I'm used to stoking the flames grilland barbecues remain one of my favorite summer traditions. But when the temperatures reach the high 80s and 90s, standing outside over a hot flame can get pretty uncomfortable. But you still have to eat, right?
If you use an air fryer, cheeseburger, salmon and chicken — Classic Grilled Food — Cook your food in the comfort of your air-conditioned home in much less time than a large oven. And best of all, an air fryer won't heat up your entire kitchen like a wall oven can.
To prove it, I tested how hot an oven and an air fryer would make my kitchen, and the air fryer overpowered the oven, barely raising the temperature at all. Air fryers also cook food quickly and require very little preheat time, so you don't turn your precious kitchen space into a sauna.
During heatwaves, creative thinking is needed to keep your home cool. Air Fryer It's the key to staying healthy during the hot summer months. And the best thing? A quality air fryer. Just $50 Air fryers also use less energy than ovens or grills, helping you save money on your monthly energy expenditure.
How warm did the oven make the kitchen after 30 minutes?
To see the real difference, I roasted chicken thighs using two popular recipes from a popular cooking site in a KitchenAid wall oven (less than 10 years old) and a 4-quart Dreo air fryer, testing temperatures before, during, and after cooking to see how much of a difference each machine could make.
The kitchen in my Brooklyn apartment is small, but it's not enclosed and is connected to the rest of the apartment. I kept the window closed during testing, Recent Research Cooking with natural gas in an enclosed kitchen can pose health risks.
A standard oven recipe calls for roasting the chicken in the oven at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. An air fryer recipe only requires cooking it at the same temperature for 20 minutes because the chamber is smaller. It only takes about a minute to come up to temperature in the air fryer, whereas an oven takes more than five minutes.
I placed a standard ambient thermometer at counter level in the middle of my kitchen, about 5 feet away from the stove. I took the temperature before turning on the oven or air fryer. I took another reading halfway through the cook time, and a final reading at the end of the cook time. Between readings, I waited for the kitchen to return to normal temperature before starting the next measurement.
The large oven made the kitchen 12 degrees hotter than the air fryer.
As expected, the oven made my kitchen much hotter than the air fryer did: halfway through the recipe (15 minutes in), the oven raised the temperature in my kitchen by 15 degrees, from 71° to 88°, making it too hot.
After cooking for 10 minutes with the air fryer set at 375 degrees F, the temperature in my kitchen only increased by 5 degrees F, from 72 degrees F to a comfortable 77 degrees F. You can feel the heat coming from the air fryer if you stand close enough, but it's not enough to drastically change the temperature in my kitchen.
read more: How to keep your kitchen cool (and save money on your energy bill) during the heatwaves
Not only does the air fryer have fewer temperature spikes, but it also takes a minute to preheat, so I only had to run it for about 20 minutes.The oven took 30 minutes to cook the chicken and 6 minutes to preheat.
Using an air fryer can help you save money on your electricity bill
During a heat wave, Air conditioning If you're already working hard, heating up your kitchen with your oven means you're working even harder and using more energy to get the room back to the desired temperature. Using your air conditioner for one 20- or 30-minute cook in the oven might not be enough to strain your budget. But spreading it out over time or into longer cooks, and using your oven during hot weather, could really have a financial impact. For more on this, read my in-depth analysis. How much more expensive does an oven cost to run than an air fryer?.
What can you make in an air fryer?
An air fryer can cook almost everything an oven can, but because air fryers are usually smaller than a wall oven, they can only cook as much at a time.
I've been playing around with my air fryer a lot this year. I've discovered the joy of cooking. Whole chicken In an air fryer, Salmon fillet And more Bacon cheeseburger. Air fryers go far beyond their reputation for cooking up crispy chicken wings and fries: You can make dinner-party-level recipes in your air fryer without literally breaking a sweat.
here 7 Foods Now I only cook in an air fryer, not only because it keeps my kitchen cooler, but also because the results are just as good or better than any other method. The Complete Guide to Air Fryerseveryone's favorite new kitchen appliance.