Always have the grate in the basket. This allows hot air to circulate around the food, and also keeps the food from sitting in excess oil. Potatoes: Any time you’d put a potato (or cut-up potatoes) in a regular oven, your air fryer will easily outperform the oven. If you did your kitchen layout planning prior to accommodating an air fryer, then you may be slightly low on countertop real estate, especially if you've opted for one of the best dual-zone air fryers that typically are always larger in capacity.

If you've invested in your kitchen worktop, then the last thing you want is to ruin them. Our Deputy Digital Editor, Rebecca Knight, commented on how hot the tiles behind her air fryer became one evening, to which she considered the use of a heat-resistant mat. verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ Vegetables you’d roast or grill: cubed winter or summer squash, root vegetables, broccoli or cauliflower florets, Brussels sprouts. These are fantastic in the air fryer! It's fine to pull out the basket for a peek. You can do this at any point into the cooking process. No need to shut off the machine, as it shuts itself off when the basket is out.

What is the best air fryer?

Pre-fried frozen foods: In general, portion-sized frozen foods or ones in bite-size pieces heat up and get appealingly crisp in an air fryer in no time. They could re-name this thing the College Kid/Single Dude Dinner Machine.

It’s hands-on. Even browning requires you to remove the basket or tray and shuffle the food around every few minutes. Food cooks fast, faster than you’re used to! It’s one of the best attributes of the air fryer. Your air fryer’s manual likely has a handy table of cooking times and temperatures for common foods. The less food in the basket, the shorter the cook time will be; the more food, the longer it will be.