'Paninis' in Air Fryer

I was in the mood for paninis and improvised with the air fryer. They turned out super well and now I am finding myself making these sandwiches for lunch quite often!

For this first one I just sliced up some apple and placed it on a plain piece of bread. Topped with some sliced deli turkey and sliced smoked gouda.  Air fried for about 5 minutes.  It was very good.  

But then I upped my game the next time.  I put a little spreadable butter on the underside of the bread and then put some honey mustard on the top side of the bread.  Then did the same sliced apple, deli turkey and smoked gouda. Air fried for about 5 minutes - I think at 400?

Same as last time (with added butter and honey mustard) but this time on a piece of sourdough. Yum!  Will keep coming up with slightly different variations.  A perfect lunch!

Mav's english muffin pizzas

Mav helped make lunch one day - we made English Muffin pizzas in the air fryer.  Simple and tasty.  You can add any toppings you like but Mav prefers just cheese, please.  :) 

Take one half of an english muffin and spread pizza sauce on it.  Then top with shredded cheese and any other toppings of your choice.  Place in air fryer and cook at 380 for about 5-10 minutes (just keep an eye on them and take them out when they look right to you.)

Air Fryer Green Beans

Air Fryer Green Beans
This would be better with fresh (most would) but it was good enough. Took frozen green beans and tossed with olive oil and seasonings in a large bowl I used garlic powdered, minced onion, sea salt, cracked black pepper. Then heated air fryer to 350 and cooked for about 8 minutes. then tossed and turned air fryer to Roast on 400 for about 4 minutes.

Remoulade sauce for Shrimp po boy sandwiches

I made shrimp po-boy sandwiches the other day and, I have to say, this sauce put them right over the top! I took several online recipes and tweaked them to create this remoulade sauce. It would go well with many kinds of seafood including breaded shrimp, clams, crab cakes and it was sooooo yummy on the shrimp po-boy (that I completely forgot to take a photo of...)


Remoulade sauce

1 cup mayonnaise

juice of ½ lemon (I used ReaLemon)

2 Tbsp. pickle relish (I used sweet but you can use dill - your choice)

1-2 tsp. dijon mustard

1-2 tsp. worcestershire sauce

1 tsp. garlic powder

½ tsp. paprika (sweet, not smoked)

I would have added a smidge of horseradish but I didn't have any

Mix all ingredients together then taste - add a bit more mayo if you like.  Refrigerate until you are ready to serve.  

To make the shrimp po-boys I air fried popcorn breaded shrimp in the air fryer for about 10 minutes at 400 degrees (I think).  I just eye ball it and when it looks crispy and nice, I am done.  Do be sure to shake it around once or twice during the cooking time to get it evenly crisped up.  We lightly toasted buttered hoagie buns.  Served with lettuce and tomato slices.  Also served cole slaw, tater tots, and air fried breaded okra.  (Used frozen breaded okra and did the same - about 8-10 minutes at 400 degrees I think - until it tasted right.  This stuff never did brown up, but it did crisp up and was quite good.)

Sweet and Sour Chicken (quick and easy)

I am on a real kick with using convenience foods for dinner!  I think I can get used to this, especially when the end result tastes so good!  Here is a super fast and easy version of Sweet and Sour Chicken.  Obviously, I prefer my super homemade version, but that version will never be finished in 20 minutes!!!

Sweet and Sour Chicken (quick and easy)

rice (make however much you like of whatever kind of rice you like - I chose Jasmine rice)

Frozen honey chicken tenders (I used Tyson but I have seen Aldi have a version of these every once in awhile.  They are a key component... you could use any kind of chicken tender or nugget, but to make it really good, you want the honey version.)  I air fryer them (4-6 per person) at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes.  I think you could go up to 400 degrees for 10 minutes or so... your choice.

onions and green peppers - I sautéed them in a skillet and set aside.

Sweet and Sour Sauce - this is another key ingredient.  I have always hated jarred sweet and sour sauce.  But this Aldi version is delicious!  You can use it as is!  

I added frozen carrots as our vegetable, along with some egg rolls which I did in the air fryer at 375 for about 10 minutes.  

Super quick and tasty!  A win!

Filet Mignon in the air fryer

 Filet Mignon in the Air Fryer

Yes, in the air fryer.  And trust me... this is the best tasting filet mignon I have ever cooked!  Bar none.

on a paper plate because I was carrying these down to Mama and Daddy's house...

