Transcription
If there is one thing that the air fryer is best at, it's proving me wrong. The first air fryer video I ever did was honestly just to see if it was a gimmick, and from that point on, it has become the most used appliance in my kitchen. And it's clear when you take a little stroll through the internet that people are starting to move past just the standard chicken wings and french fries in the air fryer, and they're really pushing it to the limit with some wild recipes. And that's going to be the goal of today's video. I'm going to be picking some of these crazier recipes that I've seen, wow, and putting them to the test to see if they are just crazy and not worth ever doing in the air fryer, or maybe, just maybe, they're actually genius and another technique or recipe that I can put in my air fryer arsenal.
All right, first one from foodie China 888. These are chicken nugs. This one is 16 seconds. So buckle up. Chicken breast, cooked potato, onion, one whole egg, salt, corn starch, ground pepper. Blend well. Shaping to a bunch of chicken nuggets. Spray oil. Air fried 180 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes. Done and dusted. Out of this world. What did he say at the end? Done and dusted. It, oh, done and dusted. Out of this world. So the whole thing was like video game themed, I guess. And he added in the crunch at the end. Listen to the screen of this world. I will tell you right now, there's no way those were crunchy. Those were soft. That is false advertising. I'm calling you out, foodie China. I'll throw in a crunch sound effect here and there to enhance a crunch that actually exists, but you can't just throw in a crunch for something that is most likely super soft. So for my air frying experience, this is a pass for me. I've done the actual crispy nugget, which is incredible, and this just does not look good.
All right, so up next, we've got Papa buoy. Not sure how you say that. The secret to a perfect steak. Interesting. I think I've cooked a steak once before in an air fryer, maybe in a video, and it didn't come out great at all, and I've never tried again. So let's see. Let's see his secret. By the way, I've checked out other videos from him, and this guy's hilarious. A lot of people are gonna hate me for this, but the best way to cook a steak is by using an air fryer. Yes, sir. It's the fastest, bulletproof method, according to me. According to me, it takes less time than using a sous vide, a reverse searing in the oven. The most efficient way of getting a pink wall-to-wall steak. So after seasoning it, you put in the air fryer 240 for four minutes on each side. Once that's done, the internal temperature should be a bit less than 120, which means that at this point, it's rare. To push it towards medium rare and give it a bit more flavor, we're gonna finish it on the pan with some garlic, herbs, and butter. Now, this is interesting. So he is reverse searing, but instead of using the oven, he's using the air fryer, which makes a lot of sense. Rather than preheating your oven, just throw it in the air fryer. What did he put it on? So he did 240 for four minutes. Also, this steak right here for reverse sear, questionably thin. It's like three quarters of an inch. Most likely, I would just be pan frying that, a few flips, and you've got a nice medium rare steak. But we'll see what happens. Give it a bit more flavor. We're gonna finish it on the pan with some garlic, herbs, and butter. Now, the steak is already cooked, so you got to make sure that the pan is hot because you're only gonna give it a minute on each side. Unless you like the taste of rubber, then leave it on there till tomorrow and possibly burn your house down, which you probably deserve anyway. Make sure you let it rest for 10 minutes before you cut into it, and you're pretty much done. A perfect steak using the best modern cooking tool, the air fryer. So again, like I said, the steak is really thin, so you're not able to pan fry it that long after you pre-cook it. But I love the idea of this concept, so I'm definitely going to give it a try and just use a thicker steak.
All right, so I wanted to give this reverse sear technique in the air fryer a real legitimate chance. So I went with a nice big old ribeye steak right here, about an inch and a half thick. And for me, any steak that's this thick, I'm generally gonna season it the day before and let that dry brine in the fridge overnight. So I just it with a nice coating of salt and pepper on both sides, threw that in the fridge, and 24 hours later, this is what we've got. Actually, I just realized that we should have put that on a wire rack. You see that moisture there? The bottom didn't get a chance to dry out, whereas that top, it's nice and dry. So we'll get a really good sear, definitely on that side. Now I've got my Cosori light, and I love this mini air fryer because perfect fit on one steak, so no energy lost there. 240, I think five minutes. He did four minutes, but his steak was much thinner. And then in the meantime, I'll get a nice heavy cast iron pan preheating so we can go right from the air fryer while it's warm into this pan. All right, let's see. Whoa. Interesting. I think it's barely cooked on the inside. I had a feeling it's just much thicker steak. If we're doing this low temp, we're gonna need a lot longer. Let's just try eight more minutes.
