Not Sure How to Use An Air Fryer? Our 101 Guide Will Help

Air fryers are quickly becoming as common as microwaves and toaster ovens, but there are still plenty of cooks who aren’t 100% sure what they are, how they work or what to cook in them. The good news is that learning to use an air fryer is super easy, and once you get the hang of it you’ll be turning out crispy, delicious dishes in no time flat. This countertop machine is perfect for cooking meat, vegetables or frozen food items to perfection. You should also be using an air fryer to reheat your French fries and other leftovers!

For this guide, we talked to chefs and other food pros to gather everything you need to know about your air fryer. There’s plenty for beginners here, but even if you’re a seasoned air fryer pro, you’ll probably find some tips and tricks you’ll want to use ASAP. 

Related: 15 Best Ninja Air Fryer Accessories to Up Your Cooking Game

What Is an Air Fryer? 

A lot of the confusion comes from the use of the word “fryer,” which evokes images of a vat of hot oil. Instead of oil, air fryers get their crisping power from hot air, which means you can create crispy, crunchy food using very little fat. Air fryer chicken recipes and air fryer snacks are popular categories, but the countertop appliance can help you turn out a wide range of great recipes, including air fryer meatballs. Air frying is also the best way to reheat leftover pizza and other leftovers that are prone to sogginess on day two.

How Does an Air Fryer Work?

“An air fryer works like the opposite of the wind chill factor,” explains Ming Tsai, Iron Chef and founder of MingsBings. “When it’s 20 degrees out and there’s a strong wind, it feels colder. Well, the opposite happens when there is hot air that you force through a heating element—the air gets hotter.”

Despite its name, an air fryer is just a compact convection oven. “The ratio of fan, motor and heat to space is much higher, which means it cooks or ‘fries’ the food,” says Tsai.

How To Use an Air Fryer

Part of the incredible popularity of air fryers is that they are just so easy to use. “Plug it in, preheat if the recipe calls for you to do so (many do not), select your temperature, place food in the air fry basket, add the basket to the machine and set a timer,” says Lynne Just, Consumer Test Kitchen Manager for Hamilton Beach Brands. Keep in mind that foods cook more quickly than in a conventional oven, so it may be necessary to adjust the cooking time.

Related: Sam’s Club’s $30 Ceramic Air Fryer

How Are Air Fryers and Convection Ovens Different?

Air fryers work to replicate deep frying, but instead of immersing your food in oil, hot air is used to cook the food. The result is a lot healthier—ideally without the loss of the fried food experience. “Compared to a traditional kitchen range, or a countertop oven (and even other types of convection ovens), air fryers are smaller, faster and can be easier to use,” notes Lynda Musante, Senior Product Manager of Air Fryers and Ovens for Hamilton Beach Brands.

Convection ovens work similarly to air fryers in that they use a fan (or multiple fans) to circulate hot air around the cavity of the oven for faster cooking at lower temperatures, resulting in a crisp or caramelized exterior. “Countertop and traditional kitchen ovens can take 15 to 20 minutes of preheating to reach the high temperatures required for air frying, as most foods air fryers between 400 degrees Fahrenheit and 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Cooking cycle lengths for air fryers are shorter versus kitchen ovens, as the cooking space is smaller,” adds Musante.

An air fryer is a form of a convection oven that combines high temperatures and a fan that circulates the heated air around the food at a high speed to remove moisture from the food, resulting in a crisp finish/texture depending on the type of food being cooked.

Related: 10 Best Air Fryers

How Do Front Load vs. Basket Load Air Fryers Differ?

The way you load food into your air fryer will depend on the type of basket that’s inside your air fryer—or if there’s a basket involved at all. According to Jarrod Craft, corporate chef at The Fresh Market, the front-load toaster ovens are more like commercial convection ovens; they are going to use high temperatures and a high-speed fan to cycle the air in the oven. “The basket loaded (drum) uses the same principle but the heating element and fan are above the food and the shape of the machine allows the fan to circulate over the food and then out through the fanned slits in the side of the drum,” he says. 

This mechanism works for far more efficient airflow. “I think those versions perform more consistently for crisping. The drawback is you can only load a single layer of product and items typically need to be flipped at least once during the cooking process. The front loads allow you to add baskets and multiple items to the machine,” shares Craft. In the simplest terms, a normal oven is like walking in a desert, the air fryer is like walking in a desert with 100 mph winds.

The front loader types work perfectly for families and cooking multiple items at once. Craft also points out that the airflow is more broken because of the trays and the boxy shape, so you don’t get a perfect cyclone effect, but it also means you can cook items like pizzas and bacon on trays.