Dear Dawn brought filet mignon out to Mama and Daddy as a gift for their anniversary.  I cooked it up for them in the air fryer.  First I coated the filets with olive oil, then sprinkled various seasonings on top and bottom.  Chicago Steak seasoning, some garlic rosemary seasoning, and a bit of salt free seasoning, too, maybe?  Then I pre-heated the air fryer and when it was hot, I put the filets in.  375 degrees for 10 minutes.  Flipped them, then 375 degrees again for 6 minutes.  These were so thick (almost 2 inches tall) so I ended up adding about 5 more minutes.  Then I let them sit, tented with foil, on this paper plate for about 15 minutes total.  They released a lot of good juice (after I took this photo).  This will definitely be our new way of cooking steak/filet, etc.  (with time adjusted accordingly for the size of the meat)

Spaghetti Sauce Sandwiches

I had leftover spaghetti sauce so decided to make these sandwiches to use it up.  Put it together quickly and it cooked in the air fryer in just 5 minutes.  Perfect!

Spaghetti Sauce Sandwiches

Had leftover spaghetti sauce.  Used those steak rolls from Walmart (french bread rolls) and piled them high with the sauce (that I had somewhat warmed in microwave to take the chill off).  Put a little bit of pizza cheese on top, not much.  Then did 5 minutes in air fryer at 350 degrees.  About halfway through I opened it up and put a little bit of parmesan cheese on, too.  Could probably have done 4 minutes.  Easy and delicious.

Parmesan Zucchini in the air fryer

Parmesan Zucchini (or summer squash) in the air fryer

Slice the zucchini into rounds and place in the air fryer.  Top with salt and pepper if you like and then some shredded Parmesan cheese.  Air fry at 370 degrees for 10 minutes.

Panko Chicken in the air fryer

I used Schwans 4 oz chicken breast filets, so adjust your time accordingly based on the size of chicken breast you use.  

Panko Chicken Breasts in the Air Fryer

Season your chicken breast with salt, pepper, onion and garlic powder as desired.  Spread mayo on the top and bottom of the chicken breast then press Panko bread crumbs into the mayo covering.  Place in air fryer and cook at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes.  (you can check the progress to see when the chicken is done)

BBQ Chicken Wings (IP)

BBQ Chicken Wings in the Instant Pot

I love to serve this with rice (made with chicken bouillon) and creamed brussels sprouts.  So good!  You can also make regular chicken drumsticks and/or thighs the same way... just increase the time in the IP.  

Trust me, we made more than this...  :D

BBQ Chicken Wings

2 pounds chicken wings and drumettes

1 to 1 ½ cups BBQ sauce of your choice

1 cup water or chicken broth

Pour the 1 cup of liquid in the Instant pot inner pot.  Place a steamer basket or silicone colander in your instant pot.  Place the chicken wings inside (just to keep them above the liquid while cooking... however it works for you to do that.)  Put the lid on the Instant Pot, set the vent to seal and cook on High for 5 minutes.  After cooking time allow for a full natural pressure release.  Remove the chicken wings from the Instant Pot and pat dry with paper towels.  In a large bowl, toss the wings and drumettes with another ½ to 1 cup of BBQ sauce of your choice.  When fully coated lay in the Air Fryer.  Cook at 375 for about 8 minutes (watch to be sure you don't overdo them.)  

Beef in mushroom sauce

Just jotting down my notes here... for the record.

Beef in Mushroom Sauce with Dice Potatoes and Roasted Vegetables

Cooked the beef filets in an iron skillet with just a pat of butter.  Seasoned with Montreal Steak seasoning, but might just do garlic and herb seasoning next time.  Seared and cooked the beef almost through but not totally.  Removed to a plate.  Tossed in a bag of frozen mushrooms (love these!!) and that let out enough liquid to get the browned bits up from the bottom of the pan.  Sauteed them and added a dollop of Beef Better Than Bouillon and 2 Tbsp. water.  Stirred to mix it around.  Then sprinkled flour over the top and stirred, then added enough water to liquify.  Let it cook down to be like a gravy.  Then added the beef back in and warmed through.  Could add more seasoning if you want.

Diced potatoes tossed with oil and seasoning of your choice.  Air fried at 400 degrees for about 15 - 17 minutes.  perfect!

Did the honey balsamic brussels sprouts and then tossed the california blend in the same bowl to get leftover bits of marinade.  Roasted at 425 degrees for about 20 minutes.

Chimichangas in the Air Fryer

I made these quick and easy Cheese Chimichangas in the air fryer.  They were good.  I can see adding more to them in the future... like cooked chicken, green chilis... whatever you can think of.  But the basic idea is simple and tasty.

