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

The Best Bacon Sandwich I Ever Made

And just like that, Chinese New Year (CNY) was over.....it came and went without much fanfare as I had expected.  There were no invites for makan gatherings (at home or otherwise), so no sit-down multiple-course dinners nor yee sang tossing (it's no fun tossing alone or in small numbers).  It was a rather quiet affair all by ourselves really (other than a meet-up meal with my mom).  Even she didn't want to dine out due to the increasing number of cases, so I brought a yong tau foo meal to her home instead.  This has to be the quietest CNY I've had in recent years...with lots of time to do what else but cooking.  So.

I've made a lot of bacon sandwiches in my life.....and I mean a lot!  But they were usually made with fried streaky bacon stuffed between two slices of bread (usually Gardenia).  So, on a Sunday afternoon, I thought I'd make them again for our light lunch...but make it a little bit more special-lah since it was still Chinese New Year.....and it turned out to be the best bacon sandwich I've ever made! :P

For my special-a-bit-lah bacon sandwich, you first start with store-bought butter buns from a bakery (instead of the usual mundane Gardenia bread...lol).  These were from Ficelli (formerly known as Fougasse) and they were shaped like a croissant (RM3.30 for 3).  I'll tell you why this is a better choice in a little bit.

And what's better than a butter bun....even more butter on the bun, of course (as Paula Deen says "mo-butter-mo-betta" coz there's no such thing as too much butter)! :D  So, I sliced it open but not all the way through as I wanted it to maintain the croissant look and so that the fillings won't fall out during the eating process.

Talking about cutting, I don't have a proper bread knife + the bun was so soft it was difficult to slice through (I ended up tearing it apart with my fingers, so the first one looks a bit cacat with jagged edges).  That was before I realised that I could cut it open with my kitchen scissors.  Because they weren't cut all the way through, the inside of the bun could not open up to get charred marks.  So, if you like your bun more toasted, by all means, cut it all the way through so that it can lie flat in your toaster oven.

Second, you need good tasting bacon and this time I tried something new...I got this premium wood smoked streaky bacon from another pork specialist shop in my neighbourhood (RM22.50 for 500g, not too much more expensive than the usual ones I always get).  And, no, back bacon that's drier and chewier won't work for me either, it has to be streaky bacon. ;P

Can't say I detected any extra smoky taste in the bacon but I did notice that the slices were much thinner and, because of this, they crisped up even more when fried.  Can you see just how paper-thin they are until they're almost see-through? ^_~

They're so thin that they take on this wavy shape when fried.  Now this looks more like a piece of bacon I see actors biting into on TV....wakakakaka! :D  And when it's thin like this, you know it'll be super crispy but not hard (like some of the previous ones I've bought can be).

Now to assemble my best bacon sandwich.  After the bun has been buttered and toasted, it's a few layers of Japanese cucumber (I like to use a peeler to slice them into thin ribbons, that way it can cover the whole bun and the slices won't fall of when you bite into them like the thicker slices of cucumber tend to) followed by a piece of omelette and a layer of crispy bacon (stuff as many pieces as it can hold or as you like).

This became a light lunch for three.  My son commented that it was the best bacon sandwich I've ever made because of one, the type of bun used and two, the super thin bacon.  Because it's a butter bun, the butter (on the whole bun) will help char and crisp up the outside of the bun as well when toasted making it all glossy and buttery.  That's why I think a butter bun is ideal.

So, guess which two my son chose.....the two most charred ones, of course, but he said he was being thoughtful so that his parents won't have to eat the overly charred ones (so considerate of him...lol).  The bun is crisp on the outside but remains soft and fluffy inside.  It's just different from using two slices of toasted white (or wholemeal) bread. ;P

Since this bacon was extra thin and crispy (without being hard), it had a nice crunch with just the right amount of savouriness.  What can I say, it was super delicious in our books! ^o^

Actually, besides butter buns, it works just as well with raisin buns.  I would get the raisin buns (RM4.50 for 3) instead if they run out of butter buns.

The studded raisins add sweetness to a bacon bun.  Thought I'd show you these two rather pretty-looking angpows that I received (I understand that these were just two of 8 designs from Citi).

I used one-half of the 500g pack bacon to make the bacon sandwiches and the other half for our not-so-big breakfast....simple but good.

On a little side note, I must have been living under a rock or something that I wasn't aware McD had started using soft buns for their breakfast meals until I chanced upon them recently via ShopeeFood (you see, I've stopped having McD's breakfast meals for quite a while already as I didn't like the dense and chewy texture of their McMuffins).  Well, it looks like I've not eaten their breakfast for at least 3 years since these buns were introduced way back in 2019! :O

My favourite is their Sausage & Scrambled Egg Sandwich Breakfast Meal (RM12 with hash brown & coffee) and I've had this quite a few mornings already.  I like the soft buns and the scrambled egg is quite fluffy (but can differ from branch to branch...I've ordered from 4 different McD's and obviously some do the scrambled egg better than others).  It comes with cheese and mayo (sometimes I even forget to request for no cheese but nothing a squeeze of chilli sauce can't fix + luckily, this cheese isn't too pungent anyway + chilli mixed with mayo tastes almost like Thousand Island...haha).

Oops, sorry for the little digression....back to the bacon sandwich I made over CNY...which incidentally happens to be the best bacon sandwich I've ever made (even my son concur).  And for that you need 1) a toasted soft butter bun (with more butter in between) and 2) paper-thin wood-smoked bacon to make it work wonders.

I guess that's how I will be having my bacon sandwich from now on! ^_~  But if you're like my blogger-friend, phonghongbakes, you'll probably make sandwiches with atas-punya sourdough bagels that I reckon is just as good.  She's done it before with bak kwa, ham and (I'm sure) bacon too at some point.....hehehe! ;P