What to do with that Air Fryer

By Lyle Weischwill | Apr. 28, 2023 10:57 am PST

Air fryers have been a top gift item for several years now. They often get overlooked as a cooking appliance in the kitchen. Some people are even scared to use it.

Whether you’re already using your air fryer or you’re letting it sit in the pantry and collect dust, we’ve got some cooking tips that can help you get full use of that air fryer.

Here’s a list of the top items that you can prepare in your air fryer.

Chicken Wings

Fixing chicken wings in the air fryer is so easy that you won’t believe it. For many air fryers, you can just throw frozen chicken wings in the basket and press the Air Fry button. Within 10 minutes you’ll be enjoying perfectly cooked chicken wings.

Toss the wings in your favorite sauce for an even better dish.

Image of French fries from the air fryer

French Fries

Just as popular as chicken wings, cooking French fries in the air fryer is also easy and effective. Air frying the fries is much healthier than frying them in oil. Frozen French fries come out crisp when air fried.

You can also reheat fries from a restaurant in your air fryer. Reheated fries also come out crisp – not soggy like fries reheated in the microwave. In fact, you can reheat many items in your air fryer that typically get soggy when heated in the microwave such as leftover pizza.

Baked Potato

Your air fryer does a quick and perfect job of baking potatoes. Use the Bake setting for about 20 minutes and wallah – you have a restaurant-style baked potato with a crispy skin. You don’t even need to coat the skin with oil when baking a potato in your air fryer.

Air Roasted Pecans

You can air roast just about any type of nut in your air fryer, but roasting pecans is definitely the bomb. Pecans taste so much better when air roasted. Use the Reheat setting (around 280 degrees F) for about 5 minutes to air roast pecans.

Hot Dog Wieners

Frying a hot dog wiener in the air fryer is a breeze. It only takes a couple of minutes to heat wieners in the air fryer. Pop a wiener in the basket and hit air fry and you’ll quickly have it ready for the bun.

Perfect Croutons

The dehydrating characteristics of an air fryer make it the perfect choice for preparing crispy croutons.

  • Lightly toast your favorite bread using the broil function or bake function.
  • Dehydrate the toast using the reheat feature of the air fryer.
  • Chop the toast into cubes.

For even tastier croutons, lightly coat one side of the bread with butter and sprinkle with herbs before toasting.

Functions and setting that you’ll need to completely dehydrate the toast to make croutons may vary for your air fryer.

Image of foods cooked in the air fryer

Of course, there are dozens of other foods that you can cook, reheat or dehydrate in your air fryer. Cooking healthier bacon or warming pie come to mind. Many frozen foods now have air fryer cooking directions. You can bake chicken nuggets and breaded shrimp much quicker in the air fryer than you can in an oven.

Experiment with cooking new items in your air fryer as new ideas come to mind. Share successes with your friends and family.

Although you can’t cook everything in your air fryer (don’t try popping corn), the air fryer can do a much better job than the cooktop, oven or microwave for many items.

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