Gary's Recipeless Air Fryer Method
While I'm at the beginning at this renewed dieting and fitness journey, air frying is a strength I already have. (I'm hear because the last number of years, I haven't worked out like a boss, have gone out to eat to much, have taken in too many pointless calories in alcohol, and have not had that much portion control.) I work from home and often use the air fryer nearly every day and, often, more than once per day.
Rather than a recipe-based approach to air frying, I take an ingredient-based approach.
Veggies are the first ingredient that comes to mind. I try to have a small supply of, say, three or four air-fryer friendly fresh veggies in the fridge. Right now, that's broccoli, yellow squash, and Brussels sprouts. Often, I'll have bell peppers and asparagus. As a back up, I have a number of bags of frozen veggies in the freezer such as what's sold as fajita veggie mix, stir fry veggie mix, and others.
For proteins, I try to have a couple meats in the fridge defrosting. Toward the beginning of the work week, I might have three meats defrosting, while by the time I get to Thursday, I really only usually want to have one. (But... I need to transition to more for increased weekend cooking at home.) I love to hunt so having protein around is never a problem. Right now in the freezer for game I have elk, venison, antelope, goose, duck, pheasant, quail, and rabbit. For store-bought meat, I try to keep a supply of frozen chicken breasts and thighs mostly. Anyhow, what I incidentally have defrosting in the fridge right now is some venison chops and diced pork.
I think of starchy carbs last. Now gone are the frozen shoestring French fries. But, I still have some baby whole wheat bread, baby potatoes, and tortillas around for filling in the carb calories.
These are the core ingredients I work with and I almost always have supply (no excuse) to make a quick, one-person, air-fried, somewhat home-cooked meal.
Now, here are the additional things I always have in supply for the air-frying method I personal use. I always have a good supply of Ziploc bags for marinading and I always have a few available empty portion-sized Ziploc plastic containers for saving leftovers. I have a HUGE assortment of herbs and spices--probably 50 little small jars that I keep refilled. For the oil necessary for air frying (such as to make the herbs and spices stick), I only use cooking spray as it's enough to work the cooking process and blending of flavors without too many calories. For sour, I have a large supply with always lemon and lime juices in the fridge and different vinegars in the pantry. Finally, I almost always have a few small 100-calorie plain Greek yoghurts in the fridge, also used in marination. I also almost also have some shredded cheese of sorts that works well for melting on top, if for no other reason than dish presentation.
The combinations are countless and it's almost impossible to go wrong. Yesterday, for instance, lunch was a half pheasant breast that I marinaded in yoghurt and a tandoori spice blend with Brussels sprouts sprayed with cooking spray, seasoned, and then drizzled with a bit of Balsamic vinaigrette. To complement, I halved three baby potatoes, sprayed with cooking spray, and seasoned with a spice blended labeled as "carne asada" before air frying.
Tonight, for my wife and me, I may turkey bacon wrap blackened venison chops and complement with some sautéed yellow squash and onions, accompanied with a simple salad of arugula, cherry tomato, feta, and lemon vinaigrette dressing.
In time, you learn the different cooking times of different ingredients, sliced to different thicknesses. While I try to add the shorter cooking time ingredient to the air fry at the right point after the first has partially cooked, sometimes I don't get it quite right. Here, I simply adapt by pulling things out early for a bit to then either put back in a few minutes later or bring to full temp in the microwave.
Cooking prep time is usually just minutes. Getting a kitchen laid out and stocked to make it efficient though has taken a good time of practicing this method to using the air fryer almost daily.
Size, slice, spray, season, then sour, salt and pepper to taste. Air fry it.
In what ways do you use your air fryer similarly, and differently?
Rather than a recipe-based approach to air frying, I take an ingredient-based approach.
Veggies are the first ingredient that comes to mind. I try to have a small supply of, say, three or four air-fryer friendly fresh veggies in the fridge. Right now, that's broccoli, yellow squash, and Brussels sprouts. Often, I'll have bell peppers and asparagus. As a back up, I have a number of bags of frozen veggies in the freezer such as what's sold as fajita veggie mix, stir fry veggie mix, and others.
