Cooking an Entire Western Meal in an Airfryer

Since embarking on a restrictive diet about 11 months ago, I've been doing a lot more cooking at home and a lot less eating outside...and that's a given since doing one's own cooking would mean we control what we cook and what seasonings we put in.

To control sugar means we have to control our carbs...so, what's the best dish to make if we want to omit rice or noodles?  A western meal, of course...and a western meal of roast chicken is the easiest protein to cook and nail successfully...not to mention it's also the cheapest! ^_~

Before I started on my restrictive diet, my initial reason for getting an air fryer was solely for the purpose of making snacks and small portions of food.  Oh well, the days of eating fries (or fried processed food) are obviously over!  But I've since put my air fryer to good use...and it's now the most used gadget in my kitchen.

I make roast chicken regularly...in fact, I cook an entire western meal these days in my small air fryer since this kind of meal is very agreeable with my way of eating now (to reduce carbs and cut sugar).  My favourite thing to roast is chicken wings coz they take no time to cook...only about 10 - 12 minutes at 200°C (turning once at the halfway mark or twice for a more even browning).

If you're roasting whole chicken wings, you may need a longer roasting time.  I get my chicken wings cut at the joints and discard the wing tips (makes for easier eating).  It's not easy to get just the mid wings (my favourite section) unless you buy them from a supermarket (even then I can't find it at the Aeon near me).  I used to buy many different bottles of seasoning like garlic, onion, paprika, chilli flakes, cayenne pepper, etc. but find it rather wasteful when they expire without being fully utilised.  Nowadays, I rely on just one bottle of McCormick Montreal Chicken Seasoning (that PhongHongBakes recommended) which has a bit of everything together with some additional salt, black pepper and soy sauce...and the result tastes really good).

From time to time, I would also do a roasted (deboned) chicken leg.  This will take longer, about 12 - 15 minutes.  I cook it skin side up for 5 minutes, then flip and cook the underside for another 5 minutes.  I turned it skin side up one final time and cooked it for a further 5 minutes.

The only difference I make when cooking a chicken leg is that I put it on a rack inside the air fryer.  This is to allow the oil to drip down onto the paper liner below.  Propping the chicken leg on a rack also allows better air circulation and browning (since it's a thicker cut of meat).

Of course I can't just have the chicken alone...there must be sides (at least 2 sides lah) to accompany the main protein.  The most common (and well received) side would be potatoes (yes, must have a little carbs).

I've had it with all kinds of potatoes...the most common being the regular white potatoes I often get from the market (like Yukon Gold or Russet...I prefer Yukon Gold).  I roast them in the air fryer for about 15 - 18 minutes at 200°C depending how charred you like your potatoes.

I've had it with Japanese sweet potatoes.  These are the ones where the skin is reddish/purplish and the inside flesh is yellow.  They're ridiculously good in the form of kushiyaki in Japanese restaurants. Occasionally, I steam or boil them (which is an even healthier choice).  I steam them (whole) for at least 30 minutes but if you like it extra soft until you can scoop the flesh with a spoon, you'll need to steam it for longer.

Besides Japanese sweet potatoes, there's also the more common orange (or purple-coloured) sweet potatoes.  You roast them the same way as any potatoes although I find the texture a little bit harder than the regular potatoes when roasted for the same time but they taste better definitely.

I've not had honey sweet potatoes before and got some to try when I saw them being sold on Shopee.  Their flesh is whiter and when you press them, you get this little bit of sticky liquid oozing out.  These honey potatoes cook a little faster (only needs 12 - 15 minutes) and they taste really good.

Although roasting potatoes in the air fryer directly is the simplest and least time consuming method, I found that the roasted potatoes can be a little dry and not as fluffy.  So now I take the time to do an extra step (coz it's worth it) by steaming it first (you can also boil them) for about 10 - 15 minutes until soft.  Make sure you drain out any water (collected at the bottom of the plate) before tossing them with olive oil, salt and black pepper.

The tossing will fluff up the sides of the potato wedges and this will make them extra crispy around the edges.  The result of the steaming (or boiling) to soften them will turn the potatoes really fluffy on the inside.  This is now my default way of making roast potatoes (similar to what I first learned from Jamie Oliver except I steam them instead of boilng).

With potatoes making up one side, the other obvious side would be vegetables...and you've a great variety to choose from...starting with broccoli (which happens to be my son's most favoured roasted vegetable).  It takes about 8 - 10 minutes depending how charred and soft you want your broccoli (and my son likes it well charred).

My favourite is not broccoli (I find them a little dry especially the frizzy tops) but capsicum instead as they turn out really soft and juicy after roasting and charring.  They also cook very fast, you need just about 5 - 8 minutes.  I've cooked all 3 colours of capsicum (red, green & yellow) and find that red is the tastiest as they become sweeter when roasted compared to the other two + they're incredibly juicy and even ooze out a little chilli oil if you will.

