The turkey recipe we’ve prepared this year is way easier and less time-consuming than roasting a whole bird. This air fried turkey breast has crispy, golden brown skin on the outside and moist, white meat inside. You’ll get the full flavor of an oven-roasted turkey, but in much less time, and with much less fuss! Check out the recipe here.

Butternut squash has always been a strong tradition with us for Thanksgiving. The wafts of smells you’ll get when cooking this will set you in the holiday mood. All you need is a hint of thyme, salt, and pepper and the dish will be ready in under 30 minutes. These perfectly tender squash cubes are a great side dish for the Thanksgiving table or for any meal.

These air fried apple hand pies are portable and delicious and make a great Thanksgiving dessert. With an easy apple pie filling and flaky crust, they’re such a fun classic Fall dessert with no slicing and little mess. The great thing about this recipe is that it is easily customizable with whatever pie filling you like best — whether it’s apple, blueberry, or pecan.

The world of coffee opens up when you start pairing the right coffee beans with the right brew style. But let’s be honest; pairing COFFEE BEANS with ROAST LEVELS and BREWING TYPES is harder than it sounds.

But you already knew that it was hard – that’s why you’re reading this, right?

If you keep reading this article you’ll become an expert on coffee beans, flavors, and the relationship between the two. This should be enough information for you to make an educated choice when next browsing for beans.

What Taste am I Looking For?

Consider what type of coffee taste are you after:

• A crisp and clean tasting black coffee?
• A strong tasting, dark and rich black coffee? [insert joke about desirable boyfriend here]
• A mellow, acidic black coffee?
• A heavy, musty, chocolatey-tasting black coffee?
• A fruity, florally tasting black coffee
• A subtle-coffee flavored milk based coffee? (e.g. something with overpowering milk taste, such as a cappuccino, latte, flat white etc)
• A strong-coffee flavored milk based coffee? (e.g. something with milk where the coffee flavor still dominates, such as a ristretto, piccolo latte, etc)

Make a mental note of this which will apply in the section below about bean origin.

What Type of Brewer am I Using?

If you already know which brewer you are going to use, just choose the most appropriate type of bean and roast type.

Matching Bean Origin With Brew Method

Where your coffee is grown is the first important factor in how it will taste when you pour it into your cup.

Similar to how certain grapes for wine are grown in specific regions – and how that affects the taste – where your coffee beans come from matters, too.

The plain truth of the matter is that coffee grown in Thailand will taste different than coffee grown in Ethiopia or in Guatemala.

Influences such as altitude, climate (including rainfall and sunlight), and terroir (soil) all make an impact, as do growing, harvesting, and processing methods, which can vary dramatically from one region or culture to the next.

Why does this matter?

Because some flavor profiles are better suited to certain brew methods. For example, pour over coffee creates light, clean, and crisp black coffee; meaning you’ll want to choose a bean with soft floral or fruity flavors for that method (and please don’t add milk, or you won’t taste those flavors… ).

South America

Standing out amongst the pack, Colombian coffee dominates not just South American, but ALL American coffee drinking.

It has set the tone for what a typical “cup of coffee” should taste like, by bringing bold, yet gentle flavors together into a medium-bodied coffee bean.

Recommended brewing method: Steeping

This allows the grounds to remain in contact with the water, bringing out a strong, full-bodied cup of coffee. It’s perfect for the more medium-bodied American coffee varieties.

Central America

This region tends to provide coffee varieties that can be summed up in one word: balanced. They can have varying characteristics, though they all tend to share a common thread of flavor.

This is due to the similar climates and cultures (especially in terms of processing techniques, and types of beans grown) seen throughout the region, giving a uniformity to the flavor profiles.

Acidity in these coffees can vary and is often accompanied by a smoothness that is loaded with a soft, almost caramelized, sweetness.

Recommended brewing method: Steeping

This method allows the grounds to remain in contact with the water, bringing out a strong, full-bodied cup of coffee. It’s the perfect way to enjoy the more medium-bodied American coffee varieties.

Ethiopia (Africa)

Not only does the climate of Ethiopia vary wildly, but so do the coffee beans that are grown there.

The kinds of beans change from location to location, and the processing techniques are divided between the washed/wet method and natural/dry method.

These methods generally lead to two different flavor profiles. The wet method tends to yield a lighter, floral taste, akin to tea, while the dry method is bolder and holds on to more of the raw, fruity wine taste.

Recommended brewing method: Filtration

Here you have options. Use a filtration method if the coffee was processed using the wet method (to help enhance gentler flavors). Use a steeping method if it was processed using the dry method (to draw out an abundance of flavor and get a stronger cup coffee).

