Air Fryer Tips and Mistakes: How to Get Better, Crispier Results
I’ve used air fryers for quite a while now and, although they’re hardly complicated pieces of kitchen equipment, there are definitely a few things I wish I’d known when I first started using one.
Some foods really are as easy as throwing them into the basket and pressing a button. Others come out pale, soggy or strangely overcooked on one side if you treat the air fryer as a magic box that automatically makes everything crispy.
I’ve also learnt that two air fryers don’t necessarily cook exactly the same way. That’s why you’ll often see slightly different temperatures and cooking times in different recipes, and why I always treat a new recipe’s timing as a good starting point rather than something that can never vary by a minute or two.
If you’ve recently bought one, my beginner’s guide to using an air fryer explains the basics. These are the air fryer tips I’ve found most useful once you actually start cooking with one regularly.
Don’t automatically preheat for everything
You’ll often be told that you absolutely must preheat an air fryer before cooking anything, but I’ve found it depends on what I’m making.
Preheating can be useful when you want food to start cooking immediately at a high temperature, particularly if you’re trying to get a crisp outside. Some recipes I’ve tested work well without it, though, and some air fryers have a preheat setting while others don’t.
I follow the method I’ve tested for individual recipes rather than automatically adding a five-minute preheat to everything. If you’re using somebody else’s recipe, follow their instructions the first time and adjust if necessary when you make it again.
Give the hot air somewhere to go
One of the biggest differences between an air fryer and an ordinary oven is the way the hot air moves around the food, which means packing the basket as tightly as possible usually isn’t helpful.
I know it’s tempting. If you can physically fit another handful of chips into the drawer, why wouldn’t you?
Unfortunately, food piled on top of itself won’t have hot air circulating around all those surfaces. Depending on what you’re cooking, you’ll often get better browning by giving things some room and cooking a second batch rather than cramming everything into one.
This matters particularly with things such as air fryer roast potatoes, sweet potato fries and vegetables where you’re trying to get crisp edges.
You don’t need to drown everything in oil
An air fryer isn’t an oil-free cooking machine, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with using oil when it improves the finished food.
The amount you need depends entirely on what you’re cooking. Some foods already contain enough fat and need none at all, while potatoes and vegetables can benefit from a little oil to help with browning and texture.
I generally prefer tossing or brushing food with a measured amount rather than automatically covering everything in cooking spray. It gives me much more control over how much I’m actually using and helps coat the food properly.
Shake, turn or stir when the food needs it
If you’ve ever cooked chips and discovered the ones on top look fabulous while the ones underneath look distinctly anaemic, you’ll understand why shaking the basket matters.
For smaller foods such as chips, chickpeas and chopped vegetables, a good shake partway through cooking moves everything around and exposes different surfaces to the hot air.
Larger things are often better turned individually. You don’t need to open the drawer every two minutes and interfere with dinner, but one shake or turn during cooking can make a noticeable difference.
Start checking before the timer finishes
If a recipe says 15 minutes, I don’t disappear for precisely 15 minutes and assume dinner will be perfect when I return.
Different air fryers vary, as do the size, thickness and starting temperature of the food you’re cooking. Something that takes 15 minutes in mine might be ready slightly sooner or later in yours.
When I’m cooking something for the first time, I usually look a few minutes before the suggested finishing time. Adding another two minutes is easy. Making an overcooked chicken breast uncook itself is somewhat more challenging!
Once you know how a particular food behaves in your own machine, cooking it next time becomes much easier.
Be careful with liners and baking paper
Air fryer liners can be really handy, particularly for messy or sticky foods, but I wouldn’t automatically put one underneath everything.
The air needs to circulate, and covering too much of the basket can reduce that airflow. I also wouldn’t put loose baking paper into an empty air fryer while it preheats because the fan can lift it towards the heating element.
If I use a liner or baking paper, I make sure the food is sitting on it and holding it securely in place.
For foods where maximum crispiness is the aim, cooking directly in the basket can sometimes give better results.
I’ve got more suggestions in my air fryer accessories guide, including the accessories I think are genuinely useful rather than things you buy and then discover at the back of a cupboard six months later.
Don’t assume an oven recipe converts perfectly
There are plenty of formulas online telling you to reduce an oven temperature by a particular number of degrees and cut the cooking time by a particular percentage.
They can provide a rough starting point, but I wouldn’t rely on a formula as though every lasagne, chicken breast, cake and potato behaves identically.
