Techniques & equipment

Air fryer recipes

A small, fast convection oven.

An air fryer is a small, powerful convection oven, and the recipes that suit it are the ones where a dry, moving heat can crisp a surface quickly without asking a full-size oven to warm up. The important variables are space, temperature and the amount of oil on the food: a crowded basket steams, and a wet coating stays soft. These recipes explain when to turn, when to shake and when a little water in the drawer prevents smoke. They include quick breakfasts, vegetables, chicken, fish and the small baked things that benefit from a short hot cook.

12 recipes

3 photos

Air Fryer Whole Chicken

A 1.5kg bird at 180C, breast down for the first half so it cooks in the shade of its own legs. Measure the basket before you buy the chicken.

1 hr 25 minServes 4

Air fryerChickenDinner

3 photos

Air Fryer Tofu

Pressed, cornfloured, sixteen minutes at 190C. Skip the pressing and it steams in its own water — pale, soft, and exactly what people mean when they say they dislike tofu.

36 minServes 2

Air fryerVeganVegetarian

3 photos

Air Fryer Chicken Wings

Baking powder, half an hour uncovered in the fridge, then twelve minutes low and ten minutes hot. The skin crisps because it is dry and alkaline, not because of oil.

1 hr 3 minServes 4

Air fryerChickenAmerican

3 photos

Air Fryer Roast Potatoes

Parboiled and roughed up as usual, then thirty minutes at 200C in two tablespoons of fat instead of an oven's worth. It will not do Sunday lunch for six.

45 minServes 4

Air fryerPotatoesSide dishes

3 photos

Air Fryer Chicken Breast

Boneless breast at 190C, turned once. It dries out because it is cooked by the clock rather than to 74C — and because nobody levels the thick end first.

27 minServes 2

Air fryerChickenDinner

3 photos

Air Fryer Chips

Cut, soaked, dried, then two stages — 160C to cook the inside and 200C to colour the outside. One tablespoon of oil for 800g of potatoes.

1 hr 7 minServes 4

Air fryerPotatoesSide dishes

3 photos

Air Fryer Halloumi

Cornflour and a lined basket, then eight minutes at 200C. Halloumi does not melt — it welds itself to hot metal — and the window between squeaky and rubbery is two minutes wide.

14 minServes 4

Air fryerCheeseSide dishes

3 photos

Air Fryer Bacon

Flat in a single layer at 190C, done in ten minutes. It looks limp coming out and crisps as it cools, which is why most people leave it in two minutes too long.

12 minServes 4

Air fryerPorkBreakfast

3 photos

Air Fryer Frozen Chips

Straight from the freezer at 200C with two shakes, and no oil at all. They were fried once before they were frozen, so anything you add just sits on the outside.

15 minServes 2

Air fryerPotatoesSide dishes

3 photos

Air Fryer Sausages

Sixteen minutes at 180C, turned twice, and a spoonful of water in the drawer underneath so the dripping fat cannot smoke you out of the kitchen.

18 minServes 4

Air fryerPorkBreakfast

3 photos

Air Fryer Chicken Thighs

Skin side up at 200C for twenty minutes and never turned. Thighs want 80C rather than 74C, which is why they come out of this machine better than breast does.

30 minServes 4