Air fryers have become a must-have kitchen appliance, but some recipes can fall a little flat. (I’m looking at you, crispy potatoes.) While it’s tempting to push the machine to the back of the cupboard and forget it ever existed, the trick is knowing when to use it and when to stick with your trusty oven.
Here’s exactly what the oven does better than your air fryer, plus tips for getting that deep oven flavour when you do reach for it.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Oven wins for: big batches, large roasts, bread, and anything saucy or slow-cooked
- Air fryer wins for: small, fast jobs — crispy chicken thighs, quick-roasted veg, reviving leftovers.
- To get oven flavour in an air fryer: preheat, oil-mist, don’t overcrowd, and finish with a hot “dry blast”
Air fryer vs oven
While air fryers have taken over modern kitchens, professional chefs agree that they shouldn’t replace your oven entirely.
Celebrity chef Alex Charasse says, “The oven wins for large roasts; the air fryer can’t replicate the slow, even heat you need for big proteins.”
He adds, “Bread and baking are also better in the oven because you need steam, space and controlled heat. For anything needing a crisp exterior and soft interior, like lasagne and gratins, the oven’s radiant heat is unmatched.”
According to Food Editor Sarah Murphy, who happily uses both appliances, vegetables baked in the oven develop a deeper, richer flavour.
“Air fryers are great for speedy crispy cooking, which is why we love them,” says Sarah. “But you may find that you don’t get the same depth of flavour as you do when roasting in the oven.
“When you roast vegetables in the oven, they’re typically placed on a baking tray. In contrast, the air fryer uses a rack or similar setup to allow air to circulate around the food.”
She adds: “This is great for crispiness and fast cooking, but I’ve found that often the flavour depth is slightly more enhanced when oven roasting. I think it’s the slightly longer cooking time, combined with the vegetables roasting in their juices, that gives that extra flavour. Ultimately, it does come down to personal preference and what’s most convenient for you!”
How to get that ‘oven flavour’ in an air fryer
Air fryers and ovens cook the same foods, but they’re built for different kinds of heat. In saying that, if the air fryer is your go-to, Alex says it’ is’s possible to get oven quality-results with a few simple steps.
“You need to treat the air fryer like a miniature convection oven, not a shortcut machine,” says Alex. “Most people skip preheating, but a 3-5 minute preheat gives you the Maillard reaction you associate with oven roasting.
He adds: “A light mist of oil also helps because oven flavour comes from browning, so a tiny spray of oil helps mimic that caramelisation. Don’t overcrowd the air fryer either. They need airflow, and if the food touches, it steams instead of browning.
“If you can, elevate the food on a rack to give you more even browning, similar to oven circulation. Then finish with a ‘dry blast’ for the last two minutes at a slightly higher temperature to crisp up the exterior and deepen the flavour.”
What the oven does best
We know the air fryer has it’s place, but there are plenty of dishes where the oven still comes out on top. Here are a few of them.
1. Meal prep Sunday
#mealprepsundsy is all the rage. But how do you expect to prepare 45 different meals in two hours on a Sunday afternoon using one air fryer? You can’t. Air fryers are great for cooking for a small crowd, but when you need to feed the whole family (or prepare meals for the week), the oven wins hands down.
2. Crispy roast potatoes
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: oven-roasted potatoes are the superior potato. The secret? Preheat your roasting tin with oil or fat before adding the potatoes. They’ll sizzle on contact, creating that crunchy outside and fluffy inside air fryers can’t quite match. If you want to go all out, parboiling potatoes before roasting them in the oven will help achieve that crispy outer layer.
3. Even baking for cakes and cookies
Sure, your air fryer can make decent cakes and cookies. But why settle for average when you could have cookies with a golden crunch and a gooey, molten centre? One Reddit user demonstrated that oven-baked cookies hold up better than those made in an air fryer—the oven’s larger space and even heat help cakes rise and cookies bake evenly.
4. Capacity
Unless you have a huge air fryer, you can’t cook several parts of your meal at once for the whole family. As one writer wrote, she loved her air fryer, but had to serve the chips from her fish-and-chip dinner as an entrée while the fish was still cooking.
5. Crusty artisan bread
Steam, steady heat, and room for your loaf to rise make the oven the undisputed champion of bread baking. Ask any baker and they’ll tell you: nothing beats the even warmth of a classic oven.
Air fryers can give uneven results, sometimes burning the crust and bottom before the inside is cooked. They aren’t great for sourdough, since fast cooking and no steam can hurt the crust. For a shiny, crackly finish in the oven, add a few ice cubes to a hot tray at the bottom. This steam trick works best in an oven.
6. Saucy dishes, roasts and slow cooking
As Alex puts it: “The oven wins for large roasts; the air fryer can’t replicate the slow, even heat you need for big proteins. Bread and baking are also better in the oven because you need steam, space and controlled heat. For anything needing a crisp exterior and soft interior, like lasagne and gratins, the oven’s radiant heat is unmatched.”
What the air fryer does best
Don’t pack away your air fryer just yet. Alex says for some recipes, it produces excellent results. “I love using the air fryer for crispy chicken thighs because it renders the fat faster, giving you crackling skin without drying the meat. Vegetables like broccolini, carrots or Brussels sprouts also work really well because they caramelise beautifully in 10 minutes.
He adds: “Reheating pastries is shockingly good in the air fryer. They revive the flakiness better than an oven.”
It depends on what you’re cooking. Air fryers excel at small, quick batches—think crispy nuggets, reheated leftovers, or roasted veggies for two—and use less energy than other methods. Ovens, on the other hand, are better for larger meals, baking, slow cooking, and anything that needs even heat over a longer time. If you want capacity, versatility, and consistent results, the oven wins. For speed and convenience, the air fryer comes out on top.
Not completely. While air fryers can handle many everyday cooking tasks, they’re limited by size and cooking method. You can’t fit a whole turkey, bake multiple trays of cookies, or slow-cook a roast in most air fryers. An oven’s larger space, steady heat, and ability to cook several dishes at once make it irreplaceable for certain meals.
The best setup? Use both—the air fryer for quick wins and the oven for the big jobs.
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