What Is an Air Fryer Anyway?

"An air fryer is essentially a countertop convection oven. It features a heat source and a fan that circulates hot air around the small cooking chamber. The original design for the air fryer was egg-shaped and featured a pull-out basket that looked similar to the basket you'd use in a deep fryer. That's still a popular air fryer design, but now air fryers also come in a variety of shapes and sizes."

"Regardless of style, every air fryer has two main parts: a heating element and a fan. The heating element (obviously) creates heat inside the cooking chamber and the fan circulates hot air around your food. This air circulation allows foods to cook faster, and get crispier than foods made in a regular oven because the heat gets more evenly distributed across the surface of the food."

"So, what's the difference between an air fryer vs. a convection toaster oven? Not much. Unlike convection ovens, air fryers feature baskets. The air fryer basket helps create more crispiness because the holes allow air to reach the bottom of the food as well as the top so that the food crisps all over and cooks evenly. Baskets also make it easier to toss smaller frozen foods, like fries or tater tots"

An air fryer is a compact countertop convection oven that circulates hot air via a heating element and fan around a small cooking chamber. The original egg-shaped design used a pull-out basket to mimic deep-fryer results with less oil. Fred van der Weij developed the concept in 2006 to make French fries in a healthier, less messy way; Philips produced the design and commercialized it in 2010. Air fry functions now appear in multi-cookers. Air fryers cook faster and crisper than regular ovens because circulating hot air distributes heat evenly and baskets allow airflow beneath foods.

Read at Bon Appetit