Can you really cook Christmas dinner in an air fryer? We put it to the test
We challenged our expert to cook a festive feast in her air fryer. Here’s what she learned.
We challenged our expert to cook a festive feast in her air fryer. Here’s what she learned.
Christmas dinner can be a challenge for even the most experienced cooks, which is why I believe we should all take a helping hand wherever we can. This is why I decided to see if an air fryer could help in producing one of the most stressful meals of the year.
And clearly I’m not the only one looking for a shortcut. Searches for “Christmas dinner in an air fryer” and “roast potatoes air fryer” have soared by more than 5,000% in the last month, according to meal delivery service Hello Fresh as the nation collectively wonders whether this countertop gadget might just save the big day.
But before we all abandon the oven, professional chef Mimi Morley offers a gentle word of caution.
“Air fryers can absolutely elevate parts of your Christmas dinner, but some dishes are best left to the traditional oven,” she says. “Used well, they save time, add texture and reduce stress. Used badly, they can dry out your showstoppers.”
Not only are air fryers cheap to run, but they’re also healthier (especially for fried food), meaning you can pile those pigs in blankets high on your plate with a little less guilt than normal.
While some sceptics (namely my chef-trained husband) doubted my ability to pull off this culinary feat, I was undeterred. And while it was more successful than my naysayers thought it would be, I’m not sure I’m ready to quit the oven just yet.
Here’s what I learnt when I attempted to cook Christmas dinner in an air fryer.
Before embarking on this festive mission, I decided to call upon Clare Andrews. She is an air fryer guru and author of The Ultimate Air Fryer Cookbook and what she doesn’t know about air fryers isn’t worth knowing.
“My advice would be to plan ahead,” she tells me. “Make sure you know what needs to be cooked, how long it will take and above all make sure it will all fit in your air fryer. Some air fryers now have two drawers which can make cooking something like a roast and all its different components so much easier.”
Good advice as the turkey crown I had my eye on was just a tad too large for my single drawer air fryer, the Ninja AF100UK, so I plumped for a large, basted turkey breast instead.
Morley adds one more unglamorous, but essential, step to the prep list: give the air fryer a proper clean before you even think about cooking.
“Our study showed 47% of Brits don’t clean their air fryer after every use,” she warns. “That leaves you vulnerable to harmful bacteria and food poisoning.” Hardly the festive twist anyone wants.
Remember, size is important
The first challenge was the centrepiece – the turkey. It probably goes without saying here, but you won’t get a big bird in an air fryer – even the biggest ones such as the Tower T17039, with its 11l (approximately 20 pints) capacity, will probably only just about fit in a small chicken.
I went with a basted turkey breast in the end as this was the perfect size for my 3.8l (just under 7 pints) air fryer. My biggest worry, having cooked chicken breasts in the air fryer previously, was that this larger bird was going to come out dry.
Andrews agrees that white meat can be tricky, there are some ways to ensure it comes out nice and moist.
“I make sure I always use a generous amount of vegetable oil or butter to baste for a start, and adjust the timings based on the size of your bird,” she tells me.
Just like you would in the oven, don’t forget to baste it occasionally. It helps to keep the meat nice and juicy. It’s also important to turn halfway through cooking to ensure it cooks evenly.
As well as letting the turkey rest after cooking, which really makes a huge difference, Andrews also tells me to invest in a meat thermometer, especially as manufacturer timings are for conventional ovens, which vary wildly compared to air fryers.
“I’ve learnt the hard way, so now I tend to use a meat thermometer,” she says. “I find this always helps me with timings as there’s always so much going on that I have been known to forget the turkey is still cooking.
“The internal temperature should be around 75°C (around 167°F). I chose to use the roast setting on my air fryer, and I was really pleased with how it turned out. Nice and juicy, yet brown and crispy on the outside. The perfect turkey.”
Air fryer potatoes are just the best, especially chips and sweet potato wedges. However, as I learnt, roasties also work really well.
For this meal, I only had very small potatoes so was unable to peel them, however, once mixed in with some seasoning and oil then roasted for approximately 20 minutes, I had some deliciously crunchy, yet fluffy, potatoes.
