Air Fryer All Day with Rebecca Abbott and Jennifer West

If you’ve ever wondered how an air fryer can transform your kitchen experience, you’re in for a treat. Our latest podcast episode features the delightful duo behind the Air Frying Foodie blog, Jennifer West and Rebecca Abbot. These culinary creatives have taken the online food community by storm with over 2.5 million followers on Facebook alone, and now they’re here to share their journey and delicious air fryer recipes with us from their cookbook, Air Fryer All Day: 120 Tried-and-True Recipes for Family-Friendly Comfort Food.

Can you ​explain ​and ​convince ​everybody ​needs an air fryer? Why is the air fryer so handy?

Everyone needs one because, just like Becky talked about how the first thing she made was chocolate chip cookies in her easy-bake oven, the air fryer is the adult version of the easy-bake oven. It really is easy to bake things in, fry things in, and reheat things. It makes life easier. The air fryer is perfect if you like that crispy texture but want only some of the calories. The air fryer is perfect because it uses air and circulation to heat the element. It tastes like it’s fried, but healthier. 

And [she was talking earlier] about the cheesecake. The cheesecakes, in my opinion, are better in the air fryer than they are actually from the oven, and doing all the other things you have to do in the oven, the texture of it is completely different. It’s dense, but it has an airy, light feeling to it because I think the air circulation just gets in there, and as it’s cooking it, it makes it different. If you don’t have one, you need to try it. There are so many great options out there. It makes life easier. Even reheating foods from restaurants. If you’re going out the night before or busy and have something in the freezer to heat up quickly, you can do it all in the air fryer, so it’s a must-have.

Let’s talk about your Easy Air Fryer Recipes Facebook community, because they started it all for you. Did they help with the book? Are they excited about it? Tell us about them.

It’s a huge group. It’s getting close to 2.5 million. Every day there’s so many people that are sharing recipes. So it’s not just us. Tons of people are sharing recipes and from all over the world. And I think it’s created a great community, because people are getting recipes that they thought would never try. And we get so many great comments in the group, people just thanking us for the group and thanking us for sharing recipes. They’ve learned so much about the air fryer, and they never would have thought to put a specific recipe in the air fryer. 

We always tell them in the group to start small. Start with your frozen foods first, and then start with reheating something. And then start with something small, just a few ingredients and just kind of build yourself up. 

The group is amazing because everyone in there, I think they’re so used to that now. The engagement is really high, but people just love to be in there and they find the recipes and they’ll re- share them. And it’s great. The book’s done really well. We have a lot of people that have shared the book in our group. They’ve shared some of the recipes that they’ve made in the group.