Kenya (Africa)

Kenyan coffee screams bold! It is often a favorite of coffee aficionados, and it’s no wonder, as beans from Kenya can tend to be powerful (though still medium-bodied) in their flavor.

They put on a balancing act, riding the line between a tangy savoriness and a nippy sweetness.

​This creates a delicately flavorful and kick-ass coffee that is infused with a fruity, wine-toned acidity.

Factors such as a lack of shade, as well as a well-research, planned and supported processing method (that can include, for example, post-fermentation soaking), all contribute to this popular flavor.

Recommended brewing method: Filtration

The distinct flavor of Kenyan coffee requires a brewing method that will coax and encourage the flavors to stand in the forefront.

Asia and Oceania

Once again, let’s zoom in to where these two regions meet in the famous coffee-growing region of Indonesia.

Indonesia tends to bring a variety of dark, often full-bodied, coffees to the table. Many of these are quite earthy in flavor and can have long-lasting aftertastes. Yet at the same time, they can be surprisingly gentle in their acidity levels.

Coffee from the Indonesian island of Sumatra, in particular, is famous for its dark roast and smoky flavor.

Other areas in the region, though different, also produce exquisitely stout, earthy coffee varieties that can both challenge and enrapture the most avid coffee enthusiasts.

Recommended brewing method: Filtration

Once again, the filtration method is tried and true, giving you control over the whole process and helping to gently coax every bit of flavor out of the beans. It is an excellent way to bring the gentler floral or fruity elements of the stronger Indonesian coffees to center stage.

Final Thoughts

Remember that every plantation, every roast, every bag, hell, every cup of coffee is different.

So don’t take these beans and brewing methods as laws; but starting guidelines.

Start there and adjust as you go. Find the best combination for you that helps you get the body and flavor profile you’re craving.

Yes, worse. Why?

First of all, the key to brewing a great cup of coffee is consistency, and if your grinds are not all the same size, some will be over extracted, some will be under extracted, and the result will be, well… a subpar coffee

Why Blade Grinders Suck

Some guides say that vigorously shaking your grinder will help. Shake around all you want, you’re never going to get your grinds 100% consistent…

Aside from a clear lack of consistency, blade coffee grinders have another pitfall: they can only work by spinning extremely fast, which causes heat and friction. This heat and friction, as you guessed, is bad news. This means your coffee is already heating up so it won’t taste as fresh and the end result will be overcooked.

Now, compare all that nonsense to a burr grinder, which use uniform pressure and rotation to essentially ‘crush’ beans into a perfect consistency. They can achieve this at low speeds, meaning no added heat, and maintain a precise and consistent uniform grind.

Brewing for espresso? It’s even more critical that your grinds are uniform/consistent.
If you use something like a blade grinder, here’s what is likely to happen, and don’t say we didn’t warn you:

To Summarize…

• Choose a conical burr grinder, not a blade grinder. We may be biased but we recommend our burr grinder
• Blade grinders are terrible at achieving uniform grounds. Uniform grounds make coffee extraction easy.

Coffee Extraction

Your goal in choosing a grind size: extract the perfect amount of flavor from your coffee. Too little and you’ve under-extracted it, too much and you’ve over extracted it.

Both over and under extraction are bad news for your coffee. This is precisely why we use different grind sizes for various coffee makers.

• Your grounds are too coarse = Under extraction. This is when you have not extracted enough flavor out of your ground coffee
• Your grounds are too fine = Over extracted. This is when you have extracted too much flavor out of your coffee – and it becomes overpowering and unpleasant

What Does Poorly Extracted Coffee Taste Like?

You’ve probably tasted bad coffee before. Most of the time, bad coffee is the result of extraction:

….So you’ve made a coffee, and to your disgust it tastes like it’s been poorly extracted. You don’t want it to happen again, wasting more precious coffee, but you have no idea where you went wrong.

We’ve got you! You need to tweak either the brew time, your water temperature, or your grind size, based on how it tastes:

Popular Grind Sizes and What They’re Used For

You can not just choose one grind size and use it for everything; some grinds are best suited for certain coffee makers.

You’ll notice some coffee brewing methods falls under more than one grind size category, this is because you can control the outcome of your brew with your grind size + brewing time for certain brewing methods.

Final Thoughts

Yep – you’re a coffee grinding expert now. When you pay attention to the little things – the little things being your grounds of coffee in this case – you reap the rewards of great darn coffee. You have the knowledge, now all that’s left is to choose your coffee maker, a bag of quality coffee, and you’ll literally taste the improvement instantly!

Leave us a comment below with your thoughts and let us know if this helped!

