You probably have an AirFryer at home, but you might not know it

If the multifunction robot cooker had its small success a few years ago, consumers' favorite today seems to have become the oil-free fryer, or the AirFryer in the language of Gordon Ramsay. And for good reason, the promise is beautiful! As their different names indicate, the idea is to be able to enjoy deliciously fried dishes by getting rid of the most problematic ingredient in this type of cooking: oil. In short, fries would become as healthy as baby carrotsTHE nuggets as healthy as fat-free grilled chicken and Roman-style squid as healthy as steamed white fish.

To achieve this result, the trick is actually quite simple: circulate hot air all around the food. Indeed, when you open an oil-free fryer, you discover that the food does not rest at the bottom of the tray, but rather on a grid, through which the heat can pass freely.

An Air Fryer for less than 25 euros

As we can see, the few elements to bring together for similar cooking are ultimately not that difficult to bring together; a blast of hot enough air, quite powerful, and a dish that lets the air flow circulate freely. However, if you have a free-standing or built-in oven and it is not too old, it is very likely that it uses pulsed heat: a pulsed heat oven has a fan, at the bottom of the cavity, responsible for distribute the temperature evenly throughout the muffle. Very often (but not always and we then speak of ventilated heat), an annular resistance surrounds this fan to replace or reinforce the roof (top) and floor (bottom) resistances. To find out if your oven is suitable, simply open the door and look at the bottom of the oven; if the wall is completely smooth, the trick will not work. If you see a hole in the bottom, there is a good chance that the fan is hiding behind these vents.

All that remains is to find a wire basket to put in your oven, if the manufacturer of your model has not already provided you with one. If this is not the case, in a few seconds, and with the right search, you can find one for between 15 and 25 euros. The ideal is to choose one that is large enough, ideally with handles to make handling easier. The small legs are not essential, because you can place it directly on a grill, which seems to us to be the best method for the heat to circulate even better: a plate or a drip pan does not allow heat currents to pass as well. hot air.

And there you have it! If your built-in oven does not offer an Air Fry program straight away, simply choose the forced heat (or fan) cooking mode and place the ingredients to cook in the basket. To obtain a satisfactory result, the ideal is to stir everything halfway through cooking, to be sure that all the fries and all the croquettes will be reached by the hot air.

Some limitations though