For proteins, I try to have a couple meats in the fridge defrosting. Toward the beginning of the work week, I might have three meats defrosting, while by the time I get to Thursday, I really only usually want to have one. (But... I need to transition to more for increased weekend cooking at home.) I love to hunt so having protein around is never a problem. Right now in the freezer for game I have elk, venison, antelope, goose, duck, pheasant, quail, and rabbit. For store-bought meat, I try to keep a supply of frozen chicken breasts and thighs mostly. Anyhow, what I incidentally have defrosting in the fridge right now is some venison chops and diced pork.
I think of starchy carbs last. Now gone are the frozen shoestring French fries. But, I still have some baby whole wheat bread, baby potatoes, and tortillas around for filling in the carb calories.
These are the core ingredients I work with and I almost always have supply (no excuse) to make a quick, one-person, air-fried, somewhat home-cooked meal.
Now, here are the additional things I always have in supply for the air-frying method I personal use. I always have a good supply of Ziploc bags for marinading and I always have a few available empty portion-sized Ziploc plastic containers for saving leftovers. I have a HUGE assortment of herbs and spices--probably 50 little small jars that I keep refilled. For the oil necessary for air frying (such as to make the herbs and spices stick), I only use cooking spray as it's enough to work the cooking process and blending of flavors without too many calories. For sour, I have a large supply with always lemon and lime juices in the fridge and different vinegars in the pantry. Finally, I almost always have a few small 100-calorie plain Greek yoghurts in the fridge, also used in marination. I also almost also have some shredded cheese of sorts that works well for melting on top, if for no other reason than dish presentation.
The combinations are countless and it's almost impossible to go wrong. Yesterday, for instance, lunch was a half pheasant breast that I marinaded in yoghurt and a tandoori spice blend with Brussels sprouts sprayed with cooking spray, seasoned, and then drizzled with a bit of Balsamic vinaigrette. To complement, I halved three baby potatoes, sprayed with cooking spray, and seasoned with a spice blended labeled as "carne asada" before air frying.
Tonight, for my wife and me, I may turkey bacon wrap blackened venison chops and complement with some sautéed yellow squash and onions, accompanied with a simple salad of arugula, cherry tomato, feta, and lemon vinaigrette dressing.
In time, you learn the different cooking times of different ingredients, sliced to different thicknesses. While I try to add the shorter cooking time ingredient to the air fry at the right point after the first has partially cooked, sometimes I don't get it quite right. Here, I simply adapt by pulling things out early for a bit to then either put back in a few minutes later or bring to full temp in the microwave.
Cooking prep time is usually just minutes. Getting a kitchen laid out and stocked to make it efficient though has taken a good time of practicing this method to using the air fryer almost daily.
Size, slice, spray, season, then sour, salt and pepper to taste. Air fry it.
In what ways do you use your air fryer similarly, and differently?
Tagged:
2
Replies
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yum!
so, your approach to meal building is very similar to ours - we tend to use electric stove, crockpot & bbq. Have hesitated to get an air fryer, b/c of the unknown.... would you say it is quicker? How did you start? with recipes and roll from there? I really haven't a clue how to begin - or size - so many look fairly small. we tend to batch cook enough for 2 or 3 dinners so we're only cooking 2 or 3 times a week....1 -
Nice! I'm a big Crock Pot user too. I also use an InstantPot a good bit as well.
I often find the air fryer the easiest and quickest for one to two person meals, especially for having a hot lunch or even a hot snack.
Air fryers are at their best for things that benefit from browning to produce a tasty crunch. Great places to start include halved baby potatoes. Just wash, cut in halves, spray with cooking oil, and season as you prefer. You BBQ. I often use grill and smoker spice mixes sprinkled on the potatoes. Herbs are really good too, such as rosemary. It only takes a few times to get a feel for how quickly things cook. To get started learning, maybe set the timer for twelve minutes and quick check every three to see how it's coming along. Plus, when you check you can give the pan a quick shake so things turn out evenly and don't stick to the bottom.
