enough to fit into my airfryer.

The next time I made these, I just left the bacon pieces whole...much easier to lay on my makeshift rack. Cooking bacon in the airfryer is really quick (much easier and faster than in a pan I'd say and you don't have to keep flipping and watching over them).  It only takes about 5 minutes in the airfryer (depending how charred you like your bacon) flipping once.

The clear advantage I see cooking bacon this way by laying the bacon over a rack is that the oil will drip down and away from your bacon pieces resulting in really crispy (and less guilty) bacon...hehe!

The bacon in this big breakfast platter was cooked in the airfryer...which is now my favourite way of cooking bacon.  If only I can find a wire rack small enough to fit into my small air fryer.

This insanely crispy bacon in between a buttered, toasted (not in the air fryer!), crispy wholemeal bun with raisins makes an insanely good snack! ^o^  Sometimes it's difficult to just have one (bun, I mean), so I would have two (with 3 rashers of bacon cut in two) for a light dinner instead.

My son asked if the air fryer would be successful in cooking burger patties, so I bought some Ramly (Chicken) Burger Patties to experiment.

I cooked it from frozen state (you'll need a good 15 minutes) and (as you can see) the two pieces were too big to lay flat in the small airfryer.  So I flipped them a few times during the cooking process to expose the parts that were overlapping.

Do note that you'd find quite a bit of oil oozing out from the patties (just like what is seen at the roadside burger stands scrapping away the oil on their iron grill plate).  So the best way round it would be to put it on a rack so that the oil can drip down (but that also means you can cook only one at a time).

My son said it tasted exactly like the roadside Ramly burger except without its sauce but both father and son agreed it didn't taste as pleasurable without the added seasonings/sauces that the roadside burgers come with.  I tasted one and found it rather bland too.  That's probably the reason why roadside burger stalls slice the meat in the middle and add soy, pepper, mustard or whatnots to the centre of the patty to perk up the flavour....and I guess a more bland patty can hold up the sauces (like chilli, tomato and mayo) that'll eventually go into them much better.

I was determined to make the patties taste good...so I did the same....on both sides of the patty-lah (not in the centre as I won't have the skill to slice through the already thin patty!).  I tried them with a few types (or a combination) of seasoning...black pepper, smoked paprika, garlic powder and/or soy sauce (use a pastry brush for a more even brushing).  All tasted a lot better than an unseasoned one but our ultimate favourite was the one with soy sauce.  Note that if you want to add seasonings, you'll have to defrost the patties first (but the air frying time will also be shorter).

Look at the amount of oil that oozed out of the patties (this amount was left after cooking 4 patties!).  It's both a negative and positive sight.  Negative that there's so much oil in the patties but positive that at least most of it came out of the patty which makes the guilt of eating it just a little bit lesser? ;D

If you can cook burger patties, you can (of course) cook sausages too.  These are just some common (processed) sausages I got, NutriPlus with Honey & Chilli Sausages.  Not too bad with a hint of spice.

You can cook them whole from frozen state...but the sausage skin is known to burst/split when heated. That's why you'll need to cut little slits in the sausages to prevent that from happening.  To do that you'll have to defrost first obviously.  Leave it in longer for better browning.  If you have (visiting) young nephews and nieces, you'll be their favourite aunty in no time when you make them these snacks of nuggets, bacon, burgers and sausages...lol.

After all this cooking (of frozen foods), let me show you how clean the underside of my air fryer still is.....and I've had it for more than 3 months now (and I've wiped it only once).  Perhaps the real test is yet to come...wahahahaha!

Many young adults of today who are too lazy to cook, don't want to cook or just don't know how to cook will find the air fryer a rather useful gadget in their kitchen to make quick meals as the frozen food aisle in the supermarket is a favourite aisle of theirs (and there are a lot more varieties nowadays).  They're not worried about consuming processed food and saturated fats coz, at their age, they can afford to.  They've the liberty to eat whatever they want until age catches up with them before they even start worrying about their health.

Over time, I'm sure I'll be experimenting and discovering a few new recipes or new ways to cook a certain dish or ingredient with the air fryer.  But for now, I'm happy to just use it for the very purpose it was bought for.....reheating fried food and making crispy fried snacks (with ease and speed) for the habitual snackers in my family...and if that ends up as the only two things it does, I'd still be happy with what I got out of my air fryer! ^_~