Hot air is typically used for cooking food and helping them develop a crisp quality in air fryers. This is perhaps why the air fryer only uses a little fraction of the oil typically used in deep fryers. Air fryers are often advertised to cut fat and calories from majorly traditional comfort foods, but they may also be used to prepare quite a variety of dishes.
This article will show you many of the most mouthwatering dishes that are delicious when cooked in an air fryer. We’ll also provide pointers on achieving the best results when cooking these recipes in an air fryer.
Tips on What to Cook in an Air Fryer
The tips and guidelines outlined below will give you lots of wonderful recipe ideas to try cooking in your air fryer:
Air fried bacon – It’s really simple to make bacon using an air fryer. Because the fat drops from the bacon and into the basket, the bacon becomes thinner and healthier to consume due to the reduced fat content. The cooking process is also a lot less messy with an air fryer, and it requires less attention than other cooking techniques.
Flavorful steaks – With an air fryer, another superb recipe you can try cooking is a wonderful steak. Before cooking, rub the surfaces of the steak with a bit of olive oil and season generously afterward with salt and pepper. The olive oil aids in achieving a great sear, while the combination of salt and pepper provides a basic yet pleasing flavor.
Flipping the steak midway through the cooking period is important to ensure even cooking. This guarantees that both meat surfaces come into contact with the basket’s hot surface and cook properly.
Air-fried doughnuts – If you want to make doughnuts right in your kitchen and achieve results that aren’t as high in calories, opt for an air fryer rather than a deep fryer during the cooking process.
Avoiding the use of a very moist batter in the air fryer is one of the tricks to getting delicious air-fried doughnuts. Make sure your doughnut batter is more like bread dough for a cake-like consistency. It’s also important to use more flour than eggs in this recipe.
Air fried seafood – Using an air fryer to prepare fish can help eliminate some guesswork. It might also assist you in avoiding overdone, dried fish.
For breaded or baked fish recipes, we suggest using an air fryer. The heated air crisps up the surface of the fish while keeping the inside from overcooking.
Homemade pizzas – Small-sized frozen pizzas made from scratch at home are perfect for air fryers. An air fryer makes the cheese bubble and gets the bread toasted considerably faster than an oven. The air fryer has a smaller cavity that doesn’t have to be preheated.
Combining naan bread, mozzarella, and tomato sauce help you set up a quick and delectable homemade pizza that can be cooked in an air fryer.
Stuffed peppers – Using an air fryer to make stuffed peppers also yields delicious results. Any filling, be it any meat of your choosing or some delectable cream cheese, can typically be used. We recommend covering the peppers with a wrapping of bacon as well.
You could also experiment with smaller peppers by stuffing them with mozzarella cubes and eating them with a marinara-based dipping sauce as a tasty air-fryer party snack.
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Air fried zucchini – A crispy, plant-based snack can be made by dipping fresh zucchini slices in bread crumbs and cooking them in the air fryer. Fried zucchini is a nutritious side dish that can be spiced up or kept simple with only salt, olive oil, and pepper.
Air fried potato chips – One of the reasons air fryers are so popular is their ability to transform thinly sliced pieces of potato into crispy chips. However, there’s no reason to limit yourself to regular potatoes for your chips.
You can use conventional white potatoes, but sweet potatoes can also be used. These are a great snack option that kids also enjoy.
Before putting your potato slices in the air fryer, brush them with a little vegetable or olive oil for the best results.
Chicken wings are frequently coated and fried in oil, making them heavy in calories and fats. You should try to air-fry chicken wings instead of deep-frying them for a lighter option.
Cooking chicken wings using an air fryer is terrific to make a snack or a full meal. You can achieve wings that have a crispy quality in the air fryer without the extra calories of deep-frying.
French fries – The air fryer is one of the machines in your kitchen if you love french fries. Air fryers were practically created for frozen french fries. They come out crunchy, crispy, and perfectly baked. You can also enjoy your air-fryer fries guilt-free because air fryers tend to cook the fries with 75% less oil than deep-fried fries.
Chicken nuggets – Instead of buying store-bought chicken nuggets, you can make your own with an air fryer in the comfort of your kitchen. When it comes to keeping the nuggets crunchy, moist and tender, the air fryer comes in handy. Brush your chicken with a little mustard or olive oil to ensure the breading remains in place.
It’s also vital not to go crazy with the breading; too much can cause the coating to get blown off by the air fryer’s airflow.
Conclusion
In truth, there’s an actual plethora of recipes to explore when it comes to cooking with an air fryer. Most recipes that make people shy away from deep-frying can always be replicated in an air fryer. Typically, the results are just as delicious as deep-fried recipes, albeit much healthier due to the low oil content employed in the cooking process.
If you’re short of recipe ideas to try with your air fryer, pay attention to all the suggestions we’ve provided in this article. Also, note any guidelines and helpful tips to get the best results.