Air Fryer Sandwiches for Every Budget — Full Breakdown & Transcript

[00:02] in the kitchen than pushing my air fryer way beyond what it was designed for. And today we are setting a brand new bar because in this video I am cooking six completely unique sandwiches at six different price points. Starting with

[00:16] just a $1 budget and working all the way up to a $250 sandwich. With the goal of using all my culinary and air fryer skills to make the best possible skills to make the best possible sandwich at every single price point.

[00:29] increasing the budget will actually create a better final sandwich. And because we're making six completely different sandwiches, I linked all of the recipes and details below in a free Google Doc if you want to follow along

[00:42] featured in the video. And we're starting things off with the $1 budget which was the most limiting creatively in this whole video. To me it sort of couldn't think of anything else on this budget. So I'm using some plain old

[00:57] white bread. I'm going to spread some butter on one side of each slice. I'll pop layer one butter side down right on the air fryer. Layer on a few pieces of cheese. Pop the second bread slice butter side up and this baby is off to

[01:10] the air fryer. All right, here we go. Grilled cheese. I'll start 370 4 minutes Oh yeah. Look at that. Give it 3 more minutes. All right.

[01:23] air fryer before. >> Yeah, in the past it's been a little bit too crunchy, but this one? Let's see. >> I love grilled cheese. >> Yeah.

[01:38] >> My god. American cheese? >> best. It's the best cheese ever. >> The best not cheese ever. >> on it and it melts and it just stays >> on it and it melts and it just stays like so perfectly. It is

[01:50] Like >> It's just It's not to me it's It's >> This kind of makes me think that like you should not be making fancy gourmet >> [laughter] >> You can't You can't beat this.

[02:06] >> Yeah. This would be worth more than a dollar in my heart. >> Mhm. >> We need to increase that budget. >> All right. So, we're moving right into the $5 price point. We've got a little

[02:19] bit of cash to work with here. And for me, $5 felt like the perfect college budget. So, I tapped back into my roots and we're making something that I lived off of for years, which are veggie flatbread melts. Now, I used to make

[02:33] because unfortunately air fryers did not exist when I was in college. But this sandwich is just a slightly grown-up version of what I used to make, yet it First, I'm going to take the zucchini. I'm going to slice them in half. I'm

[02:47] them right in the air fryer and then I'm going to put the red pepper right in the middle. Give them a little spray of oil and these are going in my air fryer at for about 10 minutes. And halfway through, I'm going to give that red

[03:00] Then once they come out of the air fryer, I'm just going to let them steam in a bowl just for a few minutes. And you can peel off the skin of the red but it's not necessary for this sandwich. And I'll just slice up all of

[03:14] thicker flatbread, but these thinner ones are nice because [music] they roll layer all the veggies right onto the flatbread and I'm grating on some melting cheese you have on hand. Then I'm going to place the flatbread right

[03:28] in my air fryer and I'll cook it at 400° for just about 4 to 5 minutes. Then while that's cooking up, all I have to do is just slice up some nice crispier, firmer lettuce. And then you just need to pick out your dressing of choice. I

[03:42] really like balsamic with the roasted veggies, but since we're tuning into ranch for this sandwich. And you can see after a few minutes in the air fryer, the cheese has melted and I have some nice crispy edges on the side of the

[03:54] flatbread. So, I'll layer on some lettuce, drizzle on that dressing, and wrap it up. Oh, yeah, baby.

[04:09] >> So simple and veggie wrap. >> Yeah. >> So simple. >> So easy. >> Oh, yeah. >> Now, we're moving on to the $15 budget,

[04:22] which in my mind felt like the perfect price point for a chicken sandwich. And you guys know that I love making chicken in the air fryer. But with a little bit more budget, we can start getting more ambitious with some of the components of

[04:34] the sandwich. So, at $15, I am making a crispy Korean fried chicken sandwich. And since we're officially moving beyond the basics, I wanted to make the perfect only are these buns going to take this sandwich to another level, but we're

[04:48] actually going to repurpose them for the next price point as well. Now, to get these buns as soft and fluffy as possible, I'm starting with a tangzhong, which is a technique commonly used in Japanese milk bread by cooking down a

[05:01] flour paste. That's going to create this super light and fluffy texture. Then to a mixer, I'm going to add my flour, salt, yeast, and water. Then I'll add in that cooked flour paste, and I'll give everything a nice mix. And I'll let this

[05:13] dough rise overnight. And the next day, I portioned out my dough and formed them I portioned out my dough and formed them into buns.

[05:41] to move into these chicken cutlets. And I'm using boneless, skinless chicken pound the thicker parts to even everything out for cooking. And one thing I've learned over years of air frying is you never use a batter. They

[05:55] just don't hold up in the air fryer. You always have to use a breading. So for this one, I'm using equal parts corn flakes and panko breadcrumbs, which I'm they're fine, but still have some chunkier pieces for some extra

[06:09] generous amount of untoasted sesame seeds before running the chicken through seeds before running the chicken through a standard three-part breading process.

