The Lazy Way to Master the Air Fryer

[00:00] So I think most people get air fryer's all wrong. They are not just machines for making French fries and wings. Yes, I do make both of those things a lot in the air fryer, but I think the biggest benefit is not just crispy food

[00:13] with less oil. It's actually convenient, ease, and speed. Because when I'm the most exhausted or I'm short on time or I just don't feel like cooking at all, that's when the air fryer shines. And today I'm going to be showing you my 10 go-to recipes

[00:26] and techniques that I've developed over the years that are absolute life savers at getting food on the table fast, even when I'm at my absolute laziest. And to start things off, coming in at number one

[00:38] are meatballs in the air fryer, which for me are huge go-to to just have a nice protein source that comes together quick with very little cleanup. Now, these sweet potato turkey meatballs that I've showed you in the past

[00:50] is what got me into air frying meatballs in the first place. But more recently, I've just been doing a very standard beef meatball recipe. I dumped in some ground beef, some finely chopped sweet onions, finely chopped garlic, and parsley,

[01:02] one egg, and salt and pepper. And I just mix the filling together with my hands until it's all well-incorporate. Now, one of the reasons I am obsessed with air friars is their ability to batch cook. Since it's a much smaller machine than your oven, you can cook in small batches

[01:15] to bring together these individual meals very quickly. So I keep this ground beef mixture in the fridge and when I'm ready for a simple meal, I'll take it out of the fridge. I'll roll a few meatballs right into the air fryer.

[01:27] Give them a quick spray with some oil. Then I'll throw them in the air fryer at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for around 8 to 12 minutes, depending on the size of meatball that you roll. And boom, with very little cooking effort,

[01:39] I get a nice crispy and juicy meatball. Now, actually, for lunch today, I had this stew and I thought it'd be good with some meatballs on top. And honestly, they don't need to be in ball form.

[01:52] If you're feeling really lazy, just rip up the beef right in there and roast it up. But another great option to serve at these meatballs is number two on this lazy air fraying list, Palenta fries, which I've been making all the time recently.

[02:04] They are so simple to me. All you have to do is add one cup of Palenta to a pot or pan. And for one cup of grains, you're gonna need three cups of water. So what I like to do to add a little more flavors, I'll take one cup of some nice concentrated chicken stock.

[02:17] I'll add that in again, optional, but this will greatly enhance the flavor. And then I'll finish with two cups of just water and I'll season that with salt. And then on a medium high heat, I'll stir the Palenta until it starts getting smooth.

[02:29] And at about five minutes, it thickens up nice like this. And I've got one of these little square brownie pans with some parchment paper. I'll add my Palenta in, I'll do my best to smooth it out. It does not have to be perfect. And I'll throw that in the fridge to cool and set up a bit,

[02:41] which really only takes about one to two hours. And then when it's cool, I'll remove the entire block of Palenta and I'll cut them up into sticks. These are around one inch by four inches long. And it gives me around 14 to 15 fries, which is really two batches worth in my air fryer.

[02:56] So that's a nice two meals I can get at it. I'll layer one batch in the air fryer. I'll give them a spray with oil. And I'll set my air fryer at 375 degrees for 10 minutes. Then the fries get flipped over and air fried

[03:08] for another 10 minutes. And you get these super crispy, flavorful Palenta fries that are nice and tender on the inside. And these are delicious plain on their own. You can dip them in any type of sauce you want. But I'm bringing these first two recipes together.

[03:22] I'll serve the meatballs over the Palenta fries and just douse it in some marinara sauce for an incredible meal. So number three on this list is bacon, which is quite possibly the easiest way to cook bacon

[03:35] with by far the best results. So what you're gonna do is layer up your bacon right in your air fryer. And you can slightly overlap it to fit more, since of course it's gonna shrink as it renders. And I air fry the bacon at 375 degrees Fahrenheit

[03:49] for about 10 to 12 minutes, depending on the thickness of your bacon. Now that bacon is gonna be cooking away, making your house smell incredible, but your job is not done yet. What you're gonna do is take any type of leftover bread product

[04:03] that you have or tortillas work great for this. I had a few pieces of this leftover homemade sandwich bread that I made. You can throw it in the food processor. But since I have a few minutes, I'm just gonna chop it up nice and fine with my knife.