All right, quick update. I've jacked the temperature up 10 degrees and added a little bit more time because I just wasn't getting much action. So right now, we're at 250 for about 12 minutes. This is what we've got. Definitely starting to cook through now. I'm happy with that. 115. That gives me a little bit of flexibility to really sear this puppy up. All right, we're preheated. I'm going to start off with a little grapeseed oil so it can handle that high temp, and he threw in some garlic cut in half just to season that oil. And then I've got my butter for basting. We're gonna go with that side first. And I love a reverse sear because your steak is already heated up, which will lead to a really intense crust rather than your steak starting from room temp. All right, let's see where we're at. Oh, daddy. Yep, that is insane. Okay, so crust incredible. Let's get some butter in there right now. We're going all out. A little bit of thyme. Crackle, crackle, crackle. And then we'll start basting. This looks unbelievable. Let me just get a quick temperature read. Oh, oh, well, right there, we're overcooked. All right, yeah, we're getting a lot of different reads. Get this thing off. Looks good though. And that's our steak. What's the under crust? I wasn't able to get as hard of a sear on that side. Look at that. Oh my God. All right, okay. What do we got here? You can see how it was a little more cooked through on the side that got that hard sear, but a nice, I would call that medium. All right, let's pick the perfect piece. I think right here. Official taste test. That's a nice first thing to eat today. That's just a really good butter basted steak. I will say, doing this for the first time, temperatures and the times were way off. That's going to take some refinement. But I think this concept's actually genius because you can do single portions without wasting energy. And if you're super tuned in on your air fryer and you just throw that in there, get it searing, have your pan preheating, I think that's a game changer right there. So FYI, I had another ribeye and I was able to tune this recipe in a little bit more at home the second time. So for about an inch and a half steak, I went 15 minutes at 240 in the air fryer until it read just about 100 degrees internally. Then I gave it a super hard sear on both sides for around four minutes aside, and this steak was absolutely perfect. Like I don't think you can cook a steak any better, and definitely a technique that I'll be using a lot moving forward.
All right, moving on. We've got feel good foodie air fryer cheese balls. Let's see what's up. These are air fried cheese balls, and all you need to make them is some store-bought dough that you want to roll flat and cut into about 42 squares. Then take your favorite cheese and cut that into about 42 cubes. The seasoning is optional, but I'm adding some parsley, garlic, Italian seasoning, and crushed red pepper on top of each. Then tuck the corners and roll into a ball. If you have time, freeze the cheese balls to help keep them intact. Okay, these look good, but so much work. 42 cheese balls, Jesus. Just make pizza. On top of each. Freeze the cheese balls to help keep them intact. Then air fry at 350 for about five minutes. They become puffed and golden brown, lightly crisp on the outside, and airy and cheesy on the inside. So good. Yeah, I bet they're good, but that is a lot of work. You could just make pizza. In my opinion, I've done it in the air fryer, and it's really good. I would much prefer to make those, uh, Brazilian cheese balls in the air fryer, which are amazing and so much easier to make. To wrap up 42 cheese balls just to get a little dough ball with melted cheese on the inside? No, thank you. Thanks for the effort, feel good foodie, but we are passing on that.
All right, next up, we have an omelet in the air fryer from cooking it. Let's see what's out. Hey, what is up guys? Maybe some more vegetables. Get some frozen broccoli, eggs, three ingredients, quick recipe. Just got an air fryer, been trying it out, and it works pretty good. I'm new to air frying. It just throws a bunch, and it cooks really fast. Took about five minutes to cook the vegetables, just to brown it off a bit. Add the egg in, and then basically just cook it forever. That's great. So I took out the wraps once that's done. It's pretty much non-stick, and I sprayed it down earlier too, so eggs come out real nice and easy. Then we got some mandatory ketchup, and that's it. You know, that is not a bad look right there. So we took out the rack, fried up broccoli and onions, and then just dumped a bunch of egg in there. It's so funny because my brother used to hack the George Foreman grill and make omelets on it, and it was not meant for that, which is what this reminds me of. Like, you're certainly not supposed to be making omelets in the air fryer, but this right here is some air fryer ingenuity that I'm always looking for, and I appreciate that. And it's at least worth a shot to see how it comes out.
