How often do you use your air fryer? Even if you don’t pull it out for dinner every night, there’s a chance that you may not be using it to its full potential. And if you don’t have an air fryer yet, that might just be the biggest mistake of all. Air fryers cut down on cooking time and oil, making bacon, whole chickens, burgers, fries and more a whole lot easier.
Even if you use yours all the time, a few simple missteps could be holding you back. From overcrowding the basket to skipping regular cleanings, here’s what you need to know to get the best results every time.
An air fryer can burn food in a hurry if you don’t watch it.
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An air fryer’s undeniable superpower is in its ability to make frozen fried food taste and feel like it’s actually been deep-fried. However, getting stuck in an air fryer rut is mistake No. 1 when it comes to using your air fryer.
“People get fixated on maybe two things like chicken nuggets and french fries,” says Yoder. “Just thinking beyond frying, if you can grill it or if you can bake it, in most cases, you can use your air fryer for it.”
2. Wasting time preheating
This is a hot take, as many air fryer recipes call for preheating. This may just mean running it empty for a few minutes to get its nonstick surface hot, or some models even have a preheat setting built in that can take up to five minutes. Yoder tested several recipes using the same air fryer both preheated and not, however, and found that preheating didn’t offer significantly different results.
“It maybe made a difference of two minutes,” she says. “I pretty much only preheat if something has a very short cooking time.”
Since air frying is meant to be a time saver, minutes matter. Many air fryers that have a preheat setting typically don’t have a built-in temperature monitor, so if you accidentally open the basket during the preheat cycle, it will start all over again from the beginning, which is really a waste of time. (I have experienced this firsthand. It is indeed very annoying.) Plus, opening the basket after preheating just lets all the hot air out anyway.
3. Using nonstick cooking spray
Air fryers are meant to reduce the need for oil, resulting in healthier dishes, but the temptation to use some nonstick cooking spray — even though the interior of most air fryers has a nonstick coating — is real. But it’s a bad idea: “It is said that some of those propellants in cooking sprays could damage the coating in the air fryer,” says Yoder. And what’s more: “Go look at the ingredients in there. You don’t want to ingest that.”
For items such as raw veggies that could use a little help from oil, for a highly convenient option akin to cooking spray, Yoder recommends just buying a spray pump and filling it yourself.
Don’t pile sprouts and other foods on top of each other or they won’t cook evenly.
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Air fryers rely on air circulation.
“It’s essentially just a mini convection oven,” Yoder says, “For crispy things you want air to be able to get around all of them.” For that ideal, crispy, fried-like outcome, air needs to have access to every surface, which means adequate space between pieces, and oftentimes a single layer. “In the marketing pictures you’ll see an air fryer basket with mounds of fries coming out,” says Yoder, which speaks to the generous capacity of certain models, but doesn’t reveal their best usage.
Those recipes that have more of a roasted than fried vibe can take a little more crowding, but you’re still not filling to the brim. If the food actually touches the cooking mechanism that hovers above the basket, then you’ve potentially got a hygiene problem, so stick to a single layer in most cases.
Clean the coils above your air fryer cooking basket for a safer kitchen and better tasting food.
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Because of their largely nonstick nature, air fryers are generally easy to clean, and many have baskets that can be put directly in the dishwasher. It’s possible, however, that your air fryer isn’t as clean as you think it is, even if you’ve been diligently scrubbing the residue from the basket.
“Not wiping down the heating unit inside of the air fryer is a common mistake,” says Yoder. Think about it — there’s cooking happening inside of that drawer, including the kind of splatter similar to when you’re doing a stovetop sauté. And if you’re committing the overcrowding mistake, it’s possible that your food is coming in contact with the heating unit, as well as whatever splatter is lingering there.
“It can be scary,” says Yoder, but it’s not hard to correct. “After you let your air fryer cool, just have a cloth or even a damp paper towel to keep the gunk from collecting.”
