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I recently asked my Facebook friends if they had air fryers and if they liked them or not. Overall the people who had them said yes they like them. Only one person didn’t like theirs, saying it took up too much room and she could do the same thing in her oven.
Amazingly though one of my friends saw my post and called me. She had received a Nuwave Oven as a Christmas present and said it was really too big for her because she’s usually just cooking for herself. She asked me if I wanted to borrow it for a week and see if I liked it or not.
Yes! Of course, I took her up on the offer! I picked it up later that same day.
As soon as I picked it up I started googling Nuwave Oven recipes. I found a new friend in Darnell and his extremely helpful Youtube videos on cooking with a Nuwave Oven!
Thank you, Darnell! You should definitely check his Youtube page out!
Darnell at Wave Oven Recipes on Youtube was a lifesaver!
Testing it out
The first thing we cooked in it was a whole pack of bacon!
I LOVE bacon but I hate cooking bacon because I always get popped by the fat. However, cooking bacon in the Nuwave Oven was so easy!
You just lay the bacon across the grill and set the timer and walk away. We had thick-cut bacon so we left it cooking for about 16 minutes because my husband Greg likes his bacon crispy!
The next day we toasted some garlic bread slices inside the Nuwave Oven and they were probably the best homemade garlic bread slices we’ve ever had. In 4 minutes they were perfect!
The day after that we cooked Greek seasoned potato wedge fries. Season them in a bowl with some olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, oregano, salt, and pepper. Then lay them across the grill. Cook them for 12 minutes and check for doneness. Depending on how thick your wedges are you may need to cook them for an additional 2-5 minutes.
THEY WERE AMAZING!
We grilled chicken on at least three different days. The first round of chicken I prepared with almond flour and panko “breading”, but I overcooked them. The second round of chicken came out perfect at about 15 minutes. It really depends on the thickness and size of your chicken pieces. We used the second and third rounds of chicken in our Thai Chicken Stir Fry and in our Verde Chicken.
We also cooked some beer brats in the Nuwave Oven but they did not come out to our liking. They shriveled up and weren’t juicy like they are when we cook them in a pan on the stovetop.
We tried cooking some frozen store-bought fries in the Nuwave as well. They were good, but we had to cook two rounds of fries because you can only fit one layer on the grill at a time and we wanted to eat more fries than that. I can see how a drawer or basket would be handy for fries.
Overall
At the end of the week, I am a little sad about giving the Nuwave oven back, because to me it was really convenient to have a small oven that you didn’t have to preheat and you could walk away from.
It does take up quite a bit of counter space. If you aren’t going to use it on a regular basis you may not want to purchase the Nuwave oven, but I definitely see the advantages of having one. I do think we would use one on a regular basis.
I loved being able to prep, cook, and walk away without the preheat and the standing to monitor progress.
Are you using an air fryer or Nuwave Oven? Tell me what you think about it!
