Bryn Carden, TCU Student, Raves About Air Fryer Benefits for Healthier Cooking in Any Space
Dorms and small apartments with tiny kitchens can drastically limit cooking abilities, leaving many students and renters opting for instant noodles or mac and cheese in a microwavable cup. Fortunately, taste buds and gut health can suffer less with the use of an air fryer; just ask Bryn Carden, a Finance major attending the Neeley School of Business at Texas Christian University. Carden is openly obsessed with the benefits her air fryer delivers as it helps her stay fit and healthy while granting her the ability to make tasty snacks and dishes no matter the size of the kitchen. So what is an air fryer, and precisely what does it do?
What is air frying?
Though air fryers are currently gaining popularity, they have been available on the market for more than ten years. The egg-shaped kitchen appliance takes up little room on a countertop and sits on the product scale between a deep fryer and a conventional oven. The way an air fryer cooks food is similar to how an oven cooks food in that they both use hot air. An air fryer contains a fry basket where food sits to cook suspended in the air to receive heat from every angle, delivering satisfying crispiness to the final meal. Rather than basking in hot oil to reach that same crunch, food cooks in an air fryer without the additional oil bath and instead with, well, hot air.
What are the benefits?
As previously stated, air frying is a healthy alternative to deep-fried foods and helps satisfy any consumer with the same crispy crunch and taste of fried foods without excessive oil. Some oil is still used, but it is not an entire hot tub- only a teaspoon. What kind of foods can you cook in an air fryer? From French fries to fish to zucchini noodles, pretty much any type of food that can fit in its basket and go in an oven is the range that an air fryer can handle. The process of air-frying makes cooking much less complicated as it will even cook frozen chicken breasts. Just place the chicken in the basket, set the air fryer to cook, and a few minutes later, voila! Dinner is served.
Air fryers save time without the mess that comes with deep-frying and by cooking foods quickly, usually for only about five to twenty-five minutes. When it comes to health benefits like limiting oil use and consumer intake, air fryers are an option for cooking comfort foods without the extra fat and calories, cutting health risks provoked by oil like type 2 diabetes, cancer, and heart disease.
An Air Fryer Starter Recipe
Carden shares one of her favorite go-to healthy air fryer recipes to help others get started. She loves to cook sweet potato fries in her air fryer and typically begins with a whole sweet potato and cuts it to fry-style slices when she has time. During busy weeks, she buys pops in precut and frozen fries. She uses one teaspoon of coconut oil to add a hint of tropical sweetness. After placing the fries in the air fryer’s basket and cooking them to crispy perfection, she sprinkles them with cinnamon.
About Bryn Carden
Bryn Carden is a versatile young entrepreneur with a deep sense of compassion and the desire to help make the world a better place. In 2017, she founded Styles for Smiles — a company selling bracelets to support the Smile Train Organization. The proceeds from selling Bryn’s designs have already helped fund cleft palate repairs for 16 children in developing countries.
