The trick to getting behind the air fryer is to stop calling it an air fryer.

Okay, yes, the small appliance was invented as a way for French-fry maniacs in France (and the rest of Europe) to make fries in their small home kitchens. And sure, the air fryer does an exceptional job of crispifying vegetables and chicken wings alike, without vats of sizzling oil. But to think of the air fryer as a, well, fryer is to both sell it short, and set yourself up for disappointment.

The Air Fryer Is Not a Fryer At All

"It was called an air fryer for marketing purposes, but it's a little unfortunate, because, first, people think they can only do fried food in it and that it's a gimmicky single use appliance," Ben Mims, author of the new book Air Fry Every Day, says. "Second, people think that things can be thrown into it just like a deep fat fryer and will come out the same. That is a hundred percent not the case."

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The truth is that an air fryer will handle typical fried foods pretty poorly. "The only food that'll come out the same is a french fry," Mims says. "It doesn’t work well with traditionally fried foods that have a wet batter. Things like chicken wings or fish fingers, or schnitzel, those all have to be adapted to the machine. They should be dry-coated with breadcrumbs, or cornmeal, or spices and herbs to get a get a crisp texture."

Photo by Denny Culbert

So What Is An Air Fryer?

It's a convection oven. It includes a heat source and a powerful fan that circulates that heat, ensuring even cooking. This means that the air fryer is not limited to making healthier versions of traditionally fried foods, as it is marketed to do. It can also make frittatas, crispy-bottomed rice, and even cake.

Photo by Danny Culbert

What Are the Best Things to Make In the Air Fryer?

The things that the air fryer handles better than a regular oven, which includes:

Better Crispy Chickpeas

"You can make the best possible version in the air fryer," says Mims. "Yes, of course you can deep fry them. Yes, of course you can bake them. But they never live up to their promise. They're always coming out soggy and chewy, rather than truly crispy." So from now on, it's all about the air fryer. "The high heat, circulating at a super-fast speed, dries out the chickpeas so they're almost dehydrated." And a dehydrated chickpea is a crispy chickpea.

Perfect Roasted Vegetables

The air fryer's capacity to partially dehydrate foods renders roasted vegetables crispier than any conventional oven can get them. And that's particularly handy for vegetables that have a tendency to get soggy or slimy.

"When you deep fry okra it gets greasy and slimy. When you bake it it gets soggy and slimy. But when you air fry it, it kind of dehydrates it a little bit. The heat gets through the skin of the okra to crisp it up a bit and take away a lot of the sliminess." In the book, there's a recipe for charred okra with a peanut chile sauce, which gives the appealing crispy texture of that southern favorite covered in cornmeal breading and deep fried, with only a little oil and some salt and pepper.

There's also an unparalleled recipe for that other oft-slimy vegetable, eggplant. "Usually to make it good you have to cook it in a ton of oil," Mims says. "But if you chop it into half-inch pieces and toss it in a little bit of oil and put it in the air fryer, the the outside gets super crispy while the inside steams through and gets creamy."

Ridiculous Ribs

The air fryer handles meats like chicken wings and drumsticks well. But it really, really shines with spare ribs. Memphis-style dry ribs (rub with brown sugar and spices, instead of cloaked in a sticky sauce) come out extra-crispy on the outside and pull-apart tender on the inside. The best part? They're done in 45 minutes.

What Can't the Air Fryer Do?

As versatile as the air fryer is, there's one thing that the air fryer can't do: cook dinner for four.

The air fryer is best used "to make dinner for you, or you and your partner," Mims says. "This is not something you use for a dinner for four. This is not something you use for a dinner party."

Okay, so the air fryer does best with small pieces of meat, and foods chopped up to a manageable size. But that leads us to the other thing an air fryer can't do, and this time it's a good thing: it won't heat up your kitchen.