15 Helpful tips on using an air fryer

Getting a new air fryer is beyond exciting, becoming a master of your Air Fryer through learning all of the helpful tips on using an air fryer to get the most out of your model is even better!

15 Helpful tips on using an air fryer

15 Helpful tips on using an air fryer

1. Using the Air Fryer to Reheat Foods

We make sure after buying the air fryer, you’ve immediately thought of all the great recipes you could make like chicken wings, meatballs, pork chops, and chicken breasts… And using an air fryer to reheat your leftovers often makes them taste better than reheating them in a regular oven or microwave.

Most foods will take around 5 minutes to reheat at 400°F. Then carefully place your ingredients into the air fryer basket. Reduce the temperature down to 350°F and cook for 3 minutes.

After three minutes, pull out the basket and check your food. Return to the air fryer (if needed) every 1 or 2 minutes until warm and crispy.

2. Cooking Foods from Frozen in air fryer

Cooking Foods from Frozen

One of our top air fryer tips is to use the air fryer to cook frozen foods. Amazing! You can air-fry almost any frozen food that is usually baked or fried.

You can totally cook frozen food in an air fryer but for the best results, you may have to adjust the air fryer settings just a bit. The air fryer cooks food faster than the oven, so the recommended time on the package must be controlled to suit the air fryer. For frozen foods like spring rolls or nuggets, the general rule of thumb is to use the same temperature as in the oven but cut the cooking time in half.

For example: If the instructions on the package recommend 20 minutes at 400 degrees, you should only cook it for 10 minutes at 400 degrees in an air fryer.

3. Air Fryers Cook Hotter and Faster

Air Fryers Cook Hotter and Faster

How is air frying different from baking in an oven?

Conventional ovens work by generating heat from an element (gas or electricity). Heat is dispersed slowly through the oven over time. In the case of a convection oven, that time is increased by using a fan – similar to that in an air fryer.

Air fryers are really mini convection ovens that rapid air technology to generate heat instead of an element. That helps them to heat up much faster and evenly than a conventional oven. That’s why you can get crispy food which comparing with a standard oven at the same temperature and cooking time.

The air fryer also cooks faster than the oven, even after adjusting the cooking time! Many recipes are oven-tuned for 20-25% less time than standard ovens.

4. Using Oil in air fryer

Using Oil

Getting the perfect crunchy food like breaded chicken or wings is one of the purposes that people would like to buy an air fryer. You will get crispy food with no added fat and oils.

Although technically you can cook food without adding oil, mixing in a small amount of oil like olive oil, avocado oil, or at least spraying the food with oil makes it crunchier than not using oil at all.

5. Prevent white smoke in air fryer

Prevent white smoke

If you are cooking high-fat food in your air fryer, don’t be surprised if you see some white smoke splashing out of the device. To prevent this, please follow some helpful tips as below, it will stop the smoke and your food will continue to cook normally:

• Always keep the air fryer basket and interior clean
• Add about 2 tablespoons of water to the bottom of the air fryer basket when cooking fatty foods, it helps prevent the grease from overheating and smoking. Do this when cooking bacon, sausage, even burgers if they’re particularly fatty.
• Put a slice of bread under the air fryer basket, the grease from fatty foods will drip on the bread instead of the bottom of the air fryer.

6. Is It Necessary to Flip Foods in air fryer?

Is It Necessary to Flip Foods?

Most air fryer recipes will require you to flip foods over halfway through the cooking time. Just like you are cooking on a stovetop or pan, you need to flip the foods over so that they are brown evenly

7. Don’t overcrowd the air fryer basket.

Don’t overcrowd the basket

Have you ever seen some photo of air fryers filled with French fries? It looks really interesting but all pictures shown are for illustration purposes only.

In fact, but over-crowding the basket prevents air circulation makes foods not crispy, brown evenly, and take more time than normal.

The BEST way for perfectly crispy food is to put it in a layer instead of placing the food in an air fryer. If you want to stack your food like French fries or meatballs make sure to only add enough up to the fill line, and then shake the basket every 4-5 minutes.

8. Using parchment paper in air fryer

Using parchment paper

Sometimes, when you are cooking items that could get stuck in the holes of the air fryer basket or stick to the bottom of the air fryer basket, like cookies. Just remember to place the food on the parchment paper liners before turning on the Air Fryer. Otherwise, your liner will fly around and possibly get caught in the heating element and burn.