All right, omelet in the air fryer. Broccoli, onion, and eggs. That's really all we need. Simple stuff. I'm just gonna dice up this onion real quick. And he was using frozen broccoli that was already pre-chopped, but I'm just gonna cut through this fresh broccoli because it's what I have on hand, and I'll cut those florets up into just little bite-sized pieces. All right, I'm working with the Cosori light. I figured this compact little cooking area is perfect for one omelet. So if you just dumped everything on the rack, I believe first, and I'm just gonna give it a spray. I love using sprays when working with an air fryer because you don't have to dirty up a bowl, you can just spray it right in there. And just a little bit of salt. You went 400 Fahrenheit for five minutes. Judging from my experience, we'll probably need a few extra minutes, but I'll try that. And then in the meantime, I'm gonna go with four of these small eggs. You added a little bit of salt, a little bit of pepper. I'm a whisk already. I like the efficiency of this recipe, and that's what's lovely in general about the air fryer. We're cooking veggies while we're prepping something else. All right, five minutes. Like I said, got to adjust. Give it four more minutes.
All right, checking in. So nine minutes total. Oh, yeah. Now that's much better. So what I have to do is not that. God damn it. I have to take this off. So we're cooking on a flat surface for the omelet part. And I made the executive decision to add just a little bit of butter to this instead of oil. And since that air fryer's so hot, it should just melt down. We want to add a little bit of flavor and a little bit of extra protection. Spread all your veggies out evenly. Dump in our eggs evenly. Let them get around there. Get around town. Get around town. And then he said, back in for five more minutes. I think at 400 again. All right, I'm gonna check it a little earlier just to make sure these eggs aren't overcooking. Oh, wow. Yeah. Oh boy, that definitely is cooked. I think the move here is just to give it an old Papa. Oh, no. I totally lied. That egg was not cooked. We are fully cooked on the top of the egg, as you can see right here. Fully cooked. Didn't want to take that any longer. Yet there was a bunch of gooey eggs sitting at the bottom. And when it comes to cooking eggs, it's all about proper technique, getting those temperatures right, so things are fluffy, so they're not overcooked. And that was just not gonna happen when we're taking heat from the top there, which is standard for most air fryers. Oh boy, this is gonna be interesting.
Bubble tea in the air fryer from Miss she and Mr heat. Let's see what's going on. 30 seconds here's fire. Bubble tea mix, black tea, sugar, and water at a ratio of one to one to one. Then air fry at 380 degrees for 5 minutes until there are some caramelized bubbles. Add 3 cups of milk or soy milk. Air fries. Wait, so she just roasted the tea. She put in a mug right in the air fryer, which is already a little bit questionable. As some camel like the bubbles. All right, so then she caramelizes the taste. Add 3 cups of milk or soy milk. Air fry for 10 more minutes. This way our milk tea will have a caramel taste, which says John tea flavor. Filter out the tea leaves. Directly pour over ice cubes. Enjoy with our homemade branches. Oh man. Okay, so then she roasts the soy milk. I guess you could just really heat it up at that point. And then she pours it over the boba. I wish our home brown sugar bowl pack, man. I don't know about that. Just trying to think, like, is that the best way to do it in an air fryer? And do I want to make this? So I want to try it or just pass? I definitely don't have the tapioca to make the boba. Maybe I can source that over the next few days, and we'll throw it in at the very end. So stay tuned on that.
And finally, the last review from air fryer Jen. This video has 16 million views, and it's on roasting chicken in the air fryer, and it's very quick. I've roasted chicken in the Instant Pot, air fryer do own a video, never just in the air fryer. So let's see what and goes down. Okay, not much info. 190 Celsius. I don't know what that is in Fahrenheit for one hour. Wow. Damn. That almost, like for a second, I thought that was a swap, like that wasn't real. But I think, I mean, maybe something about that just looks questionable. Like it looks too good, like a perfect store-bought roasted chicken from the grocery store. So I guess all we can do is test it out to see if Jen is foolish or this is actually a viable roasting chicken option.