A couple great veggies to begin with are asparagus and Brussels sprouts. I find both of these especially tasty when they are browned a little on the edges. Here, just wash, trim, and for medium and larger veggies it's good to cut them down to bite-sized pieces, such as halving the Brussels sprouts. I then spray with cooking spray and season. I like balsamic vinegar on both of these veggies and I also like lemon pepper. For these, maybe you need to check as soon as nine minutes to give the first shake. You just pull the pan out by the handle, take a look to see how it's coming along, give a quick shake (maybe stir with a spoon if something's sticking on the bottom), and put back in. If you plan on doing every three minute checks with the air fryer the first three or times, you'll learn everything there is to know about how air fryers cook.
Other veggie ideas are green beans with garlic or jalapeño poppers.
You can also use the air fryer as a complement while cooking other things on the nearby stovetop. For instance, you can slice beets and air fry them while you're cooking something else and then put the roasted beets in a salad. You can also cube bread and make a small portion of healthier-than-boxed store-bought croutons.
For meats, I think a great place to start is turkey bacon. For instance, you can air fry a strip of turkey bacon to put in a salad while working on other things as part of the meal. Fish does incredibly well in the air fryer, especially salmon. And because it's so easy to check the progress while working on other aspects of the meal, I find it easier to get fish just-right flaky than other methods of cooking.
Also, think about kind of learning air frying in the order suggested above--starchy carbs and other root vegetables, to seasoned veggie sides, to meats.
I hope this gives you some ideas.2 -
LifeChangz wrote: »yum!
so, your approach to meal building is very similar to ours - we tend to use electric stove, crockpot & bbq. Have hesitated to get an air fryer, b/c of the unknown.... would you say it is quicker? How did you start? with recipes and roll from there? I really haven't a clue how to begin - or size - so many look fairly small. we tend to batch cook enough for 2 or 3 dinners so we're only cooking 2 or 3 times a week....
I can't speak to too much of the meal building. I don't cook anywhere close to every day, or even most days. However, I pretty much use my air fryer for everything that can't be microwaved. There are a lot of options in air fryers, but mine is like a toaster oven, in both size and function. It has settings for air frying, toasting, warming, baking, broiling, and grilling. I'd say it's definitely faster than other ways of cooking. I can cook a good-sized chicken breast in about 8 minutes. Even better, since most things cook in the basket or on the baking tray, I'm not constantly cleaning pots and pans and baking dishes. I use mine to cook meats, bake casserole-y things, toast waffles, heat up leftovers, cook eggs....just about everything. My original air fryer died about a month ago. I need/use it so much that I had a replacement ordered for pickup the next day. Didn't hesitate, just plunked down my money and picked up a new one. I honestly would probably cook even less if I didn't have one.1 -
mine is like a toaster oven
Indeed. Our first model was little more than an Easy Bake Oven with a fan!
We've got a family cabin with an old-school toaster oven. When I'm out there for a week or weekend, I don't do much cooking and use it almost like you're describing, even for the "casserole-y" things.
Air fryers, really, are little more than toaster ovens with a fan to provide the cooking benefits of air flow and, on higher-end models, some electronics to make more precise and (maybe or maybe not) easier to use.0 -
Ok, fav models you love, please share
speaking of grills/stirfrys and brussels - love to make up a batch rough cut strips of sweet onion & bell peppers to use as toppers - think as topper on smashed burgers. I use on chips with a little salsa & shredded cheese or grilled meats for snacks. (say 2" rough cut strips, light dressing and spiced to taste, then stir fried or grilled until tender- i use a lot of onion & garlic powder, Italian herbs and blackening seasoning for the snap.)
Brussels - One of my things is to take fresh sprouts, cut them about 1/3" wide rounds/slabs, then separate the rounds to create ribbons and include them with the sweet onion & bell pepper grills/stirfrys (and also torn fresh herb/cilantro).... can do the same with other leafy greens like kale and cut into ribbons (roll up leaves like a cigar, cut rounds, separate) - not sure how this would do in an air fryer individually - imagine they would get kind of dried -
speaking of dried/dehydrated, the ribbons could be dehydrated that way then pulverized into a powder to use dashes of in broths... I have seen the idea to dehydrate slices of tomatoes, then pulverize, sift to remove seeds, store in air tight spice bottles, use dashes to add to broths or intensify in tomato base sauces. plan to do this with the tomato overflow this summer.