Cheese Chimichangas
8 oz. pkg. cream cheese
8 oz. shredded cheese of your choice
1 ½ Tbsp. taco seasoning
8 flour tortillas
cooking spray
options for garnish include more shredded cheese, green onions, sour cream salsa, avocado

Soften the cream cheese and then stir it with the shredded cheese and taco seasoning.  (And add any other ingredients that you like - chicken, green chilis, etc.)  Divide among the tortillas.  Then tuck in the sides and roll up each tortilla (or however you like to do this).  Spray the air fryer tray with cooking spray.  Lay seam side down in the air fryer.  Air Fry at 375 for 3 minutes, then turn over and finish air frying for 2 more minutes.

Cheesy Tater Tots

Cheesy Tater Tots
28 oz. bag frozen tater tots
2 cups shredded cheese
salt and pepper (optional)
cooking spray

I cooked the bag of tater tots in the air fryer for 20 minutes on 400 degrees.  (shake or turn halfway through)  When they are cooked, sprinkle cheese over the top.  You can put back in the air fryer for a minute or two to allow the cheese to melt or you can spread the tots on a baking sheet and top with the cheese, then broil for a couple minutes in the oven.

Super easy but tasty, especially with the Creamy Tomato Soup.

Lemon Pepper Chicken and Veggies

This is my take on an old favorite at Perkins Restaurant... an herbed chicken and rice with mushrooms, asparagus and a balsamic vinaigrette.  I ate this about every time we stopped at a Perkins last year during travels and fair time.  It was delicious!  I have since made it at home a couple of times but this last attempt was the simplest and probably the best.  So this one I will write down (blog) for future reference.  :)

Lemon Pepper Chicken and Mushrooms with Asparagus and Garlic Butter Rice

Lemon Chicken and Mushrooms

Added a bit of olive oil to pan.  Seasoned chicken breasts with lemon pepper seasoning.  Sauteed them.  Then added sliced mushrooms.  Put lid on the keep some of the juices (not sure I would do that again).  Sauteed all.  Then added some vinegar at end.  Used white wine vinegar because I didn't have white balsamic vinegar this time around.

Asparagus in the Air Fryer

I did it for 8 minutes at 360 degrees.  Probably should have done 400 degrees.  Asparagus was a bit limp.  Just coated with oil (too much??) salt and pepper.  When it said to 'Turn Food' I sprinkled a little shredded parmesan cheese on the asparagus.

Garlic Butter Rice

Melted pat of butter in pan, sauteed garlic a bit, added rice (basmati this time) and stir fried till coated with the garlic butter, about 1-2 minutes.  Added better than bouillon and water (amount per directions on rice).  Covered with lid and let simmer till done.

Butter Bean Bowl

Wow!  This was delicious!!!!!  I found this recipe on a YouTube video linked here...
https://youtu.be/owy7Tc6Gvp4
The recipe I made is the first one in the video.  (by the way... I really, really want to find some Jerusalem artichokes somewhere to make the third recipe in the video!  I am not having any luck locating those here?)

Butter Bean Bowl (One of the Buddha Bowls in the video linked above)
Soak butter beans in water overnight. Then cook with water and salt until overly cooked.  You can do this in your Instant Pot.  (I have also done that but this first time I just used two cans of butter beans, drained.  Also note - butter beans are just the large lima beans.  So you can find them frozen, dried or in cans.  Canned butter beans are usually in the section by lima beans and peas, not the other types of beans.)

In a skillet add some olive oil and then saute some garlic, rosemary, and leeks.  Add a little sage if you have it and also some salt and pepper.  Since I used canned butter beans and they were not hot, I added them to the skillet after I had fully sautéed these veggies.  Then I added some olive oil and began to mash them using a potato masher.  Add more oil as needed to get the consistency you want.  (be sure you are using a good quality olive oil... this is key for this recipe.)  When you have this butter bean mash ready you can set it aside.  (also note - you can use vegetable broth in lieu of most of the olive oil if you prefer.)

Trim the ends on the brussels sprouts, then cut them in half, removing outer leaves as needed.  Scrub the sweet potatoes and cut them in slices.  Put both vegetables in a bowl and drizzle them with olive oil, some lemon juice, salt and pepper.  Toss.  Then I placed them in the Air Fryer basket and cooked them at 400 degrees for 18 minutes.  That was a bit too long... I would go 375 degrees for 18 minutes or 400 degrees for 16 minutes.  I might also leave the brussels sprouts whole next time.  (trial and error)  You want the vegetables to be roasted and browned and slightly caramelized, but not burnt.

Then I washed a bunch of kale and broke the leaves off.  I steamed some kale in a Pampered Chef micro cooker for about 30 seconds.  That is all.  That was almost too much!!  :)

Now you have the ingredients to put it all together.  Add a drizzle of tahini over the top of all of it.  You can make your own tahini, but I bought a jar at HyVee.