Recently, I tried roasting green beans too.  They cook super fast, only need about 5 minutes to wilt and char (you can add 1 - 2 more minutes if you need extra charring and softness).  I now even cook them this way when I want to stir-fry french beans with minced meat coz they char a lot faster this way than the conventional way over a wok or pan.

Due to the fast cooking and encouraging results of the earlier green beans, I've also started to cook my eggplant this way (only takes about 10 minutes) since it softens much quicker and uses a lot less oil than the conventional pan-frying method.  Even when I fry it in a non-stick pan, the eggplant dries out and I keep having to add a little bit more oil + it takes forever for them to soften.  And no, this eggplant is not for my western meal...lol.

I once supplemented the vegetable component with sweet white corn, a vegetable that requires no cooking! Even better...and was pleased to know my blood sugar reading was alright after eating it (I had 1/2 a corn). If vegetables aren't available (more like when I'm too lazy to cook them), I sometimes substitute with fruits that aren't too sweet like guava, rose apple (jambu air) and mandarins.

I now use my air fryer more frequently than I do my convection oven as it can cook food efficiently and much quicker too...even though the capacity is small and I've to cook it in a few rounds (I also enjoy the perk of no washing up to do).  So, what are the 3 things I cook most often in my air fryer, you ask?  Well, it's definitely chicken, potatoes and vegetables! ;)  I even cooked a batch of roast chicken wings (for potluck) using my air fryer.

Since a western meal of chicken, potatoes and vegetables is agreeable with my way of eating less carbs, I cook and eat this regularly.  Even though I may include some carbs in my western meal in the form of potatoes (and the occasional bread), I find that my blood sugar readings are fine if I keep to one potato or a small bun (I try lah....kekeke).  The reading tends to be a little lower with sweet potatoes compared to regular white potatoes...but you will still need to control your portions! >_<

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! ^_~

My Initial Air Fryer Joy - Fries, Hash Browns & Onion Rings

I've been wanting to get an air fryer for the longest time but was undecided if I should get an air fryer oven or a typical drawer-type air fryer.  The difference between the two is obviously the physical size and the capacity/amount of food it can cook at one time.

Getting the right air fryer for your (and your family's) needs is very important so as to ensure it can do the things you want it to do otherwise it's likely to become a white elephant sitting on your kitchen counter top completely useless or underused like some kitchen gadgets can be (we all have some of those).

In the end, I settled for the smallest Philips Airfryer in the market as the key thing I wanted it to do was to make snacks and small portions of food.  The other point that swayed my decision was that I just wanted to see if I'd be happy with the taste of food that comes out of an air fryer (since my neighbour once told me that her husband likes to eat deep-fried chicken but not air-fried chicken...lol).  I also knew that I didn't need an air fryer to do what my current convection oven can.  So, a large capacity air fryer was not needed (for now) until my convection oven konks, then I'll probably consider an air fryer oven.

Once my new toy arrived (I've had it for about 3 months now), I quickly put it to the test to do the very thing I wanted it to do.....and that is to make a snack of fries (everyone's favourite)!  I usually get Simplot Straight Cut Fries but noticed this Ramly's Straight Cut Fries looked rather good visually (and by that I mean each piece is intact and not broken up).

So, in it goes (not too much overlapping) into the air fryer at 200°C for about 12 - 15 minutes.  Check at the halfway mark and give it a good shake/stir.  The heat of the air fryer is quite similar to my convection oven in that it's hotter at some parts (especially the sides than in the centre), so you'll have to toss it around (a few more times) for a more even browning (especially if the fries are overlapping).

The fries came out sufficiently browned and crisp at the edges with the insides lightly soft.  I thought this Ramly Straight Cut Fries was very good quality indeed and is priced significantly lower than Simplot Straight Cut Fries.

But my family prefers shoestring fries (like McD's) to straight cut fries as they're thinner and can crisp up better.  It's rumoured that Simplot's Shoestring Fries is what McD uses for their French Fries, so I just had to get a pack to see if there's any difference.

Just remember to season with salt (my family likes it with black pepper too) as soon as it comes out while the fries are still hot, otherwise the salt won't stick to them.  Ah, my husband proclaimed, just like McD fries....lol.  Not sure if I tasted any significant difference myself (with other brands I've eaten) but the insides were a little softer I think (which I prefer).  P/S: McCain's Curly Fries is purportedly similar to McD's Curly Fries too but I don't have a thing for curly fries, so I won't be testing them out.

Even when I seasoned the fries immediately out of the airfryer, my son thought the seasonings still didn't adhere to the fries that well, so  tthe next time I made them, I experimented with seasoning the fries first (with salt and black pepper but this time added garlic powder) before putting into the airfryer.

I've to say we were absolutely happy with the result as the seasoning adhered to the fries much better giving it a much more savoury bite.  I thought the addition of garlic powder was brilliant...it made the fries so much tastier! ^o^

Besides fries, I also like to eat hash browns and especially love to eat McD's breakfast that comes with a hash brown.  Well, apparently McD uses Simplot Hash Browns too!

