Nathan’s Top Air Frying Tips

In this blog, I’ll be sharing my air fryer tips tailored specifically for families and individuals craving delicious lunches, dinners, and even sweet treats. Now, let’s get stuck in.

Nathan’s Top Air Frying Tips

Welcome to my ultimate guide for mastering the art of air frying. Whether you’re a busy parent seeking convenient meal solutions or someone eager to explore quick and budget-friendly cooking options, you’ve come to the right place.

1. Use liners to reduce clean up time

Silicone liners placed at the bottom of your air fryer drawer are a perfect way to save on mess and washing up time. You can buy these online quite cheaply, and can even get ones that will fit your particular air fryer drawer. You can take a look at my Amazon Storefront for some of my recommendations.

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2. How to achieve maximum crispiness in the air fryer

For anything that has a crispy coating or batter – for example, tempura vegetables or crispy fish – preheat your air fryer to 200°C for a few minutes. This way, the wet meat, fish or veg hits hot air instantly and you’ll get a much crispier result.

3. Dehydrate old fruit in the air fryer

If you’ve got fruit that’s about to go off, put it in the air fryer on the dehydrate setting and you’ll end up with a tasty dried fruit snack that makes a delicious topping for porridge.

4. Use the reheat setting

If you have leftovers, make use of the reheat setting (don’t re-air-fry them). I find this especially good for leftover pizza. Three minutes on the reheat setting and it’s good as new.

5. Air Fryer Utensils

Treat your air fryer as you would your oven – anything oven proof will be air fryer-proof. You can use ceramics, tin foil, baking paper, skewers, all sorts. Just double-check the maximum baking temperature for your ceramics, as air fryers will usually reach up to 220°C.

6. How to clean your Air Fryer

When it comes to cleaning up, I just soak the air fryer drawer/basket in hot soapy water while I eat my food, then scrub and rinse when I’m done. The grill rack inserts can usually go into the dishwasher, too, which is handy if you’re really pressed for time.

7. Air Fryers Cook Faster Than Ovens!

Frozen foods like fish fingers or breaded chicken are so good in an air fryer. You might notice that some brands are adding air fryer times to labels now, but if you’re unsure – air fryers usually take around 60% of the time recommended for oven cooking. If the timing says 15 minutes, I’ll check it after 10.

8. How to cook a whole chicken in the Air Fryer

Some air fryers have a rotisserie-style insert, but l’ve never found them to do anything better than just setting the chicken in the regular basket.

9. Air Frying for families

If you’re feeding a family, try to get an air fryer that has two drawers so you can put your potatoes or sides in one drawer and your protein in the other.

10. What oil to use in the air fryer

Oil spray is your friend with air fryer cooking. I use low-calorie oil sprays a lot, but for an even crispier result an olive oil spray or a quick drizzle of olive oil work very well as alternatives.

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11. Don't overcrowd the Air Fryer

Don’t overcrowd the basket or pile things on top of one another. Particularly when you’re cooking things like meat and fish, you want to see a few empty spots at the bottom of your drawer. The exception to this are things like potatoes and chips – you can slightly overcrowd these in the drawer, but make sure you shake it a few times during cooking, to get an even result.

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For more Air fryer tips and quick, easy recipes you can purchase my brand new book “Healthy Air Fryer 30 Minute Meals” on Amazon today (affiliate link).