As my turkey was small enough, I added my potatoes around the meat halfway through cooking, so they were all ready together.
If you have the time, Andrews suggests par boiling the potatoes in salted water first, until they’re beginning to soften slightly. Don’t forget to give them a shake mid-way through the cooking time either. Some air fryers have a timer on them to alert you to this.
I just put mine on for 10 minutes, gave them a shake, and then set them off for a further 10 minutes.
I’m one of those rare people who just loves Brussels sprouts – especially at Christmas time when they’re enhanced with delicious pancetta and chestnuts. For this test, I wanted to try Andrews’ recipe of sprouts topped with Parmesan cheese and fresh chillies. I also thought this might be a time to entice my 13-year-old son over to the sprout side.
After washing the sprouts and removing the outer leaves, I put them in the air fryer, covered in a little olive oil, and cooked for 10 minutes, giving them a shake halfway through.
Halfway through, they looked great, but at the end of the cooking time, I was dismayed to see that my sprouts had turned a nasty shade of brown, which definitely didn’t endear them to my teen veggie avoider.
Andrews said parboiling them may have helped reduce the grotty colour.
“Next time, try boiling them first for about three-to-five minutes on a high heat, then submerge them in ice cold water, drain and pat dry before finishing them off in the air fryer to get them crispy, with a drizzle of olive oil,” she says.
Once I added the parmesan and chillies over the top of them, they tasted delicious, but I’ll definitely be going for the parboil next time.
Even if you’re not cooking your entire Christmas dinner in an air fryer, they can be a handy for all those fiddly extras.
“One of the biggest advantages of using an air fryer to prepare your Christmas dinner is that it allows you to cook side dishes while simultaneously cooking the turkey,” says AO’s air fryer expert Thea Whyte.
“Many air fryers even come with multiple functions, allowing you to cook, roast, bake, and even reheat, which means you can have multiple dishes cooking at the same time.”
And when it comes to crowd-pleasers, Morley says pigs in blankets are one of the dishes the air fryer does brilliantly.
“Wrap small sausages in streaky bacon, drizzle with a little honey and cook for around 12 minutes at 180°C,” she advises, a simple upgrade that gives you next-level crispiness.
After cooking pigs in blankets in the air fryer, I won’t go back to the oven again. Not only does it take next-to-no time, but as I used the crisper, all the fat dropped off, making them a much healthier option.
Using the juices from the turkey, which had handily collected in the bottom of the air fryer, I created a delicious gravy.
I just mixed the juices with turkey stock and flour in a separate saucepan, as liquids are one of the things not to cook in an air fryer.
And while we’re on the subject of what not to air fry, Morley says traditional stuffing is best left to the oven. It tends to dry out quickly in an air fryer, unless you’re making a sausage-meat version, which copes far better with the heat.
All in all, it took me about an hour, including some basic prep, to cook my Christmas dinner. There was a lot of swapping over of items from the air fryer which added to the time, but it was fairly quick for such a big meal. Obviously, timings will vary depending on the size of what you’re cooking but these are what worked for my air fryer Christmas dinner:
So, can you cook a Christmas dinner in an air fryer? The answer is definitely yes, but as to whether it’s easier or quicker is another thing.
I only have a single-drawer air fryer and I think if I’d had one with two drawers, I could have been cooking things side by side, which would have made proceedings easier. As it was, it became a bit of a juggling act, and I had to ensure we had piping hot gravy ready to pour over everything to ensure it was hot enough.
There were also some things that we couldn’t cook in the air fryer either – like peas or carrot and swede mash.
If you’re trying to cook Christmas dinner without an oven, or there’s only one of you, then an air fryer is a great way to make your festive feast. And as Whyte says, it can also work out cheaper.
“One benefit of using an air fryer is that it typically doesn't require preheating, unlike ovens, which can reduce your waiting time,” she says.
Will I use an air fryer to cook Christmas dinner again? Probably not the turkey, but I’m definitely going to use it for side dishes and vegetables. And next time I’ll try not to burn the Brussels sprouts!
(Hero image credit: Getty)
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