Barbecued foods are now easy to make indoors and all year round when you use an air fryer. Coat your mains with paprika, garlic powder, salt, and cook in the air fryer. Then, slather in barbecue sauce and cook for a few minutes more to produce a barbecue that tastes like you cooked it on the grill. Serve alongside your favorite vegetables, baked beans, rice, or salad… the options are endless.

First up on our menu is the classic barbecue chicken. Using an air fryer instead of a traditional grill makes the skin of the chicken extra crispy and thus extra delicious. The barbecue sauce keeps the chicken nice and moist, balancing out the crunch of the skin perfectly.

For barbecue sauce, you can use any favorite from your local grocery store. I used the classic Stubbs Original barbecue sauce and the dish turned out amazingly. Check out the full recipe and instructions here .

Next up, we have our favorite baby back ribs. The preparation for this dish is actually very similar to the barbecue chicken. If you really wanted to make things simpler, you could opt to use the same seasoning from the chicken on the ribs. These ribs have always been a huge hit with our family. When it comes to doing a cookout, why not create both?

For sides, we like to start with the staple of any classic American Independence Day cookout, corn on the cob.

You’ll want to start with husked and trimmed ears of corn. I’ve found that four ears of corn are the perfect amount to cook at one time. You don’t want to stack the cobs. They should all lay flat and have their own space in the fryer.

You’ll want to liberally spray the ears of corn with any nonstick cooking spray. Season the corn with salt and pepper to your taste and then place the ears in the air fryer basket. In less than 10 minutes, you’ll have sweet, crisp ears of corn! Butter them up and enjoy! Find the full recipe here.

Corn on the cob is such a gorgeous representation of summer and a great choice when you’re serving a larger group of guests. I can’t wait for this year’s 4th. This air fryer Corn on the Cob will definitely be part of the celebration.

The final item for the blog post today is my favorite air fried potatoes. I love how crispy they get on the outside while the inside stays nice and soft. The seasoning is quite easy to make and total prep time took me under 10 minutes. You’ll be amazed at how nicely they taste. Also, a huge bonus with these potatoes is that they’re really hard to mess up. Potatoes tend to be quite forgiving in air fryers (within a healthy range) so you don’t need to worry whether they will turn out nicely.

I hope you enjoy your celebrations this year, wherever you may be and however you end up deciding to celebrate it. Leave us a comment when you try the recipes and let us know how your barbecue turned out.

Making Air Fryer Oreos

When making your Oreos, you’ll want to dunk the cookie in milk first to soften the Oreo up a little before wrapping it in the Crescent roll section.

Make sure all seams in the dough are sealed completely.

I like to fry four at a time so I’m not crowding the basket. After only 4 minutes of air frying, these Oreos are ready and they’re the most beautiful golden brown.

Sprinkle them with powdered sugar and then call the family into the kitchen to indulge!

It’s really love at first bite. I mean, if I’m going to fry a cookie, it’s always going to be an Oreo.

I prefer the classic Oreo, but you could easily substitute ANY flavor of Oreo you would like. There are so many different Oreo flavors to choose from like:

• Chocolate peanut butter pie
• Red velvet
• Carrot cake
• Birthday cake
• Dark chocolate
• Lemon
• S’mores

The point here is that you can be creative with these air fryer Oreos. As long as Oreos are around (and they will be for a VERY long time) the flavor options are pretty much endless. 

I can’t wait for you to try these! Click here for the full recipe.

Roasted Asparagus is a very healthy and delicious side dish for lunch or dinner. It only takes about 8 minutes to roast in the oven since using an Air Fryer cuts down the time dramatically. In seven minutes the asparagus is lightly crispy on the ends, yet perfectly tender and ready to eat. It never turns out soggy and always has the perfect bite to it. This Air Fryer Roasted Asparagus will be your new favorite side dish!

How to Make Air Fryer Roasted Asparagus

• Trim the ends of the asparagus about an inch up from the bottom.
• Pre-heat the air fryer to 400°F.
• Place the asparagus onto a plate and lightly drizzle olive oil (or whatever oil you prefer) over the asparagus. Sprinkle 1/8 tsp kosher salt and 1/8 tsp ground black pepper over the top, then toss around to coat the asparagus.
• Place the spears into the air fryer basket. Cook for at 400°F for 7 minutes. 

Asparagus Nutrition

• 1/4 pound of asparagus contains 53 calories, 4 grams of fat (healthy fat from olive oil), 4 grams carbohydrates, 2 grams fiber, and 3 grams of protein.
• Asparagus is also great source of vitamin’s A and C, as well as iron.
• This recipe fits into most diets: KETO, Paleo, Whole30, vegetarian, vegan, and low carb/Atkins just to name a few.

For an easy checklist/print version, check out this recipe in our recipe section.

