7 Super Effective Tips of Using an Air Fryer

Are you an air fryer owner who's not very impressed with your user experience so far? These 7 super-effective tips should have you singing its praises in no time.

Many have believed the tale that you can get deep-fryer-like results without a drop of cooking fat. I'm sorry to be the myth-buster here, but it's not going to happen.

Don’t feel defeated, around 80% fewer calories is still a great achievement don't you think? But yes, the reality is you’re going to have to stomach a few fat calories to get great results. In my books, a moderate number of calories is better than none if it means the taste profile is this much better.

This method is one of my best air frying tips to share with frustrated air fryer users. Great tasting fried food without the frying really is achievable.

Foods coated in breadcrumbs are a natural fit for the Air fryer (think chicken Katsu and Panko Chicken Thighs). Brilliant results are achievable, but the right technique is crucial.

The rapid hot air circulation in an air fryer calls for a different approach than a regular oven. There are many methods out there, but for me, only one crumbing style is king in an air fryer. 

Here’s the best way for putting a coat of breadcrumbs on just about anything:

Note: For those with an allergy to eggs. The process works without the egg coating, but the outcome isn't quite as crispy. You may need to have slightly more oil in your crumbs so they adhere well.

There you go! This method ensures the breadcrumbs won’t get blown off the food by the circulating air. When followed correctly, you’ll get crispy, well-covered golden-brown food.

I discovered this excellent air fryer tip after I had just cooked Tandoori Chicken. The dish had a generous marinade on it, and when pouring out the liquid/grease drawer, I spilled a bit on my hand. I licked the sauce off while cleaning up and to my surprise, it had a beautifully rich and intense flavor.

The flavorful chicken drippings mixed with the reduced marinade were a delicious combination. Thanks to this revelation, the following is one of my best air fryer tips:

When cooking marinated meats, take the liquids left in the bottom drawer and use them to make a gravy or sauce.

This is one of the air fryer tips I’ve discovered that I don’t think many others have yet. It’s a super simple way to add an incredible flavor punch to your food; you can thank me for all the compliments later.

The air fryer does a great job of cooking traditionally deep-fried food. It’s been the key selling point for this appliance to date. Once you’re all fried out though, you start to ask the question “what else can I cook in an air fryer?

An air fryer actually does a terrific job of cooking most other oven-cooked meals. It does work much like a convection oven after all.

I've come up with the following two rules after much trial and error cooking many of my own recipes in the air fryer. Use all your favorite oven recipes and convert them to air fryer recipes as follows:

Remember, this is a general rule, and some foods may not quite fit the bill. Here’s a couple of tweaks I make:

This is one of my favorite air fryer tips to share and gets everyone so much more use out of their appliance.

The air fryer's compact size and ultra-fast cooking speed are great features. For busy singles/couples or those on a different diet from their family, it’s a sensible choice for cooking.

Most air fryer users cook the various parts of their meal separately.  For smaller meals, there's no reason you can't cook all parts of your meal together. The lid on an air fryer can be opened several times without issue. All you need to do is stagger the cooking from longest to shortest cook time.

Here’s an example of a typical well-rounded meal.

Saving 22 minutes on cooking an everyday meal is an awesome result. That's a 42% time saving on cooking them individually! Tell me that’s not one of the best air fryer tips you’ve heard!

Are you a picky eater that just doesn't like your food mixing while it cooks? You can still combine-cook by investing in some small silicone cooking containers. They’re inexpensive and do a brilliant job of segmenting your food without taking up space.

In an air fryer, you can cook a variety of food types, but a few of these can be tricky. Doughy baked items or food with a high water content can be difficult to keep moist, but I've found a good solution.

It's completely safe to wrap food in tin foil in an air fryer (unlike a microwave or conventional oven). Tin foil wrapping does excellent work of keeping the moisture inside your food.

Before we got an air fryer, even my husband wouldn't reheat soggy left-over fries and pizza. My husband's an eating-machine, so that's saying something. Food wastage in my household was not ideal, and I really wanted to fix that.

I’ve found that the air fryer is a reheating superstar. It has great outcomes with food that would usually turn out soggy or take forever in a microwave or oven. Food waste is no longer such a big problem for us. 

Here’s how to get excellent reheating results:

The reheat time and temperature will vary depending on the food. I've found the air fryer to be quite forgiving when it comes to reheating temperatures.

As a general rule, I reheat at 95 – 100 degrees (F) hotter than the recommended cooking temperature for a given item.

There you have it my air frying friends! An impressive array of tips and tricks to get the best out of your air fryer. These tips have genuinely made all the difference to my cooking experience with this appliance.

I'm confident if you use these, you'll get better tasting food and more frequent use out of your air fryer.

Now air fry away!