@GaryM_25 & @COGypsy ~ thank you, read the ideas, pondering for later reply.... can say, y'all got me drooling though, (grins)0 -
for meal building, we have a similar process - choose the protein, add the carb/starch, load up on non-starchy veggies - it helps me to visualize the components with a 'myplate' design. we use the diabetes myplate design for a 'low carb' approach and use the MFP calculator for honing in on quantities to dish up. We don't necessarily put the food on our plates that way - tend to do a lot of salads, bowls, bentos or combo recipes....
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That's how I think about the plate too. I'll get my grains elsewhere in the day today, but here's today's work-from-home air-fried lunch.
Citrus and black pepper cod with an avocado lime dressing
The seasoning is Traeger chicken rub and the dressing is Tostito's out-of-the-bottle. Put it on a bed of arugula as there was a little left in the fridge. A total of four ingredients here and no real prep steps.
Herbed yellow squash with red mini peppers
Washed and sliced the veggies. Sprayed with a bit of oil to then topper with a mix of herbs and salt and pepper. Sautéed a few minutes before finishing in the air fryer. Often I'll split cooking time between microwave or skillet AND air fryer to get both the desired level of cooking and texture.
Total prep and cooking time, around 20 minutes. Total calories, around 420.
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Yum!!! Lunch looks delish! and elevated, good enough for a fish bistro. best yet, how easy was that??? right? seriously want an air fryer now, lol... any recommendations?
Love traeger grills & spices too! flavor just makes a whole world of difference.
bbq coal with woodsmoke chips grilled to use as toppers at a picnic with smashburgers, prepped as described above, mixed onion/pepper strips, mushrooms etc. the blend on the right also included some fresh diced tomatoes.
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I did enjoy this exchange of ideas. Thanks for posting the information.0
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LifeChangz wrote: »Yum!!! Lunch looks delish! and elevated, good enough for a fish bistro. best yet, how easy was that??? right? seriously want an air fryer now, lol... any recommendations?
We got an XL Gourmia 7 quart off of Amazon and it does great.
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I have a Cuisinart air fryer. I don’t remember the model number, but it’s the one with knobs (instead of a digital key pad) and a grill pan.0
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thank you @COGypsy & @GaryM_25 ~ the one thing I have not been able to replicate/make healthier is fried potatoes/fries - sounds like this gadget would take that on - it's on my kitchen gadget wishlist... and as I browsed them, see there's all sorts of possiblities - will be fun to explore. So glad this discussion was posted... it really had not been on my radar at all... I think this displaces the countertop ice maker and ice cream makers - there's some fab ideas in the forums for cold healthy version treats...0
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I make fries in my air fryer all the time. Fair warning--only ever from bags. I can't remember the last time I had an actual potato in the house!1
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so, i had been doing onion rings & bell pepper strips on high in the oven, like 425f. whip and dip rings/slices in egg whites, smother in panko/bread crumbs, bake. but the fries/hash browns remained a not so much - and also use the frozen - how convenient is that.
for an air fryer tip - read last night when i was reviewing machines - for freshly dipped & breaded items, chill in freezer for 10 mins before adding to air fryer - helps to reduce drips & cleanup.0 -
LifeChangz wrote: »so, i had been doing onion rings & bell pepper strips on high in the oven, like 425f. whip and dip rings/slices in egg whites, smother in panko/bread crumbs, bake. but the fries/hash browns remained a not so much - and also use the frozen - how convenient is that.
for an air fryer tip - read last night when i was reviewing machines - for freshly dipped & breaded items, chill in freezer for 10 mins before adding to air fryer - helps to reduce drips & cleanup.
That’s a great tip! My dad makes pecan crusted chile rellenos in his air fryer all the time. I’ll have to pass that along!
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One of my favorites in the air fryer: spicy chicken thighs and “fried” potatoes. It satisfies my craving for wings in a nice little healthy meal.
Preheat to 400. Add a bone-in chicken thigh, dry rubbed with spicy stuff and cubed potato around it. Spray with olive oil spray. While it cooks (about 15 min?) to get nice and crispy, I make a creamy drizzle out of Greek yogurt and spices and chop up some celery and carrots.
Plate the whole thing and drizzle with the sauce, and sprinkle blue cheese on top of it all.0
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