[06:35] of, it's time to really flavor it up and knock out some of the finishing touches of this sandwich. First, I made a quick daikon and cucumber pickle to bring some nice crunch and freshness. Then I whipped up a sesame scallion mayo for a

[06:48] little bit of richness and some aromatic [music] flavor. Then finally, this sandwich would not be complete without a sticky glassy sauce. So I made a really simple gochujang glaze, and there's only one thing left to do. These [music]

[07:01] one thing left to do. These [music] cutlets are getting the dunk-a-lunk.

[07:15] >> Okay. Going corner by it. It's like banh mi meets sort of Nashville chicken meets Korean.

[07:27] >> I'm dripping >> dripping sauce. Wow. >> Wow. Yeah, I like the I like THE PICKLES JUST COOL IT DOWN so much immediately. It's so good. Definitely

[07:40] >> I mean >> Definitely for this. >> Yeah, yeah, that's like a Brooklyn food festival $26 sandwich that blows your your ass

[07:55] off. Not like, you know, poop your pants type of way, but like >> What's in it? Now, my main goal of this video is to show you how you can level up your air fryer game, which brings me to the sponsor of today's video, Tasty.

[08:07] And every sandwich in this video was made using the Tasty Smart Ceramic Air Fryer. And if you've been following my air fryer journey for a while, you know I've been searching for a good ceramic PFOA-free air fryer for years now. So, I

[08:20] thing. And not only does it have an excellent ceramic nonstick coating that has held up incredibly well after about a year of use, also has a feature that I've ended up using almost every single day, which is this built-in smart

[08:34] like myself or you just never want to have to worry about undercooking or overcooking your food, you can simply select your type of meat, choose your will handle the rest using its smart algorithm to perfectly cook your

[08:48] more control, you can also just pick your cooking temperature, and the probe will give you that real-time internal temperature reading, which I used for certainly relied on it for that last

[09:01] up. So, if you're looking for an air fryer that's PFOA-free, easy to clean, awesome features, be sure to check out the Tasty Smart Ceramic Air Fryer using [music] the link below. All right, my

[09:14] friends, we've made it to $25, and this is where things get very serious. Because we can stop just focusing on stretching the budget, and we can start focusing a little bit more on ingredient quality. So, at 25 bucks, I could afford

[09:27] myself some really nice freshly ground beef from my local butcher to make a burger, which I guess isn't a sandwich, it's a burger, but you know, tomato, tomato. Actually, speaking of tomatoes, this burger is not getting one because

[09:39] currently the tomatoes are growing very well, but we're still a good month away from a fresh slicer. So, instead of all the classic fresh burger toppings, we're going to lean a little more into a richer burger. And since the whole point

[09:52] fryer as much as possible, I wanted to find a way to work it in more than just cooking the burger in there. So, I'm making a batch of crispy onions. So, I fine, and I'm going to remove the tray from the air fryer, and I'll throw the

[10:06] give them a little bit of oil and a little salt. Doesn't need much. And I'm cooking these at a very low heat, around 300° Fahrenheit. And you just want to give them a toss every now and then to help them cook evenly. And you should

[10:19] get a final product similar to crispy onion strings, which will add a ton of of course, just crispy onions as a topping is not enough to carry this burger. We need a good sauce. So, I'm simply going to whip together a quick

[10:32] and ketchup, and a little bit of homemade pickle relish. Now, I used a ring mold to form the burgers nice and evenly, and then I just pressed them out a little bigger than the bun diameter because they are going to shrink when

[10:45] nice seasoning of salt and pepper on both sides. Then I'm going to use the burgers as they cook, and then I'm going to cook them at the highest temperature to cook them at the highest temperature this air fryer goes at 450° to give them

[10:59] this air fryer goes at 450° to give them that really nice sear.

[11:15] Turn off the fuse. >> This is my favorite video ever. >> [laughter] a slice? >> Yeah, I could have gone up a few

[11:28] >> Yeah, I could have gone up a few degrees. I'm like realizing 125 is rare. 135 is medium rare. >> It's good beef. The best beef you can >> It's good beef. The best beef you can >> Yeah.

[11:41] season, I just kept it kind of >> need all that stuff on there. >> Yeah. I think it's cooked perfectly. >> I don't have a lot of room. >> Don't have too much to say about that.

[11:55] >> [laughter] >> Also, this Jeff definitely worth it. >> You paid. >> Yeah. You can get a bad burger for $20.

[12:07] >> You need a lot of cooking skills, though. >> All right, the budget is doubling once again to $50, which means we're probably entering uncharted air fryer territory. We're talking about ingredients that

[12:21] certainly have never touched my air fryer and probably no air fryer that has ever been in existence. [music] Because we are making lobster rolls, which just [music] budget. Now, I did consider buying whole

[12:36] fresh lobster, but cooking the whole lobster in the air fryer just felt like a challenge for a separate video. So, I stuck with just tails, which seemed like a much safer bet. Then to prep them, I simply trimmed away those fins and some

[12:49] of that membrane along the sides of the shell to expose a little bit more meat. seasoning of salt and pepper. And remember that frozen compound butter think of a better place to use it. So, I sliced up a cube into a few chunks and

[13:04] laid them directly on top of that exposed lobster meat, and these tails were off to the air fryer. be the first person to ever cook lobster tail in an air fryer. Breaking barriers, my friends. And we've got one shot at

[13:16] this. That's for damn sure. We're at 400. We'll start at 10 minutes, but really, once I plug this in, I'm going to go off the internal temp. Once that I'm pulling it. >> here we go.