[04:15] And boom, bacon is done. I mean, what else could you possibly want with such low effort? That is perfectly crispy and tender bacon. But we have all of this delicious render fat

[04:27] at the bottom of the air fryer tray. So what I'm gonna do is take out my rack. And yes, you can cook on the bottom of your air fryer. I'll dump in all of the bread along with some chopped parsley and I've got some homemade green onion salt

[04:40] that I'm sprinkling in. I'll give that a mix so that bacon fact gets absorbed right into the bread. I'll air fry that again at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for around five to seven minutes until those bread crumbs are nice and crispy.

[04:52] But again, your job is not done yet. In the next five minutes, you should be preparing a salad, which is exactly what I'm gonna do. That morning I went through the garden. I picked some fresh kale and the cucumbers are starting to come in like crazy right now.

[05:06] So I finally chopped the kale, got that in a bowl, diced up some of the cucumber, added in some sourcrow, grated in some nice aged cheese, chopped up a few slices of that crispy bacon. And just in time, those bread crumbs are ready

[05:19] to go nice and crispy. They get dumped in and how good does a creamy Caesar crispy bacon kale salad sound. That's all this salad needed to bring it together. If you want this creamy Caesar recipe,

[05:31] I've written it down below in the description. And this salad would be perfectly delicious on its own. That is a great meal, but it is not my favorite meal. My favorite meal happens when we throw in what's coming at the number four spot on this list,

[05:44] left over pizza in the air fryer. I've been making a lot of New York style pizza lately. And one of the reasons I love making it, it reheats much better than a more delicate neopolitan pizza, which is just better serve fresh.

[05:59] I'll make a few pizzas at a time. I'll of course eat some fresh. I'm not an insane person. But what's better than pizza say once a week is pizza multiple times a week. So I'll store some.

[06:11] I'll throw that in the fridge or a free some. And if your pizza's coming right out of the fridge, throw a few slices in the air fryer and cook them at 375 to 385 degrees Fahrenheit for just around three to four minutes.

[06:23] Which completely brings your pizza back to light. And if you like a really crispy crust, I think pizza potentially tastes better out of the air fryer versus fresh. And to me, this is one of my favorite meals. Pizza and a salad, don't know why,

[06:36] but there's just not much that can beat this combination of foods. It's just such a well-balanced and satisfying meal. Now, before we move on to the next recipe, I want to tell you about today's sponsor, which is T-File and their infrared air fryer,

[06:49] which is in charge of making all the delicious food in this video. And T-File was on a mission to really bring air frying technology into the next generation with the debut of their infrared heating system. Most common air fryer's cooked food

[07:01] with one of these classic heat lamps. But this infrared heater is made of carbon fiber, which heats up to 750 degrees Fahrenheit in just 45 seconds, saving you time by eliminating any need for preheat. And the infrared heat actually penetrates deeper

[07:14] into your food, leaving you with a juicier interior while still getting that crispy exterior. And the air fryer has a completely metal interior eliminating any plastic odors. And the basket tray actually has a special air flow design

[07:26] that removes the need for shake. And at 6.3 quarts, I think this is the perfect all-purpose size air fryer, where you could cook up a nice batch of fries or even bang out an entire full meal and one go. And of course, it has that great window with a light,

[07:39] so you can watch your food really transform right before your eyes. And you can check out this infrared air fryer on T-File.com. All right, so we're moving on and at number five and six on this list, make a really simple and satisfying meal.

[07:53] At the number five spot, we've got air fryer, Baba Ghanouche, or eggplant salad, depending on how you prepare it in the end. And for this air fryer technique, I prefer using these medium sized eggplants, which just roast up very well in the air fryer.