Parchment papers don’t restrict the airflow in the air fryer as you thought. The holes in the parchment sheets allow food to circulate and help food cook more evenly throughout the whole cavity of the air fryer.
Using parchment paper in an air fryer is really a good idea when it comes to keeping your air fryer easy to clean.

9. Light Foods Can Blow Around in Air Fryer

Light Foods Can Blow Around

When you’re air frying very lightweight food you need to be careful because they can blow around inside the air fryer and literally get sucked up into the heating element, which is exactly what happened with our first batch of air fryer kale chips. This is very dangerous and you could end up with a fire inside the air fryer.

Be careful when you intend to air frying some light foods like kale chips… Because the fan from the air fryer will pick up light foods and blow them around. It is very dangerous and you could end up with a fire inside the air fryer.

The best way you should use toothpicks to secure and hold foods down and make sure to follow closely during working with light foods.

10. Air Fryer – Master other cooking methods.

Master other cooking methods

The air fryer is not just for frying, it can be used in many ways to help your life easier. Whether you want to fry, bake, grill, or roast ingredients, the air fryer can do it all.

With an air fryer, you can prepare multiple ingredients at once without oil. We make sure you will find something delicious in air fryer recipes on the Internet.

11. Checking the food for doneness

Checking the food for doneness

Open the air fryer whenever you want to check food for doneness. This is one of the special functions of an air fryer. You can open that drawer as many times as you like to check how the process is going. No worries, it won’t interrupt the timing, air fryers will continue heating and timing as you pull the basket out, or pick up where it left off when you return the basket to the fryer.

12. Do not use Aerosol Cooking Sprays in Air Fryer

Do not use Aerosol Cooking Sprays

Most air fryer baskets have a non-stick coating. In fact, this coating works not good than you thought. Therefore, it is extremely important that you do not use Aerosol sprays like Pam, as that will only build up grease and cause more peeling.
If you want to grease the air fryer basket, we highly recommend you should pour a little coconut oil on a paper towel and wipe the bottom of the basket.

13. Air Fryer First Use Plastic Smell

First Use Plastic Smell

We make sure this is not the first time you’ve ever heard about it and it’s not strange.

The major reason is that the air fryer comes with a protective coating out of the box. When this coating is exposed to high temperatures, it starts to burn and produces that plastic smell. It is exactly a burning plastic smell like the smell of new televisions, computers…. once it is unpacked from the box.

Air fryers will smell within the first few uses and give off a plastic smell. This should, and in most will go away after you’ve used the air fryer a couple of times.

In some cases, the bad odor will linger on for much longer than that. One of the best ways to remove this smell quickly is deep cleaning your air fryer or running the air fryer with vinegar inside.

14. Shake the air fryer basket.

shake the basket

Shaking the food is the step to make sure the air is reachable on all food surfaces.

You just need to pull the pan out of the device with the handle and shake it. Shaking the basket a few times while cooking will help redistribute the ingredients and make sure everything is browning and crunching evenly. In case you are cooking chicken thighs or steak, you should flip or turn the pieces instead of shaking the basket.

15. Adjust the Temperature for Certain Foods

Adjust the Temperature for Certain Foods

Air frying is a faster cooking method that eliminates pre-heating and shortens the cooking time of many foods with the technology of rapid air circulation … Sometimes you may want to adjust the Air Fryer to the highest temperature to run but be careful as some foods can dry out quickly.

To convert an oven recipe to an air-fry recipe, you should reduce the recommended temperature by 25°F and then cut the cooking time by about 20%. Just use the pause button on your machine to occasionally check the doneness and flip for balanced crispness on all sides.

For example, if you cook macaroons at 350°F or 20 minutes in the oven, lower the degrees on the Air fryer to 320°F and cook for about 16 minutes.

Conclusion:

Regardless of what type of air fryer you choose, make sure you carefully consider your needs carefully before making your purchase. The right air fryer can carry you through years of delicious meals.

No one can deny the benefits of using an air fryer since they offer healthier meals, time savers, and the ability to feast on your favorite food. Especially, they require less oil to produce a similar taste. That’s a reason why air fryers have become popular and also implies it’s soon going to be a staple in any home.

Below I’ve rounded up some great recipes you’ll definitely want to try:

The 10 Best Air Fryer Frozen Food Recipes
30 healthy air fryer recipes you need to try