[13:29] Whoa, it's curled up in there. It smells amazing.

[13:41] lobster rolls, you really have the two main camps. The Connecticut style melted [music] butter, and the main lobster roll, which is dressed up with a personally sampled both of these in different New England spots, and they

[13:56] are both delicious, but I prefer the main style because it has a little bit to go for for this lobster roll. So, I grabbed whatever fresh herbs were looking good in the garden. I gave them a rough chop, mixed them in with some

[14:08] and pepper. >> Boom, you've got your dressing. And once the lobster was cool enough to handle, I popped the meat out of the shells, I gave it a rough chop, and just gently [music] folded everything together. And

[14:20] I could have made some homemade rolls for this. I have done that in a prior sandwich series episode, but trust me, after the final recipe, you'll see why I was just tapped out of homemade bread making. But, I did go right to the

[14:32] source and picked up some proper New England split top roll. I buttered up the air fryer until they were golden brown. Then, it was finally time to with some fresh lettuce leaves that I picked straight from my garden, followed

[14:45] by the lobster mixture, then I topped it off with some homemade pickle relish, and sprinkled on some finely sliced [music] up green onion. All right, here we go. Carly's not here for this tasting, cuz she's actually allergic to

[14:57] shellfish. So, I'll be rating this one Mhm. I haven't had a lobster roll since I went to Maine, I think, like, 6 years ago, pre-children. It's just such a burst of freshness, this sandwich. I

[15:11] mean, it's a lobster salad on a hot dog bun, so not a sandwich at all, but close enough. So, the question is, is it worth the price point at 50? I think if you're not living in a place where there is a ton of lobster around, you're kind of

[15:24] getting ripped off a little bit. Lobster can be so expensive, so so I can't say product. All right, so I have to admit something to you before we move into this last sandwich. This one makes me feel a little bit like a YouTube seller.

[15:37] I bought myself some proper A5 Wagyu because we are making the Wagyu katsu sando. And I ordered this A5 Wagyu beef strip loin steak online from the Wagyu friends. I mean, this thing comes with like a full birth certificate and a

[15:51] whole origin [music] story. And at this price point for this one steak, we have entered the highest possible rating of [music] Wagyu at A5. And this is truly with this piece of meat right here. But before we get into the Wagyu prep, let's

[16:04] shift gears to the bread, which of course had to be some Japanese [music] milk bread. And there's really no place to pick one of these up around me, so I go full [music] bakery mode. And just like the buns from earlier, this bread

[16:17] is going to be much richer. We've got some sugar in here, and we're using the dough starts coming together in the mixer, it also gets a generous amount of until it doubles in size. Then I'm going to split it into four even pieces, and

[16:34] them rest before shaping them into my final loaf.

[17:01] content already. Let's move into this Wagyu prep. So, I was able to get two beautiful pieces out of this steak, and I'm going to use the trim pieces for a don't mess this up too bad, and they'll also make some delicious snacks. Now, I

[17:14] I the Wagyu through a standard [music] three-step breading process, finishing bread crumbs. And for the final two elements, I have this homemade katsu sauce, which is basically [music] a Japanese barbecue sauce, and simply some

[17:28] very finely shaved raw green cabbage, which is going to give this insanely freshness. >> All right, we got one shot at this. >> Going to pop the thermometer right in the core. We'll give it a nice even

[17:42] >> What does that mean? mean? >> for 4:30, 10 minutes. But what's really what that says. >> And I did a few different tests here

[17:54] with the scrap pieces. >> This was more like a 120, 125. This was >> This was more like a 120, 125. This was like 110, 115. I think I'm going to go on the lower end. All right, we're done. >> See.

[18:07] >> Oh, yeah. sandwich right there. It's good we're splitting this. Here we go.

[18:20] It's pretty like buttery when I cut through, which is a good sign. through, which is a good sign. Oh, yes. I like that a lot. It's not like fully rare, rare, rare, like, you know, you see sometimes, but for my

[18:32] >> This is a one-knee sandwich. >> This is a one-knee sandwich. >> a crazy breakfast, too. First bite of the day. All right, all right, all the day. All right, all right, all right, all right.

[18:46] Wow. >> Holy Cuz I >> Oh my god. >> feel like if you undercook it more, it's a little more chewy.

[18:58] a little more chewy. >> Oh my god. I was not >> No. >> Cooper? >> Oh my god. >> And this is It's better version.

[19:11] >> [laughter] >> I'm going to nothing. >> The texture of the meat is so it's just it's like yeah, like butter. Just like >> Teeth just like sink through it. >> But is it better than the $1 girl cheese

[19:25] >> [laughter] >> So is it worth $250? >> No. >> I sold out for YouTube. Let's see a real of pocket. >> is a production budget.

[19:40] >> But it's good. >> There you go.