No, you can’t cook everything in an air fryer!
There is no more popular small kitchen appliance than the air fryer. These cookers make life so much easier, allowing you to skip the oven and simply start cooking and forget about it until the end of the program. Plus, air fryers can be easier to clean than a stove or oven.
Since air fryers are useful for cooking a wide variety of foods – like chicken or even donuts – many of us feel like there’s nothing you can’t cook in them. While that’s technically true, that doesn’t mean that everything you try to cook in an air fryer will be good or that you won’t potentially ruin your precious air fryer if you use it to make certain dishes.
Here are the foods you should avoid cooking in an air fryer, according to Laurie Klein, a chef and cookware testing specialist.
Thinking about putting gravy-coated chicken wings or maybe a marinade-dripping steak in the air fryer? Klein suggests thinking twice. “The worst foods for air frying are sauces or batters,” the chef says. The problem is not so much the cooking as the cleaning. Air fryer baskets have holes in the bottom or a metal grate for air circulation, depending on the model. Sauces seep through the openings and cause an impossible-to-clean disaster,” Klein says.
Cheesy foods such as grilled cheese, macaroni and cheese, or au gratin potatoes are also to be avoided. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule: frozen foods that have already been fried such as mozzarella sticks can be reheated in the air fryer.
Anything breaded or coated
“Air fryers are magic ovens that can cook just about anything. However, anything breaded is best left to other small kitchen appliances that are more suited to the unique cooking needs of people. breaded foods,” says Klein. The problem with cooking breaded foods like shrimp tempura or breaded fish in the air fryer is the risk of drippings, which can complicate cleanup or potentially damage your machine.
Although there are many ways to cook vegetables, the air fryer is not a good choice for leafy green vegetables, such as spinach, bok choy, Swiss chard and kale. Air velocity causes them to heat unevenly. The only exception to this rule is of course for making vegetable crisps. On the other hand, for vegetables that don’t have leaves like broccoli, cauliflower or zucchini, you can heat up your hot air fryer. They will be delicious.
When using your air fryer, you should always be careful how you place the food inside. Klein says, “For best results, regardless of the food, be sure to place it in a single, even layer. Stacking certain foods, such as fish and breaded items, in the air fryer basket will increase the cooking time and reduce the crispiness.”
