Tips & tricks

Preheat for 2–3 minutes before adding food

Especially for anything frozen or anything you want crisp. Food dropped into a cold basket steams itself before it ever starts to crisp.

Never overcrowd the basket

Food needs a single layer with air gaps around each piece — stacked food steams instead of frying. Cook in two batches and keep batch one warm; it is still faster than the oven.

Shake or flip halfway through

Every published chart time — including the ones in this app — assumes the basket gets shaken or the food gets flipped at least once mid-cook. Skip it and you get one crisp side and one pale side.

Pat food dry before you oil it

Surface moisture is the enemy of crispness — it has to boil off before browning can start, and that time comes out of your cook.

Cut everything to a uniform size

Circulated air cooks by surface area, so a basket of mixed chunks gives you burnt small pieces and raw big ones.

A little oil goes a long way

One to two teaspoons tossed through fresh food is the difference between "baked" and "fried" texture. Frozen pre-fried foods (fries, nuggets) already carry enough oil and need none.

Safety

Never use aerosol cooking sprays (PAM and similar) in the basket

Their lecithin and propellants break down at air fryer temperatures and bake into a sticky film that permanently wrecks the nonstick coating — and no amount of scrubbing brings it back.

Use a refillable pump oil sprayer or a pastry brush instead

Plain oil, no additives, no propellants. Spray the food, not the basket.

Pick a high smoke-point oil: avocado, light or refined olive, canola

Unrefined extra-virgin olive oil and flaxseed oil smoke and taste bitter at 200°C / 400°F.

Add 1–2 tablespoons of water to the drawer under greasy food

Bacon, sausages, burgers. It keeps dripping fat below its smoke point, so the kitchen stays clear and cleanup is easier.

Cook bacon at or below 175°C / 350°F

Any hotter and rendered fat hits the element and smokes long before the bacon is done.

Empty the grease drawer between batches

Fat left over from batch one is what smokes during batch two, not the food you just added.

Safety

Only use perforated parchment liners, only under food, and never during preheat

Solid parchment blocks the airflow the appliance runs on, and an empty liner in a preheating basket can be lifted into the heating element and catch fire. Preheat first, then add liner and food together.

Safety

Don't air-fry wet-battered food

Without a bath of hot oil to set it, the batter never firms up — it drips through the basket onto the element and burns. Use a dry breading (flour, egg, crumb) instead.

Don't air-fry loose leafy greens

The fan blows light leaves straight into the heating element, where they scorch. Kale chips are the exception — oil and a low temperature weigh them down.

Skip bare cheese, loose rice and other small grains, and popcorn

Cheese melts straight through the basket, grains fall through without frying, and most air fryers cannot reach the 205–240°C popping temperature.

Use an instant-read thermometer for all meat

Air fryer browning is deceptive — the outside can look done minutes before the middle is. Chicken 74°C / 165°F, ground meat 71°C / 160°F, whole cuts and fish 63°C / 145°F.

Clean after every use and wipe the basket while it is still warm

Grease lifts off easily before it cools and polymerises into varnish. Soak stubborn residue in warm soapy water, and never take an abrasive scrubber to the nonstick coating.