I tried 5 popular air-fryer recipes and ranked them from worst to best

Insider

• • I followed five different air-fryer recipes and rated each in terms of difficultly level, flavor, and whether or not I'd make them again.
  • Both the french-fry and potato-chip recipes lacked crispness and didn't taste like what you'd buy at a fast-food joint or grocery store.
  • The mini calzones were not worth the hassle, but tasted good — sort of like a stuffed pepperoni pizza.
  • The churros were excellent, simple to make, and came out looking pretty professional.
  • The best recipe I followed was for chocolate chip cookies. They didn't look pretty, but they tasted amazing.

Air fryers can be intimidating to use, but they're a surprisingly simple and straightforward kitchen appliance.

With an air fryer, your food can cook quickly and get crispy without getting super greasy as it might if you were to use a deep fryer. Plus you can prepare almost anything in it, from sweets to entire meals.

To put my appliance to the test, I tried to make five popular air-fryer recipes and see how they stacked up. I rated each in terms of difficultly level, flavor, and whether or not I'd make them again.

Here's how each recipe turned out, plus a final ranking of which I think are actually worth making again.