Reasons I Love Air Frying

• Food comes out so much crispier than it does in my oven.
• It takes only three minutes to preheat, it doesn’t heat up the kitchen.
• It’s safer and healthier than deep frying and it doesn’t smoke up the whole house.
• The air fryer has now replaced my oven on most weekdays and nights, whether making hard boiled eggs, whipping up a side dish, heating up leftovers, or making dinner.

Check out the full recipe here.

Benefits of Non-Stick Coating

1. No more excessive oil

With nonstick cookware, the need to use an excessive amount of oil is eliminated. If you’d like to still use oil, you would need a lot less. This pairs perfectly with the already existing health bonuses of using an air fryer vs deep frying.

2. Faster Clean Up

Food doesn’t get glued on to the bottom of your basket unlike other cookware. All you have to do is soak your basket and use a non-abrasive sponge. 

3. Uniform Heat Distribution 

A non-stick surface is better at distributing heat than stainless steel and cast iron.

Drawbacks of Using Non-Stick Coating

Although there are countless benefits of using non-stick, we also understand that there are some limitations. For instance, it’s important to realize that non-stick cookware coating doesn’t last forever and that they should be switched out every couple of years. The longevity of non-stick cookware is not as long as some other types of materials.

We recommend replacing your basket if or when flakes begin to appear, after you realize what has happened. In the following section, we’ll provide tips and tricks to help you prolong the lifespan of your non-stick cookware.

 Tips for Preserving your Air Fryer Basket

1. Wait until the basket has cooled completely

Before soaking it in cooler soapy water, wait until the basket has cooled. The change in temperature could warp the basket and shorten the lifespan of the non-stick coating. Instead wait a couple of minutes before washing your basket with a sponge and soapy water. It’ll be worth it in the end.

2. Only use non-abrasive sponges or cloths

When cleaning your air fryer basket, we recommend using a non-abrasive sponge or cloth. We have found that a cloth works best for preserving the basket. Even though the basket is dishwasher safe, we believe it’s better to hand wash. 

3. Do not use nonstick spray

Using nonstick spray on a nonstick surface actually doesn’t work as well as you would think. Instead, use an oil spritzer or a small amount oil. 

4. Use softer detergents when cleaning your basket

Detergents you use when hand washing dishes are considered soft. Products like dishwasher detergents, bleach, and Ajax are considered harsh cleaners. Be careful, harsh cleaners can deteriorate the basket’s coating.

5. Don’t use metal on your nonstick basket

Perhaps many have heard this already, but for those who haven’t…this is very important. Metal utensils can easily scratch and ruin the surface. Try using wood, rubber, silicone, nylon, or plastic utensils instead. 

6. Make sure basket is thoroughly clean

Residue can cause corrosion later in the lifespan of the basket. So, it’s important to make sure the basket is thoroughly cleaned. This may mean cleaning it twice, but one tip would be to let it soak and rinse twice after cleaning the basket. 

7. Use parchment paper

Lining the bottom of your basket with foil or parchment paper can help your basket live longer. 

1. They’re delicious.

2. They’re deep fried.

Despite tasting amazing, fried foods are a major health hazard and are known to a wide range of health problems like type 2 diabetes and high cholesterol. With the health hazards in mind, we personally still crave the delicious crunchiness of fried foods.

A healthier alternative to deep-frying is frying your foods with an air fryer. We’re here to tell you that it’s possible to “fry” your foods with just a fraction of the calories and fat content.

It honestly sounds too good to be true. How is this even possible? Air Fryers are designed with 360° Rapid Air Technology, which is a fancy way of saying hot air circulates around a chamber cooking ingredients faster and more efficiently. This allows the air fryer to “fry” your foods without actually dipping the foods in oil. According to some studies, air fried food contained 80% less fat in comparison to food that was cooked using other traditional methods, such as deep frying.

The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that during a normal deep frying process, cooking oil is broken down into fatty acids and other unhealthy components. This affects bad cholesterol levels, blood pressure, and waist lines. So, how do we make the food we love healthier?

The Answer is Air Frying

Air fryers are capable of cooking food with just one tablespoon of oil. Below is a chart comparing the nutrition facts between 100 grams of air fried french fries and a small (75 grams) size of french fries from McDonald’s.

Air Fryer French Fries

McDonald’s French Fries

Note the sizable difference in both caloric content and fat content. Cooking french fries with an air fryer instead of a traditional deep-fryer leads to 26% fewer calories and 86% less fat. Imagine the amount of calories you can avoid by simply changing your cooking method.

Now, here’s the best part: air fried foods taste AMAZING! You would think you that flavor would be sacrificed at the cost of a healthier food option. WRONG. With air fryers, you can still achieve the same great taste with the same crispiness you love. Check our our air fryers and get yours today. Both your taste buds and waist line will thank you.