All right, let's go for a full-on roasted chicken in the air fryer. I've got a nice four-pound bird here. I'm gonna first just pat it dry to get off any extra moisture, and then just like the steak, I'm gonna be dry brining this overnight. So I'm gonna season the entire chicken with salt and pepper on the exterior skin and within the cavities as well. And this time, I remembered to put a rack on that plate for a complete airflow on the chicken, and I'll pop that in the fridge overnight. Here's the bird, just a little tackier, ready to get nice and crispy. The question is, yeah, I'll put a little bit of olive oil just to kind of get things started, a super thin drizzle, and I'll rub that in. But we're gonna be relying mostly on fat rendered from this skin to get everything nice and crispy. So they use the roast button, which I don't have. Let's see what chicken. So chicken is 380. They had it at 375. Now I'm using the Cosori Dual Blaze here, which is a bigger air fryer, and it cooks from the bottom and the top. But generally, air fryers cook just from the top. So definitely put that chicken breast on the bottom so it doesn't overcook and that dark meat gets more of the heat. Pop that in, and we're gonna go one hour. I'll check in, you know, every 15 minutes. I'm actually nervous to press this play button.
All right, 15-minute check-in. Let's see. Whoa. Oh, it's looking good. Skin getting crispy. Probably could have tied it off a little bit for more even cooking, as you can see, things are splaying open a bit, but they didn't do that. So I just followed their technique. Just keep on going. All right, another 15 minutes. Okay, still looking really good. Let's just get a little temp reading. Whoa. So that's already cooked. Oh, Nikes, we're done. 150 is minimum for chicken. So when we're like in the middle of that chicken, we're at 150, and that will increase a little bit over time. We're gonna flip it over and test the bottom. Let's see what's going on. Yeah, not so brown on the bottom, which is a little disappointing. You know what? That feels done though. I'm happy I checked in every 15 minutes, but you cannot trust these one-minute recipes that don't tell you. You got to be able to find your own rhythm. I'm gonna let that rest just right in this air fryer since it's already on a rack for like 10 minutes, and we'll chop into it and see what's up.
All right, we've rested. I mean, it looks like a roasted chicken to me. What do you think? Not as incredible looking as one of those store rotisserie chickens, but not bad. Let's do a little butchering. Take off the wings. Wings look great. I'm gonna sample every cut because what we're really looking for is one, a crispy skin, which I think we've done pretty well, and then of course, a nice juicy, even cook on each piece. That's the hardest thing when you're roasting a full bird. Wings are great. Can't complain there. Whoa, that is juicy. Damn, do you see that juice coming out? Looks great. Okay, drumstick. Oh my God, perfectly tender. Thigh is a little bit undercooked, which is kind of just on me pulling it a little earlier. I wanted to make sure that I was protecting these chicken breasts, which are the hardest things to get right. Let's say so juicy. Look at that. Perfect chicken breast. All right, slightly under where I would want it, like we're talking a few degrees off. Now, I do think I have an advantage on even cooking with the Dual Blaze, but I still think you can pull off a great roasted chicken with just a normal air fryer with the one heating unit. So again, just like the steak, this is a super viable option for roasted chicken. Actually something I think I will be doing a lot more. And all I have to do now is tune in on the temperatures and timings. And for me, that's just adding five minutes to the cooking time.
All right, update on that tea recipe. I wasn't able to get any tapioca, but I did make soy milk completely from scratch this weekend. Soak the soy beans, ground them up, cooked off the soy milk, and strained it out for beautiful soy milk. So I'm going forward with this air fryer tea in this little YouTube mug. I've got a tablespoon of black tea, water, sugar. Boom. Praying that this mug can handle a bake in the oven. 380, five minutes. A little bubbling like she had. Now I'm gonna pour in my soy milk. Back in the air fryer for another 10 minutes. [Music] Interesting. Got like a weird film on the top. All right, again, no tapioca, but I'll strain this right over some ice. Wow. Looks good. Looks real good. Taste test. That's really good. I'm not sure if I'm tasting any sort of caramelization like she's talking about, which would be the whole point of air frying tea and soy milk. I think you would get the same results by just brewing it like a normal person. So that's a bit crazy. I'm not gonna do that again, but at least I got a delicious drink. And check out more air fryer videos right here.