You might not want every appliance on offer in your kitchen. Let’s look at an air fryer. Can you use an air fryer in place of anything or everything? Well, probably not everything. It won’t juice an orange nor wash your dishes. But here is a list of appliances it can replace.
There are many kitchen appliances on the market today to help with preparing scrumptious meals. But the more you have, the more space you need to store them and the more maintenance is required to keep each in good working order.
You might want to rationalize the number of appliances you have for simplicity and have less clutter in your kitchen. So what can an air fryer replace?
If you’re not sure what an air fryer is, it’s an appliance that cooks food by circulating hot air. It has a heating element and a fan that circulates the hot air. It is a time saving device for cooking food, especially crispy golden foods you’d normal fry. And there are designs with ceramic nonstick rather than the Teflon option.
Paula Deen is one brand offering a ceramic coating…Click here for other great examples of Teflon free air fryers.
Paula Deen with ceramic nonstick accessories
Available at Amazon
Air fryer in place of rice cooker
A rice cooker uses moist heat method of cooking vs an air fryer that uses dry heat. Even so, you might be surprised that you can get by with an air fryer to cook your rice. For the how-to, see my article on rice cooker vs air fryer.
Can an air fryer replace a toaster oven?
Can I replace my toaster oven with an air fryer? The answer is an air fryer can toast, broil, roast, and reheat just like a toaster oven. You can even do pizza in an air fryer.
The advantages of air fryer: An air fryer will cook faster than a toaster oven. Plus, a typical air fryer will take up less space than a toaster oven. Do you really need that toaster oven. If you skip it, you’ll have a ton of extra space on your countertop.
Broiler / Grill
You can use your air fryer to broil or grill food.
Deep fryer
An air fryer uses the dry heat method of cooking. With an air fryer, you can deep fry without the fat.
Air fryer instead of toaster
You can get by with an air fryer instead of a toaster. For the how-to, see my article on toasting bread in an air fryer.
Dehydrator in an air fryer
Can an air fryer be used as a dehydrator? Depending on the model, your air fryer can act as a dehydrator. One example is the Ninja 11-in-1…
Ninja FD302 Foodi 11-in-1 appliance
Available at Amazon
A dedicated food hydrator takes up a lot of counter space and with several trays that’s extra washing up when compared to an air fryer.
Air fryer rather than Instant Pot / Pressure cooker
Instant Pot is basically a pressure cooker, which is great for making stews, soups, and tender meats. Air fryers are better for light crispy foods. However, some models of air fryers have this pressure cooker function, for example, the Ninja Foodi shown above, allows you the option of having one appliance to cater for both cooking methods.
Air fryer as slow cooker
If you get an air fryer that has a slow cooker function, like the one above, then yes you can do without a separate slow cooker.
Air fryer vs oven
Can an air fryer replace an oven? An air fryer can replace an oven in that you can use it to bake, roast, re-heat, and dehydrate. Where it won’t replace an oven is in size and amount of food. What you can cook at the one time is limited in an air fryer compared to the larger oven.
Do I need an air fryer if I have an oven? An air fryer complements an oven. For one, it deep fries. It’s also fast and using an air fryer is cost effective. You can get by without an air fryer if you have an oven, but the air fryer offers convenience and fast cooking of crispy food.
Air fryer vs microwave
Can an air fryer replace a microwave? An air fryer is useful for reheating much like a microwave. Though… you can use microwaves for heating and re-heating of liquids, whereas… air fryers not so much — it’s not recommended.
You have to ask yourself, what do you use your microwave for to truly answer this question. An advantage of an air fryer is that it’s smaller and lighter than a microwave oven.
Air fryer vs egg cooker
You can do boiled eggs in an air fryer so you don’t need an egg cooker. Rather than using steam or boiling water, in an air fryer you place cold fresh eggs in the basket, set temperature on 270 ºF and air fry for 17 mins. And whallah! You have air fried hard boiled eggs! Thanks to Air Frying Foodie for the clear know-how.
No need for special popcorn maker
You can make popcorn in an air fryer so there’s absolutely no need for a special popcorn maker. You can easily google the instructions but here’s a step by step for air fried popcorn from Bake It With Love.
What appliances can an air fryer replace?
- Rice cooker
- Broiler / Grill
- Toaster
- Deep fryer
- Dehydrator
- Oven
- Microwave
- Slow cooker
- Instant Pot / Pressure Cooker
- Egg cooker
- Popcorn maker
Appliances an air fryer won’t replace
- Kettle
- Juicer
- Coffee maker
- Mixer
- Blender
Final thoughts
The thing to avoid in a kitchen is a countertop cluttered with so many things you have no space to work. You might already have a coffee pot, stand mixer, microwave, spice rack, cutting boards, knife block, and a container full of cooking utensils. And so looking at how you can rationalize and make do with one essential item over many others makes good sense.
The number of kitchen appliances available is increasing so much so that a report published by Fortune Business Insights says the kitchen appliance market “is projected to reach USD 210.80 billion by 2027”.
But do you really need every kitchen appliance — can you replace some with one or two — so you’re not spending your hard-earned money on something you don’t really need? An air fryer is one cooker that has multiple functions. The above might help you with choosing the essential item for you, one that lets you do more with less extras in your kitchen.