The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
‘Air Fryer Perfection’
Tips, recipes from America’s Test Kitchen help you get most from kitchen gadget.
When it comes to kitchen gadgets, I could probably be best described as the curious but skeptical type.
A few years ago, at the height of its popularity, I tested recipes and wrote about the cult of the Instant Pot. To be honest, I wasn’t sold on the merits, except as a sort of Swiss Army knife-like device for speeding things up.
On the other hand, I’ve always had use for the good old crockpot, which has been around so long it’s become sort of campycool, and is still ever so convenient for parties and potlucks.
I rediscovered that when I tested recipes from “The Chef and the Slow Cooker” (Clarkson Potter, $29.99) by James Beard Award-winning chef and cookbook author Hugh Acheson, who surprised me with some pretty sophisticated dishes.
The latest gizmo to find its way through my front door is the air fryer. Like the Instant Pot, it’s spawned Facebook groups, while capturing the imagination of home cooks with the promise of healthier fried foods.
Visiting some online sites, and looking through a batch of air fryer cookbooks didn’t exactly excite me, though. Then I found “Air Fryer Perfection” (America’s Test Kitchen, $24.99) from the team at America’s Test Kitchen.
You probably know the TV show. And if so, you might know the Test Kitchen motto: “Recipes That Work.”
Even better, in the introduction to the cookbook, the team collectively declares that they were skeptical at first, but the more they tested, the more they liked the air fryer.
I found that to be true, too, especially when I used recipes from the book, which goes to great lengths to explain “why this recipe works.”
I learned that air fryer cooking produces real food, relatively fast and easy, with less fat, and minimal mess. Maybe best of all, it’s ideal for cooking for two — though that means it’s not really suitable for large families.
To find out even more, I called up Jack Bishop, the creative director of America’s Test Kitchen, and the guy you see taste testing stuff like pasta sauce and almond butter.
True to his TV persona, Bishop was detailed and enthusiastic talking about air fryer cooking. But he cautioned that getting great results takes a bit of practice, along with the right recipes and techniques.
“Before we do a book on a new piece of equipment, the first thing we do is go out and test all the models,” Bishop said. “And I would say we were fairly skeptical about air fryers in general. So the first thing was to convince ourselves that they actually have a place in the kitchen.
“They are little convection ovens. They do a really good job with all those things you might consider oven-fried, whether it’s chicken Parmesan, or chicken parts, or all the potato things. And they do it with some advantages over oven frying, and over deep frying, too. They don’t need to preheat. They don’t heat up your kitchen. They’re really very easy to clean. So, they passed the first test as far as something that actually has value in the kitchen.”
Of course, the second test was to find out all the things you could cook with an air fryer.
“It’s really great for cooking salmon,” Bishop declared. “You put it on a foil sling. There’s no mess, there’s not really much smell, it’s kind of guaranteed to work, and it’s certainly easier than sauteing two pieces of salmon in a skillet. It’s a good example of something that before we started we never thought we’d be cooking in an air fryer, but it really worked.”
As far as what kind of air fryer you should buy, you can find recommendations from America’s Test Kitchen in the book and online (americastestkitchen.com/ guides/air-frying/the-best-air-fryers). But Bishop has some general recommendations.
“Among the things from the testing that apply no matter what model you’re looking for, we liked the drawer models rather than the lid models,” Bishop said. “They were less messy and seemed safer, and they take up less space on the counter. We also liked the digital models rather than the ones with dials. And you definitely want a nonstick surface on the basket.”
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Have an air fryer? Try out these recipes,
I always look forward to Sam Sifton’s chatty cooking newsletter. I’ve come to trust his judgment in steering me toward recipes in their daunting database that I can confidently execute.
As The New York Times’ food editor and former dining critic, Sifton is surrounded daily by some of the most gifted culinary professionals in the business. He’s cooked alongside renowned chefs to learn their secrets. But what truly makes his food writing so relatable is that he’s a husband and dad who genuinely loves to gather people around his own table, and believes the world would be a better place if more of us got in the habit of it. His new book, “See You on Sunday: A Cookbook for Family and Friends” (Random House, $35), is designed to help us do that.
He supports that thesis with personal recipe favorites more familiar and comforting than cutting-edge, each geared to feed roughly six, but easily scaled up to feed more.
Chapters are centered on crowd-pleasing themes such as Big Meats, Big Pots, Taco Night, and Pizza. Beyond the recipes, he works in tips for setting a nice table, carving a ham like a pro (and turning leftovers into split pea soup), roasting a chicken to perfection, and making the best garlic bread ever.
He won me over with cheddar-enriched Steak and Guinness Stew served over buttered egg noodles. And I can attest that A Good Meat Loaf lives up to its name — even moreso with mashed potatoes and the Quick-Cooked Collard Greens he learned from famed Alabama chef Frank Stitt.
The main trick to hosting a successful Sunday dinner? Don’t stress. Just do it. “Sunday dinner isn’t a dinner party,” he writes. “It is not entertainment. It is just a fact, like a standing meeting or a regular touch football game in the park. It makes life a little better, almost every time.”
That’s great advice, any day of the week.
Susan Puckett is a cookbook author and former food editor of The Atlanta JournalConstitution. Follow her at susanpuckett.com.