Your favourite air fryer recipes please!

December 4, 2024 4:28 AM

After months of deliberation, we have joined the culinary revolution and have acquired an air fryer (one of the two-drawer types). Now I just need ideas about what to cook in it! No dietary restrictions apply, so meat, veggies, fish - it's all good. I'm particularly interested in the types of recipes which are good for family mealtimes, rather than fancy things to impress guests. Air fryer owners, what are your best recipes? Thank you!
posted by damsel with a dulcimer to Food & Drink (15 answers total)

Literally just season stuff and chuck it in there til it's done.

Not being glib. That's the magic of the air fryer. Toss your whatever in some seasoning, throw it in the air fryer and go.

Not sure temp or time? You can google things like "frozen shrimp air fryer" and "fresh carrots air fryer" to get an idea where to start. But it's done when you peek at it and give it a poke and it looks and feels done.

A few examples of things that air fry real nice that I go to a lot:
- chicken thighs (pro-tip, put some foil on the bottom of the hopper to catch the drippings for easier cleanup)
- shrimp from frozen
- fresh or frozen Brussels sprouts
- frozen asparagus
- potatoes 🥔 🥔 🥔 🥔 no wrong way to eat a potato, maybe mashed won't work so hot
- canned chickpeas

And finally basically any frozen convenience food is better in the air fryer. Aldi red bag chicken, nugs, again with potato based snacks I can't overstate the perfection of a potato, a single slice of frozen pizza, etc etc.

The biggest air fryer pro-tip I have is if you're not sure if something can be air fried, air fry it. It'll probably work out.
posted by phunniemee at 5:01 AM on December 4, 2024

Install an ad-blocking browser/extension, then search for "X air fryer," and the resultant recipe sites might actually be readable and not just popover hover-ad hidden-optout autoplay messes.
posted by teremala at 5:21 AM on December 4, 2024

What phunniemee said. I'd think of it not as a fryer but as a super roaster. For example, I always liked roasted vegetables, but rarely made them because I wanted dinner on the table in 15 minutes, not 45. An air fryer makes that possible.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 5:37 AM on December 4, 2024

I haven’t ventured much beyond chopping potatoes for French fries but I want to point out that a lot of packaged frozen food has the air fryer instructions now.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 6:35 AM on December 4, 2024

Just last night I made some roasted mini gold potatoes in the air fryer. Toss with olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic, and smoked paprika. Roast until tender at 400 for 15-20 min, shaking the basket every so often.
posted by indexy at 6:55 AM on December 4, 2024

Turnovers! So far I've done apple, cherry (using pie filling), and blackberry. I bet you could also improv some sort of savory hand pie as well.
posted by mochapickle at 6:58 AM on December 4, 2024

Nthing that it's just a roasting oven that cooks faster and crispier than your regular oven. I like frozen shrimp and tots for an easy quick meal, for example.

LifeByMikeG on Youtube (previously ProHomeCooks) is super into his air fryer. If you like watching videos for inspo, his are a great start. Here's his Top Ten Air Fryer Recipes

I've got a Breville Air Fryer/Toaster oven that came with a nice recipe book with some 'fancier' options for air frying, if you're looking for elevated ideas. For the pdf file, click on the Download the Recipe Ebook link on this page.
posted by hydra77 at 7:14 AM on December 4, 2024

Air Fryer Scotch Eggs. I've never made my own sausage, I just use regular breakfast sausage. Usually Jimmy Dean Sage. Panko bread crumbs work well.
posted by BoscosMom at 7:23 AM on December 4, 2024

The video hydra77 linked (here's the link again) got me started on a variety of paths for our new air fryer (well, after the first 1-2 bags of tater tots). It has indexed chapters, so you can skip through. I agree with MikeG that roast veggies and tofu work out very well, although I get my best results with extra-firm tofu instead of firm. I reeeeeeally want to try the falafel!

I've tried out raw potatoes cubed and cut into strips for roast potatoes and fries. They come out super-crisp initially, then soften after a minute, but they're still great. (This has been our result with yellow potatoes: russets may stay crisp longer.)

One thing that I do a LOT is put chicken legs (dry-brined and spiced up if I get them to thaw in time) into my Instant pot with a trivet and about 1.5 cups of water for about 20 minutes, natural release. I get a fantastic broth and very moist, tasty chicken. I then dump the legs into the air fryer for about 5 minutes to get the skin to crisp up: best of both worlds!
posted by maudlin at 8:17 AM on December 4, 2024

I keep bags in my freezer of what would normally be one sheet-pan roast. So for example, sliced kielbasa, sliced onions and bell peppers, and mini pierogis. That can go directly from freezer to air fryer for 15 minutes, and get topped with whatever seasonings/sauces I want.

Also frozen chicken bites + sauce = boneless wings. Or orange chicken on top of rice. Or chicken sliders on small hawaiian rolls.

My parents swear the air fryer makes incredible hard-boiled eggs, although I haven't tried it yet.
posted by specialagentwebb at 12:59 PM on December 4, 2024

Not a specific recipe, but I agree with all of the above that I think of my air fryer as a super-oven. One use case where it performs particularly well is in cooking frozen meat or fish without thawing. I think because of the convection and the grill grates the excess moisture, which would usually ruin a roasted fish or meat, is diverted from the food rapidly enough that it can still cook properly.

It's probably not exactly a correct food science explanation, but I will say that I can take a salmon fillet from the freezer, plop it straight into the air fryer, and it comes out perfectly cooked with crispy skin.

If you don't already use one, I recommend investing in an instant read thermometer - I have that exact model and it works great despite the low price. I do a lot more guess and check type cooking because no two air fryers are the same and I'm often sort of making things up as I go along, so the thermometer goes a long way towards making sure my food turns out as expected.
posted by telegraph at 6:30 PM on December 4, 2024

left. over. pizza.

It's like sending your old pizza to a delicious life extending spa.

hell, sometimes I will put freshly delivered but undercooked pizza in there just to finish it off properly.
posted by Sauce Trough at 6:24 PM on December 5, 2024

General instructions for cooking fish from frozen - note, I do usually put the fish on oil-sprayed foil because any liquid that drips will burn and it's quite a smell.

The best spray bottle, btw.

Tip, though: mayo is emulsified oil, basically dripless, has a bit of a browning agent (egg), and will hold a marinade on the surface without sliding off like butter.

This recipe from the BBC endorses microwaving a baked/jacket potato to par-cook before air frying, and the Brits do not fuck around with baked potatoes, it works perfectly.

I use the air fryer routinely to warm up breads just enough - tortillas, rolls, pita, naan - and it'll refresh chips that didn't get closed up correctly (this happens to me a lot with tortilla chips in the PNW). I frequently use it as a toaster but it's something you just have to try until you get the hang of it (but I made ghee-brushed bagel this morning that was perfection).

One thing to watch for: the fan is so strong it can suck a tortilla up against the heating element, which is not good, so use a weight like a metal trivet or even just a spoon. It can also do that to sliced or shredded cheese, so just keep an eye and ear on it if you're using really light components.
posted by Lyn Never at 9:18 AM on December 6, 2024

[ Thanks for the suggestions we've added this tasty thread to the sidebar and Best Of blog!]
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:48 PM on December 6, 2024

> left. over. pizza.

Leftover fast food, heated in the air fryer for the next meal (I’ll often eat half right away for lunch, then have the other half, air fried, for dinner), has been amazing every time I’ve had it.
posted by sillygwailo at 9:50 AM on December 12