Getting the Most Out of an Air Fryer: All You Need to Know in Three Steps

Air fryers are hotly becoming the defacto method for cooking quick, healthy, easy meals for the entire family. They’re staples of the kitchen, with their main superpower being the ability to cook delicious food with no or very minimal oil. 

If you’re thinking of buying an air fryer yourself or have one and would like to know how to get the most out of it, these tips are for you!

Step 1: Understanding How the Air Fryer Works

Essentially, air fryers provide the same sort of function as a conventional stove or oven, and they work much the same way, too. An air fryer uses rapidly circulating hot air to cook your food, and more or less anything you can cook in a regular oven you can do in an air fryer. 

Air fryers heat up very quickly which is one of the main reasons they’re so convenient (you don’t usually have to use any form of pre-heating as you might with an oven). They’re able to reach their top temperatures within only a couple of minutes, and you’ll notice that the cooking time is lower than most other conventional methods, whether you’re cooking vegetables, frozen food, fish, chicken, or whatever else. 

Air fryers are typically used for savory foods, though it’s worth mentioning that it is possible to do some forms of baking with them. Usually, the space will be the limiting factor, however. 

Step 2: Getting the Basics Down

Most air fryers have quite a lot of different settings, so it’s easy to feel a bit bewildered by it all at first. Give the instruction manual a quick read, though, and you’ll find most models much more straightforward to use than you initially thought. 

Most models are simple: they have a variety of different pre-formulated settings for different types of food, a timer setting, a temperature setting, and a start button. The most common thing many people get wrong when they use their machine for the first time is that they don’t take care to space things evenly enough. Given the fact that most air fryer draws are quite small, it’s easy for your food to get stuck together – use the dividers and grill insets provided to ensure everything has as even amount of space as possible, and make sure you don’t overfill. 

You should also be mindful to regularly check your food at half-way intervals. Air fryers cook food faster than you think, and the speed can differ between models, so don’t rely solely on recipe instructions!

Step 3: Experimenting With New Recipes

Once you’re comfortable with how to use your air fryer, it’s time for the fun part – discovering all the great things it can do! From staples like air fryer chicken breast to breakfast classics like bagels, there’s a huge variety of different options at your disposal. Given the lack of need for excessive amounts of oil, all of your traditional meals can be made healthier by opting for the air fryer method, too, so get creative and see how often you can use yours in place of the oven or frying pan.