So you’re a new owner of an air fryer – congratulations! With this new kitchen appliance, you will enjoy an improved cooking experience with the added benefit of healthier food. By itself, an air fryer makes cooking more convenient. But did you know that there are ways that you can still improve the experience? And that’s what we’re here to teach you. We gathered all the useful air fryer tips and organized everything into one convenient article. So here they are – 20 tips and tricks every air fryer owner should know.

Air Fryer Tips: Cooking

To ensure the best results when you’re cooking with an air fryer, try these tips for maximum flavor and texture.

1. Always Preheat

We can’t stress the importance of preheating the air fryer first before putting your food in. While your food still cooks without preheating, the result will not always be as crisp and flavorful. It’s usually soggy and sad-looking.

In contrast, preheating will leave you with that crunchy exterior while the inside of your food remains moist and flavorful. This will surely make it more fun to eat – and it only takes around 3 minutes of your time.

2. When Cooking Fatty Food, Add Water

When you add a little bit of water to the air fryer drawer, it tames the grease from the meat’s natural fat. As a result, it doesn’t get too hot easily, so you won’t be left with burnt food. This also prevents the air fryer from producing too much smoke and from overheating.

3. Don’t Overcrowd

If you own a large air fryer, we know how tempting it is to fill the basket to the brim with food. Unfortunately, this means that food in the middle of the stack won’t get enough hot air to cook it thoroughly and that only leaves you with an undercooked portion of food.

Thus, make sure that each piece gets enough hot air to cook them to that crisp deliciousness.

4. Flip or Shake Food Halfway Through

To make sure that the food is thoroughly and evenly cooked, we strongly suggest flipping the food or shaking the basket halfway through the cooking process. This ensures that the food is exposed to hot air at all angles.

5. Hold Light Food in Place 

There are times when you want to use your air fryer to cook a sandwich or something that’s considered light food. Remember that air fryers use fans to allow the hot air to circulate, and that fan can easily blow away the top half and light meat slices off your sandwich.

A tip to hold them in place is to use toothpicks. This guarantees that you won’t end up with a deconstructed sandwich in the air fryer basket.

6. Check for Doneness from Time to Time

If it’s your first time cooking meat in the air fryer, it’s best to open the basket from time to time to check how it’s cooking your food. This will keep you from ending up with burnt food while you also get an estimate of the proper time settings you need for the next time you cook it.

7. Spray Oil As Needed

While an air fryer cooks well without oil, you may need it from time to time, especially if you’re not cooking fatty food. Spraying oil from time to time will help your food achieve that appealing golden brown color. It also helps cook food more evenly.

Air Fryer Tips: Cleaning

Cleaning the air fryer is an important part of keeping it in great shape, so observing these air fryer tips will ensure maintained efficiency and improved longevity.

8. Clean Regularly

It’s important to clean the air fryer after every use. Doing so will prevent food particles or debris from being baked-on – and that makes it even harder to get rid of. Also, doing so will ensure the optimum performance of the heating plates while also preventing them from developing nasty odors.

9. Use Foil for Easier Cleanup

To prevent excess grease and moisture from dripping into the inner drawer, you might want to consider wrapping the bottom half of the basket with foil. This will serve to catch all the grease from your cooking, so you can just take it out after cooking.

Foil is also a great conductor of heat, so the bottom half of your food also gets cooked.

10. Check if Dishwasher-Safe

Before cleaning the removable components in your dishwasher, make sure to check first if it’s dishwasher-safe. Otherwise, it won’t get thoroughly cleaned, and you might end up with a broken dishwasher.

 11. Do Not Submerge the Heating Element

While cleaning the inner drawer and the heating element is essential, you should only do so by wiping it clean with a piece of cloth. If you submerge it in water, it will ruin the heating element, leaving you with a useless air fryer.

Miscellaneous Air Fryer Tips

12. Invest in Accessories

Air fryers are versatile appliances. Aside from air frying your food, you can also use it to roast, bake, or grill your favorite food. For this reason, you might want to invest in air fryer accessories to take your air fryer cooking to the next level.

13. Don’t Use Metal Utensils if Basket is Non-Stick

Another important tip we want to emphasize is to prevent using metal utensils if your basket is coated with non-stick material. Metal will scrape off that coating, and that greatly affects its performance.

14. Air fryers Reheat Food Better

Reheating leftovers is best done with an air fryer. While you can also do the same with a microwave, air fryers reheat the food while bringing back its crispness and moisture. You can’t do that with a microwave.

15. Give It Enough Space

To ensure that the air fryer will perform at its best, make sure that you place it on the part of your countertop that has at least 5 inches in a radius around it. This will keep it from overheating while making sure that you have enough space to prepare your food.

Fortunately, air fryers are compact appliances that won’t hog a lot of your countertop, even if it needs extra space.

AIr Fryer Food Tips

16. GIVE YOUR AIR FRYER SOME SPACE

Make sure to find a cooking space for your air fryer that has enough room (generally at least 5 inches) on all sides. And never need objects sitting over the top of your air fryer.

17. Reheating your food in the air fryer tastes so good, much better than reheating in a microwave.

Many people are tempted to use the microwave to reheat their food but this can lead to a less than satisfying experience. Reheating your food in the air fryer will give it that crispiness you’re looking for

Dish up some delicious french fries in minutes, instead of settling for limp and soggy leftovers. Here is how to reheat your pizza the Air Fryer way.

18. CHECK YOUR FOOD FOR DONENESS.

The cooking times vary depending on the air fryer make and model, so it’s important to check a food for doneness using a kitchen thermometer. If you’re cooking too fast or not sufficiently, think of the suggested cook time in your recipe as only a guideline.

19. HELP LIGHTER FOODS STAY PUT

Be sure not to stack foods too high in your basket. Air fryers are powerful so they will blow lighter food up and away from center, making it difficult to cook evenly. Some recipes don’t require stacking, but when you do stack- put something heavy on top of the stacked item such as a metal trivet or skillet for tort

20. MAKE SURE THE BASKET IS COOL BEFORE WASHING.

The Air Fryer’s basket will get very hot when it is cooking. The metal in the basket and the coating on the inside of the lid will expand from the heat, while water briefly warms up inside. If you don’t let your basket cool before putting water in, it can both warp or detach some of its coatings.