[08:06] You just pop them right in the air fryer, no tin foil, no nothing. It's as simple as that. I roast them at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. And after 20 minutes, I'll check the eggplants by pressing in the skin.

[08:18] And if it doesn't feel extremely broken down in mushy, you want to keep air frying the eggplant. Usually they need a little bit more time. Mine needed 15 more minutes at the same temperature until the inside is completely soft like this.

[08:33] That is how you get a really good eggplant salad or Baba Ghanouche, when that eggplant totally cooks and breaks down. Now while I'm bringing this dip together, I'm gonna take advantage of that time by air frying some pito,

[08:45] which is coming in at the number six spot. I had some leftover homemade pitos, but of course store bought works great for this as well. And I'll cut them into little triangles. I'll toss them right into the air fryer. I'll give them a spray with some oil.

[08:57] I'll hit them with the salt and I had a nice little Middle Eastern spice mix. I sprinkle that on, mix everything up and these get air fried at 375 degrees for five minutes, which should give us just enough time to finish this dip,

[09:09] which starts by scooping out all of that nice, mushy eggplant right onto the cutting board. I'll add in some fresh parsley. I'm gonna grate in two garlic cloves, and then a few spoon drizzles of some nice tahini paste,

[09:21] a squeeze of fresh lemon juice and finally some salt and pepper. And right on my board, I'm just gonna use my knife to simultaneously chop up this mixture and mix it together to get your desired consistency,

[09:33] which for me looks just like this. And then what's coming out of the oven at the perfect time is beautifully brown crispy, it's soft on the inside pita chips, ready for some dipping action.

[09:45] Thanks, yes. Nice, ooh, chunky pita chips. Yeah. Mmm. Mmm. Wow. This is like a zero dish dish. You didn't use any dishes. You made it on the cutting board, right?

[09:58] That's true. Zero dishes, plating. Wow. This is dank. Yeah. Wow. The best pasta can do you show over here. Thank you. All right, so I've cooked a lot of crazy things in the air fryer, and this is definitely one of them.

[10:10] Many years ago, I thought it'd be fun to try to make ribs in the air fryer. And they were good, not great, but good enough to keep on trying the recipe and refining. And as air fryer technology got better,

[10:23] and my technique got a little better, I started getting wonderful air fryer ribs. And of course, if you have a full rack of ribs or a few racks and cook them in the oven or throw them in the smoker, the air fryer is not the place to do it

[10:36] in multiple batches. But if you just have a small portion of ribs like this that can fit conveniently in your air fryer, that's when this becomes a good technique. So what I'll do is I will dry off my ribs,

[10:48] I'll season them with some salt pepper, and I have a little barbecue spice here. And then they get wrapped in tin foil first and I'll place them in my air fryer at 280 degrees Fahrenheit. And I'll start by cooking them for one hour. After an hour, I'll just insert my knife

[11:01] to check in on them. And at this point, it was just a little bit tough. That knife should just slide through like butter. So they went back in the air fryer to cook for another hour, nice and low and slow.

[11:13] Once you see those bones at the top starting to pull away from the meat, that's a good sign. You can move on to the next step, which is why I love making ribs in the air fryer. I'll toss them with your favorite barbecue sauce.

[11:25] And you're gonna throw them back in the air fryer uncovered, and I'll cook the ribs at 390 degrees Fahrenheit for just around 10 minutes until you bake in that sauce, until everything just caramelizes and gets nice and crisp.