Chefman 6.3-Qt 4-In-1 Digital Air Fryer+, Rotisserie, Dehydrator, Convection Oven, XL Family Size, 8 Touch Screen Presets, BPA-Free, Auto Shutoff, Accessories Included, Black

The drum fryers are pushing higher air speeds, and that means light items like bacon can move or blow up against the side of the drum. “I think the drum version is best for cooking fried appetizers/snacks and getting a good roast on chicken breasts and vegetables like broccoli,” explains Craft. “Because of these differences, someone’s recommendation of air frying bacon will work great for one person, and poorly for someone else. I, for one, still bake my bacon in the normal oven (at 400°F).”

Ninja AF101 Air Fryer that Crisps, Roasts, Reheats, & Dehydrates, for Quick, Easy Meals, 4 Quart Capacity, & High Gloss Finish, Black/Grey

Can Anything Go in an Air Fryer?

Once you understand how the air fryer works, it becomes a bit clearer when something will work in an air fryer. That won’t stop people from making air-boiled eggs, of course. “I think it’s good to keep in mind that the air fryer uses high heat and high fan speed to get the cooking done and that is a rough environment. If you need gentle or wet cooking, the air fryer is not the tool to get the job done,” says Craft.

As for what’s best cooked in an air fryer, Tsai says items like empanadas (or in his case, MingsBings) work perfectly. They also work well for snacks like mozzarella sticks, jalapeño poppers, egg rolls or things you want really crisp, like slices of pizza or potstickers. “You can cook these just right in the air fryer, or use something like aluminum foil to make less mess. They also have reusable liners for less waste which you can use, and I’m all for that,” says Tsai.

But it’s important to note air fryers can also be used to cook. “Take raw chicken wings, season them well, put them in an air fryer for 15 minutes, shake it once halfway through and you get a pretty good golden brown on those wings,” says Tsai. “I haven’t cooked steak or salmon in an air fryer, but you can totally do it. Just treat it like a really high-powered convection oven.”

Let’s also not overlook the convenience aspect, which is unparalleled, especially if you happen to live in a hot place. “You can use the air fryer to cook two pieces of salmon instead of heating up your whole kitchen by turning on the oven,” adds Tsai.

And it’s super easy to clean. Tsai even foresees a day when there will be an air fryer in every household. “Maybe I’m the one who will hopefully get this to market, but I think a microwave/air fryer combo will be the next new appliance. Every household has a microwave and I think one day they will be replaced with an air fryer,” he predicts.

Why Are Fried Items Better in an Air Fryer?

Air fryer cookbooks and commercials will most often show classically fried items reimagined, this may include chicken tenders and wings or fries. “Most of the retail frozen snack foods, like French fries and chicken nuggets are par-fried and mostly cooked before flash freezing. That means the breading has retained residual frying oils that provide additional browning when reheating at home,” says Craft.

In a normal oven, these heat up slowly, and at the same time, moisture from the products gets squeezed out, resulting in soggy breading on the bottom. “Flipping helps but the home oven lacks high fan speeds that will wick away that moisture. That’s where the air fryer works better. The baskets/drums of either air fryer help move any excess moisture from the product while using the residual oils to heat up and begin ‘frying’ the product again because the high-speed hot air is far more effective and intense,” says Craft.

Should I Use Oil in My Air Fryer?

If the item isn’t already fried, it will need a bit of oil to begin browning; otherwise, you are just using hot air, and that will only dry your items out instead of giving them a delicious color. “I always oil and season my chicken breasts or veggies before going into an air fryer. A popular tip is to give a quick spray of nonstick spray/oil to the top of the ingredients once loaded into the basket/drum, so you get good browning on the tops without flipping the product,” says Craft.

Can You Use Foil or an Insert in an Air Fryer?

It may seem like a good idea to throw foil into the air fryer to make for easier cleanup after cooking. But is this safe to do? Once again, this depends on the version you are using. “Foil is okay on a tray/rack that goes into a front-loaded air fryer, but foil in the drum/basket version blocks the airflow from moving through the bottom of the drum and can mess up the perfect cyclone the machine is trying to generate,” says Craft. It’s also blocking any extra oil/moisture from falling away from the food and can affect crisping.

How To Clean an Air Fryer

Cleaning an air fryer is as easy as can be. Just let it cool down after a cooking cycle. Then, just rinse out the basket with dish soap and warm water, as you would any pots or pans or dishes. If there’s some really stuck-on grease and grime though, there are some cleaning hacks!

Our Favorite Air Fryer Recipes

• Air Fryer Pork Chops
• Air Fryer Tater Tots
• Air Fryer Burgers
• Air Fryer Hot Dogs
• Air Fryer Brussels Sprouts
• Air Fryer Chicken Wings
• Air Fryer Baby Potatoes
• Air Fryer Salmon
• Crispy Breaded Air Fryer Eggplant

Up next, the 50+ best Ninja Foodi Grill recipes.