An air fryer is smaller and moves hot air around food quickly, so many things do cook faster than in a conventional oven. How much faster depends on the food and the machine.
If I’m adapting an oven recipe, I’ll usually use a slightly lower temperature or begin checking it considerably earlier than I would in the oven, then make a note of what actually worked.
My cooking conversions guide is useful for the basic temperature and measurement conversions, but I’d still check the food rather than relying entirely on maths.
Size matters more than you might think
Two potatoes aren’t necessarily going to cook in the same time just because they’re both potatoes.
How thickly you’ve cut something makes a huge difference in an air fryer. This is especially noticeable with chips, potato wedges, vegetables and pieces of chicken.
Try to cut things reasonably evenly so you don’t end up with tiny pieces burning while the enormous one you couldn’t be bothered cutting again is still raw in the middle.
It’s one reason my air fryer chicken cooking times are a guide rather than a promise that every chicken breast in Britain will be cooked at precisely the same minute.
Seasoning can behave differently too
One of the nicest things about an air fryer is how easy it is to change a basic ingredient simply by changing the seasoning.
Paprika, garlic, chilli, herbs, curry spices and spice blends all work well, but very fine dry seasoning can sometimes blow around before it sticks to the food.
A little oil can help seasonings cling, and I usually mix everything together before putting it into the basket rather than sprinkling powder over food once it’s already in there.
Be careful with sugary marinades and sauces because they can brown or burn quickly. Sometimes it’s better to add a sticky sauce towards the end of cooking rather than at the beginning.
Check meat properly rather than trusting the clock
Cooking times are useful, but they’re not a substitute for checking whether meat is actually cooked.
Thickness makes a huge difference. A chunky chicken breast and a thin one could both weigh roughly the same but cook differently, and the same applies to sausages, burgers and other meats.
A food thermometer is one of the more useful air fryer accessories I’ve bought because it removes a lot of the guesswork.
For meat and other foods where food safety matters, I follow current Food Standards Agency guidance rather than judging it purely by the colour of the outside.
Frozen food can be brilliant in an air fryer
One of the things I probably use an air fryer for most is food straight from the freezer.
Plenty of frozen foods cook really well because the circulating hot air can crisp the outside without needing a pan of oil. You don’t necessarily need to defrost something first either, although you should always check the packet instructions and make sure the food is suitable for cooking from frozen.
The important thing is not to assume the cooking time for a fresh version will be identical to the frozen one.
Don’t put absolutely everything in it
Air fryers are versatile, but that doesn’t mean every food belongs in one.
Very wet batters, extremely lightweight foods that can blow around and anything likely to drip or splash onto the heating element can cause problems. The exact advice can vary between machines too, so your manufacturer’s instructions are always worth checking.
I’ve written a separate guide to what you shouldn’t put in an air fryer, because that subject deserves rather more than one paragraph here.
Keep it clean before the grime becomes a project
I speak from experience when I say an air fryer is much nicer to clean when you’re dealing with today’s crumbs rather than attempting an archaeological excavation of everything you’ve cooked during the last fortnight.
Let it cool first and unplug it before cleaning. The basket and removable parts can then be cleaned according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
Don’t assume every removable part is dishwasher safe just because another brand’s basket is. Check the instructions for your particular model.
My guide to cleaning an air fryer goes into this in much more detail.
Learn how your own air fryer behaves
This is probably the most useful tip of all.
Recipes give you a starting point, but after you’ve used your air fryer for a while you’ll start recognising how quickly your particular machine cooks things.
If something took 13 minutes rather than the recipe’s suggested 15, remember it. If your chips are better after two shakes rather than one, do that next time.
I sometimes think people worry they’re using their air fryer incorrectly if their results aren’t identical to somebody else’s. Different models, basket sizes and food sizes make small variations completely normal.
Use recipes for timings, then make the food your own
Once you’re comfortable with your air fryer, you don’t need a completely new recipe every time you use it.
If you know roughly how long an ingredient takes, you can change the seasoning, sides or sauce and turn it into something different without reinventing dinner every night.
That’s why I’ve been building my air fryer recipes and cooking tips collection around recipes and cooking guides I’ve actually used. You’ll find potatoes, vegetables, chicken, snacks and other ideas there, along with the individual timings I’ve tested.
The air fryer isn’t magic and it doesn’t automatically make every meal quicker, healthier or crispier. Once you understand how airflow, food size, temperature and timing affect the result, though, it becomes much easier to get consistently good food from it — and far less likely that you’ll open the drawer to discover you’ve accidentally made charcoal.
