We must be one of the only households to have not yet embraced the air fryer revolution because they just seemed like another way to cook oven chips. Then MJ’s Diner got in touch and asked if I would like to review their collection of Air Fryer Ready Meals and they would also provide me with an air fryer so I said “yes please”.
There are currently 14 different meals to choose from, each of them based on a popular “fakeaway” and they are all under £2.50 each. The range includes classics such as Katsu chicken and chips; beef meatballs with chips and gravy; Southern Fried Popcorn Chicken and Crispy Fries; All Day Breakfast; Fish and Chips; Salt and pepper Chicken Chunks and chips and a mixed starter selection of potato skins, garlic mushrooms and hot and spicy wings.
We often go out on a Saturday morning for a full English breakfast at our local “greasy spoon” and it costs about £10 each so to be able to recreate that at home for a fraction of that was a challenge I was happy to accept. And do you know what? It was great. It took less than half an hour to cook and with the addition of a spoonful of beans and some scrambled egg it made a great cooked breakfast. It’s true that it possibly won’t win any culinary awards but if you want food on the table at 9am on a Saturday morning for two of you with change out of a fiver, what more do you need?! I love hash browns and these were then perfect combination of crispy on the outside and slightly fluffy on the inside. The sausages were firm with a great taste and even the black pudding which I would normally swerve was spicy and delicious.
The same is true for all the meals we tried. Because they are all frozen they are incredibly convenient and can be bought in bulk in advance and slung in the freezer for future use. We all have days that we need something to eat quickly or at short notice and so these are perfect. We got back from our holiday on Saturday evening and in the absence of any fresh food in the fridge grabbed the chicken nuggets and fries out of the freezer and put them in the air fryer. It meant dinner was cooking with minimal input from us whilst we unpacked our bags and got the washing machine on. The nuggets are made with 100% breast meat, and again they were ready quickly and were just what we needed without having to think too hard about what to cook. Once they were ready we could collapse on the sofa with them and a glass of wine and congratulate ourselves on spending £40 on a takeaway.
I will admit that I was initially skeptical but if you want a meal for less than £2.50 (some of the range are less than £2 a portion) that can be cooked in your air fryer in less than half an hour then these are definitely worth hunting down.
The whole range is available now from stockists such as Farmfoods, Poundland and Oops Food Clearance in St Helens.