I HAVE NO WORDS FOR HOW DELICIOUS THIS WAS!!!!!!

Here are photos of the various steps along the way....

butter bean mash in the skillet
(with leeks, garlic, rosemary and a fair amount of olive oil)

brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes fresh out of the air fryer

steamed kale

all together on the plate and drizzled generously with tahini

Air Fryer tips so far...

Just some tips that I have learned so far for using our air fryer.  Keeping a list here for future reference.

For roasting vegetables I choose to cook for less time than I would in a regular oven.  I think it is better to cook for a shorter time and then add minutes to the cooking time if need be.  You can burn vegetables quickly if you air fry for too long.

Frozen onion rings should only be air fried for about 3-5 minutes, tops.  However, frozen french fries can go from 10-18 minutes at 400 degrees.  Check for desired amount of browning.

You can Air Fry a toasted cheese sandwich!  375 degrees for about 5 minutes, flipping it halfway through.

Panko chicken breasts are the best I have ever had them when cooked in the air fryer!  We air fry them at 400 degrees for about 17 minutes.  (test times for yourself... again, I recommend going with less time then adding minutes if need be.)

Frozen Fish filets turn out very nicely in the air fryer.  If you are cooking the larger fish filets (like beer battered cod) then try 400 degrees for about 14 minutes, flipping over halfway through.  For frozen fish sticks I did about 5 minutes and didn't end up flipping.

A quesadilla did not work at all for me.  Will need to revisit that one later.

I even reheated french bread slices the second day in the air fryer.  I put them in for 1 minute at 375 and it made them toasty warm and more like freshly baked french bread than soft day old baked bread.

Made Schwans chicken breasts (4 oz. size) - seasoned to taste (I used lemon pepper, garlic, salt, paprika) then sprayed the base with oil.  Cooked for 15 minutes at 360 degrees.

Air Fryer Bone in Chicken Thighs

The same thing applies to chicken thighs in the air fryer as to pork chops.  Basically, figure out how long and at what temperature to cook the chicken thighs then use whatever seasoning or recipe you like.  At least that is how I am approaching things right now.  :)

The chicken thighs I used this time were pretty large and were still mostly frozen.  I am sure that added to the cooking time needed.  In addition they were bone-in thighs.  So these were on the upper side of cooking times.  I chose to Air Fry at 375 degrees for 25-27 minutes.  Next time I would add about a minute or so but they were cooked enough.  Fresh chicken thighs wouldn't have taken quite as long.  These came out with a crispy skin and yet were quite tender.

Air Fryer Pork Chops

I am all in on the Air Fryer band wagon.  I purchase the Instant Pot Vortex - the sort of plain jane version.  We really like it.  Between that and my Instant Pot pressure cookers, I can cook pretty much anything I want on the counter!  :D

We tried pork chops the other night.  There are many charts on Pinterest and elsewhere in the internet that provide estimated cooking times for various meats.  I had the basic pork chops from the grocery store - not thick cut, but not thin. They were bone in.  I chose to Air Fry them for 12 minutes at 400 degrees, flipping them over halfway through the cooking time.  I think I ended up adding 3 more minutes.  My advice with the air fryer is to choose less cooking time and then add a few minutes if you like, rather than go too long and overcook something.  Because you can just open the door and look, you can add minutes or stop it altogether with no problem.  Very handy!

I just seasoned the pork chops to go with that particular meal.  In this case I used Pampered Chef Rosemary Herb seasoning.  But this general idea will work however you choose to season your pork chops, I believe.

BBQ Buttermilk Oven Fried Chicken

BBQ Buttermilk Oven Fried Chicken
1 cup buttermilk (I use powdered buttermilk that I can store in my fridge)
2 Tbsp. BBQ sauce of your choice
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (I often use Schwans 4 oz. filets)
1 package dry Italian dressing mix (.7 oz)
1 Tbsp. ground poultry seasoning (might use less next time)
1 tsp. Cajun seasoning
1 tsp. garlic powder
½ tsp. black pepper
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
2 cups crushed corn flakes
½ cup bread crumbs

Combine buttermilk and BBQ sauce in a gallon sized ziplock bag.  Add the chicken and turn to coat well, then seal bag and allow to marinate in refrigerator for a couple of hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Combine corn flakes, bread crumbs, Italian dressing mix, poultry seasoning, Cajun seasoning, garlic powder, and black pepper in a gallon ziplock bag.  Add oil and toss until well mixed.  Remove chicken from the buttermilk mixture and dredge in the corn flake mixture.  Discard leftover buttermilk mixture.

Bake for 35-40 minutes or until chicken is at least 165 degrees.  I plan to try this recipe in my air fryer next time.