Both gadgets use heat to cook your food. That’s about where the family resemblance ends. An oven surrounds your food with still, gentle heat, like a warm hug. An air fryer blasts it with a hurricane of hot air.
Think of your oven as a lazy sunbather. It slowly tans your cookies over time. Now picture the air fryer as a professional boxer. It’s punching your fries with rapid-fire air until they surrender.
That furious air circulation is the secret. It strips moisture away from the surface fast. This is why your chicken wings get that crackly skin without a deep-fryer vat of oil.
