Air frying vs Oven baking: What’s the best way to cook?

The events of the past couple of years gave way to the DIY revolution. When restaurants shut down a couple years ago, Americans had no choice but to cook for themselves, and many have continued to do so even after restaurants reopened their doors. Suddenly, we remembered how affordable and fun it can be to prepare our own meals, but it is certainly a process made easier with the right tools. 

As Americans work to become healthier in everyday life, it is important to know both the benefits and drawbacks of different cooking styles, so you know what works best for you and your family. Air-fryers have become extremely popular in recent years, but is it true that air-frying is better than oven-baking? Before you hit the kitchen for your next meal, this is what you need to know about air-frying vs. oven-baking.

Comparing air-frying vs. oven-baking

Air Frying

Best for crispy, fried foods with a fraction of the fat

Air-frying your food delivers a very similar taste and texture without any of the heaviness or health consequences that often come from traditional frying methods, which are high in both fat and calories.

Air fryers only use a small fraction of the oil required for a deep fryer, requiring only about a tablespoon of cooking oil compared to the large amounts required for a traditional fryer. Instead, an air fryer uses circulated air as hot as 400 degrees to cook your food. 

Despite the minimal use of oil, an air fryer can replicate the traditional frying process so closely that sometimes it’s hard to tell what was cooked with an air fryer or a deep fryer. 

What to air fry

An air fryer delivers incredible versatility and capability, able to cook many items that were traditionally relegated to the stovetop or oven. You can count on an air fryer to cook foods like chicken nuggets and tenders, french fries, onion rings, vegetables, pizza, chicken wings, even cookies and donuts, just to name a few.

Benefits of air-frying

Air frying presents a whole host of benefits for your diet and health:

• Weight loss: Fried foods are linked to high obesity rates due to the high calories and amounts of fat that goes into them. Think about it: you’re basically soaking your food in hot oil to cook it. When you remove the oil required for traditional frying methods, you are rewarded with food that is healthier and, in turn, promotes a healthy weight.   

• Disease prevention: Vegetable oil is linked to inflammation and a higher risk of heart disease and higher rates of inflammation. By significantly reducing the amount of oil that you choose, you can lower your chances of illness and disease.  

• Improved safety: To use a traditional fryer, you are required to handle large amounts of scalding oil, making them far more dangerous than air fryers. Since air fryers use a lower amount of oil, they are generally safer than deep fryers. Still, they should always be handled with care. Be sure to refer to your product manual for instructions on best use.

• Reduced toxicity: Deep fryers present the additional risk of acrylamide, a dangerous compound that forms in oil at extremely high temperatures. Research links acrylamide to several forms of cancer, including breast, endometrial, ovarian, and pancreatic cancer. When you use a fryer to cook your food, you run the risk of toxic acrylamide formation, but an air fryer can help avoid that risk.

Drawbacks of air frying

With all its benefits, there are still some drawbacks to air-frying your food.

• Health risks: While an air-fryer is better than a deep fryer, it still carries its own risks that could prove potentially harmful. While less than a deep fryer, an air fryer is still susceptible to harmful compounds that can form with use, such as cancer-causing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and heterocyclic amines, which are found in meat cooked at high temperatures.

• No guarantees: Just because you air-fry a food does not mean that it’s good for you. When using an air fryer, it is still important to consider nutritional alternatives that support your health. 

Also read: Best air fryers

Oven Baking

Best for baking, broiling, and roasting larger meals

A conventional oven is perhaps the most traditional household appliance, certainly one commonly found in kitchens around the world. Ovens typically consist of multiple racks to accommodate your goodies and are a trusted way to bake and broil an endless amount of foods. An oven uses hot air to cook food slowly and indirectly, allowing foods in a more liquid form, liked baked goods, to take shape while cooking. It cooks from the inside while slowly browning the exterior. 

In addition to broiling and baking, conventional ovens can also provide extended functionality, including toasting and roasting. While roasting relies upon a slower cooking method to surround an item with hot air, toasting is used to brown the exterior only when there’s no need to cook the interior further, like letting the cheese melt and brown to finish off a cooked casserole.

What to oven-bake

A conventional oven can prepare a wide assortment of baked, broiled, and roasted foods, including popular items like pizza, meats, vegetables, casseroles, bacon, bread, muffins, cheesecake, and many more.

Benefits of oven-baking

Oven-baking brings a whole host of benefits that can be incredibly helpful to your health:

• No oil needed: Unlike an air fryer, you do not need to add an extra drop of oil to oven-bake your food, unless the recipe calls for it. This reduces the chances of harmful contaminants seeping into your food from the cooking oil. Without the presence of oil, foods are often significantly healthier with a lower risk of cancer and other diet-related diseases.

• Lower fat content: When comparing frying versus oven-baking, a fried and batter chicken breast contains 13.2 grams of fat in a 100-gram serving, while an oven-roasted chicken breast has just 3.6 grams of fat. When comparing oven-baking versus frying, there is no doubt that oven-baking results in far less fat and calories.  

• Greater nutrient retention: Unlike frying, baking is a preparation method that retains many nutrients commonly lost when cooking. There is better preservation of healthy vitamins and minerals while minimizing your chances of the bad ones, like aldehydes, which can result in foods fried at high temperatures.

• Readily accessible: Most homes are already equipped with a conventional oven for baking, unlike air-fryers, which are often an additional purchase.

Drawbacks of oven baking

For all its benefits, oven-baking is not perfect. It has some drawbacks that can affect your choice. 

• Limited functionality: An oven is unable to offer the multiple cooking styles that are available from an air fryer, like steaming, sautéing, and, of course, air-frying.  

• Watch out for broiling: Broiling can be subject to the formation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which can be found in meats or fish cooked at high temperatures and are linked to higher risk of breast, kidney, colon, and colon cancer.                      

• Not the best for fat: If you are looking for the best cooking method to lose weight, oven baking may not be your healthiest option. The Mayo Clinic reports that the healthiest choice is often grilling, which allows meats to drain excess fat and oils while cooking.   

Also read: Best toaster ovens

How we perform our analysis

With experience in several cooking methods, we bring a personal perspective to our analysis of air-frying versus oven-baking.  Drawing from personal use, we supplement our consumer experience with proven research by some of the world’s greatest institutions. To best understand the nutritional value and health effects of air frying vs oven baking, we refer to published studies from the Mayo Clinic, National Cancer Institute, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service, and the National Library of Medicine’s National Center for Biotechnology Information.

Which is best for you?

When comparing air-frying vs. oven-baking, the best choice for you depends on several personal factors, such as your preferred cooking method, household size, and your budget. These are some considerations to help with when choosing between air-frying and oven-baking.

FAQ