So, of course I had to get some to try, right?  Into the air fryer it goes and since a hash brown is quite thick, it'll need a good 15 minutes to cook from frozen state.  I took mine out at 12 minutes and the exterior was crisp.  Leave it in for longer to get it crispier and more browned.

Besides fries and hash browns, another favourite fast food-type snack would be fried onion rings (our favourite is Wendy's).  I was at the supermarket and chanced upon these McCain Onion Rings.

These were breaded onion rings and they turned out pretty good, quite savoury in taste.  We certainly wouldn't mind making these add-ons when we're having a fast food meal.  Of course I can't vouch how far all this is true and if McD actually uses these two brands but I guess Simplot and McCain are decent enough brands for fries, hash browns and onion rings.

But an even greater use I've found with an air fryer is for reheating food.  It works really well with all things fried where you want to get that crispiness back into your leftover food.  I've tried it with many fried stuff like chicken, yong tau foo, carrot cake, vadai, wantan, sui kow, mushrooms, roti canai, pork pattties, fish cake, goreng pisang, fried popiah and all kinds of meat/fish balls among others.  I've got to say it worked exceptionally great with fu chuk, wantan and roti canai (the latter was a bit of a revelation for me).  You can get the fu chuk and wantan back to 100% crispiness...and roti canai never tasted crispier before.  You can't even get that level of crispiness if you eat at the roti canai stall.  I now have no qualms about buying fried food ahead especially roti canai for eating later (and even prefer to do that now)...but do note it works better (as in crispier) with plain roti canai than roti telur (most likely due to the egg content in the dough).

However, it doesn't work with everything.  I tried reheating (and toasting) bread but you just can't get it as crisp as the toaster oven can (it won't be call a toaster if it can't toast bread well, right?).  I guess an air fryer isn't a do-it-all, otherwise there'd be no place for other kitchen equipment to stake a claim in your kitchen...lol.

Besides the air fryer making my snack making a cinch, these paper liners were of great help too.  They eliminate the need to wash the air fryer basket (just a wipe down every now and then will do).  You can, of course, still use aluminium foil or baking paper but that involves a bit more work to line the air fryer basket properly.  I find these ready-to-use paper liners so much easier and convenient.  And yes, I use round paper liners to line a squarish air fryer basket (haha, like a round peg in a square hole)...since they fit in seamlessly and properly.

Only drawback is that they're thin and lightweight...and tend to fly up in the air fryer, so weigh it down with something (like a wire rack) if your food is not heavy enough.  Since they're so thin and cheap (less than RM10 for 100 pcs), I'd use 2 or 3 liners at one time.  I do wish the paper liners were thicker (I can't find any) so that they won't lift up but I guess if they're thick, we may not get the desired result since hot air need to circulate all around the food drawer to cook and crisp up the food.

The liners even came with a guide on the temperature and timing to use for different foods but it's not needed really.  The magic number (for me) is 200°C and 12 - 15 minutes for most (frozen) food...so I don't bother remembering all the different temperatures and timing.  I keep the temperature knob at 200°C always and use a timing of between 12 - 15 minutes.  I just play it by ear on the cooking time by checking the air fryer basket periodically.

If there's one downside to the Philips Airfryer I bought is that it's an analogue version, so setting the cooking time can be a little tricky.  You just can't be precise with the turning of a knob.  Not only that but the cooking time (as in the knob) continues to run down even when the basket is pulled out (unlike a digital air fryer where the timing will stop as soon as the basket is pulled out).  So your timing may be a bit off (if you pull out the drawer numerous times) but that can be fixed easily with the use of a separate kitchen timer.  But, if given the choice, I'd prefer a digital one (for my next purchase) for ease of use.  I didn't get a digital one for my first purchase as this was an experimental one + the price difference was also quite significant (almost twice as much).

The one thing that discouraged me to get an air fryer initially was the thought of cleaning it.  I've heard that the top of the air fryer can get really oily and dirty (from all the oil splattering) and needs cleaning regularly. So, imagine my surprise when this was not the case as I've cleaned it (wiped it down) only once since I got it. Even then, it wasn't dirty and there was hardly any oil stains.  Maybe it's because I haven't used it to cook meat from their raw state where a measure of fats, seasoning and water content would be intermixed leading to splattering?

Do note that whatever I cooked in the airfryer I can do just as well in a convection oven (like I did previously before I got the air fryer).  It just takes a little longer (twice as long actually as the fries need about 30 minutes) but you can also make bigger quantities than a small airfryer can accommodate (as you can see, I still have plenty of room for more but it's better to exercise portion control).  So, the size of the air fryer of your choice really depends on how much food you want to cook or how many people you need to cook for.

Making small portions of snacks is so easy and fast (with minimal washing to boot), there may be a tendency to reach out to your fridge or freezer more often than you should.  So, a word of caution to those who are on a diet....don't get an air fryer (or exercise utmost restraint if you have one)! ;D  Of course, these snacks aren't all that healthy to eat but try telling that to my family...so I do try to limit their indulgence (to once a week or less)...and having a small air fryer do help with portion control...lol.  Happy snacking days (or, should I say, nights) ahead! ;P