[11:38] Now again, these ribs incredible on their own. Sometimes I just can't resist and I just will eat a few ribs for dinner or for lunch, or for breakfast, who knows? But in the theme of this video, we're grouping these meals together,

[11:52] which brings me into number eight, air fryer french fries, which of course you've seen me do many times on this channel, but I wanna focus more on the technique I use to eat french fries all of the time. And this year we have the biggest potatoes

[12:05] that we've ever grown. These are some beautiful rosettes, which of course are perfect for french fries. So I'll clean off the potatoes. If I'm feeling lazy, I'll keep the skin on, but generally I peel them because my kids like fries

[12:18] with the skin off, then I'll slice them into fries. And the sizing is totally up to you. These are slightly on the thicker side, but sometimes I will go McDonald's thin with these fries. And then I'll give them a quick boil, just until they're cooked through,

[12:30] but still holding their shape. You don't want these fries falling apart in the air fryer. Then once they're drained, I'll dump the entire batch of fries in the air fryer for their first fry, quote unquote fry.

[12:42] I'll give them a spray with some oil, give them a little shake, and I'll cook them at 375 degrees for 15 minutes. Which after that amount of time, they're just slightly starting to brown up on those edges,

[12:54] and that's all we need to get the party started. Now this was just one batch of potatoes. Generally I cook two batches at a time, and then I'll dump all of those into some type of food container and just store those in my fridge.

[13:07] So really what I'm doing is meal prepping french fries. These fries require so little oil that I can eat them sustainably throughout the week. So all I have to do is take out that container

[13:19] of prepped french fries, toss a handful in the air fryer, and the second fries around 10 to 15 minutes until they are perfectly golden brown and crispy. And all they need is some seasoning, and then I will serve these on their own, for sure.

[13:33] But for this meal, french fries and those air fryer ribs, that satisfying, that is an incredible air fryer meal. All right, so in my top 10 air fryer video that I put out last year, I started out by getting a whole chicken,

[13:45] breaking that down into pieces because I use a lot of those different pieces for different recipes. And I love making different styles of chicken in the air fryer, but when I'm feeling really lazy, what I like doing is just roasting the whole bird in the air fryer,

[13:59] which again, might seem a little bit crazy. But if you follow this technique, it's actually very efficient. It's a great use of space. So I get myself a nice whole chicken, I dry it off, I season it with salt and pepper, and I do like to stuff it with some onions.

[14:12] Whatever you have lying around and a little bit of citrus, I've got some orange here. And I'll pop that on some type of rack for airflow. I'm just using my splatter guard here. And I'll throw that in the fridge to dry brine at least overnight, which I think is essential

[14:25] when you're making a roasted chicken. It's just gonna make your bird a little more tender, a little bit more juicy. And as a lazy cook, I'm always thinking about how I can be more efficient in my time. So coming in at number 10, we've got air fryer roasted veggies

[14:38] that are gonna happen right along with the chicken. In this case, roasted beets, which I've been harvesting for my garden all season long. And I'll cut the stems off for the months in tin foil. I'll drizzle on a little oil, some salt,

[14:50] and just a little bit of vinegar. And I will wrap that up into a nice little package and just sneak that in the side, anywhere you can fit that. And what I do is I roast this chicken at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes.

[15:03] And that will get the top perfectly golden brown. And I'll flip the chicken over. I'll keep those beets in the whole time. And I'll cook it for another 20 to 25 minutes. It really depends on the size of your bird.

[15:15] And this will get the other side nice and golden brown. Most importantly, the chicken will be completely cooked through. And the best way to check this is just with the temperature probe. And I mean, talk about efficient use of space.

[15:27] We took up that whole air fryer. We got a perfectly cooked bird that I now, of course, have this roasted chicken. I can bring together a bunch of meals. For this one, I just threw in some seasoned escrowl into the air fryer. I just cooked that down, chopped that up with those roasted beets.

[15:41] A little bit of that chicken, hit it with some dressing. I got this beautiful, warm, roasted beet escrowl chicken salad. And there you go. That is my lazy cooks guide to the air fryer. When I'm feeling super lazy and those thoughts of takeout

[15:55] start infiltrating my brain, there's no better tool to ward off and fight the expensive takeout that's probably just going to be all right versus a home cook meal that you can whip up in minutes with little effort in the air fryer.

[16:10] See you next time.