8 essential air fryer tips for beginners

For us, it is difficult to imagine life before Air Fryers. There has never been an easier or faster way to cook a quick batch of bacon, fries or chicken thighs without transforming the kitchen into grease. If you are a new fryer owner, by exploiting one is not difficult. In fact, ease of use is one of its biggest calls, but there are soft rules to use an air fryer that will make life with your new favorite little device even more enriching.

If you just start making a fryer trip, here are some tips, tips and accessories that every budding frying aficionado should know.

If you just start making a fryer trip, here are some tips, tips and accessories that every budding frying aficionado should know.

1. Buy an air fryer that is the right size

If you have not yet bought an air fryer, the first decision to be made is undoubtedly the most important: the size to be obtained. Air fries are often measured in the liters, the smallest being around 2.75 and the largest about 8.

Due to the wide range of sizes, before buying, check the air fryer measurements and make sure you have the counter space and the walls to accommodate it.

2. Invest in fried accessories

When you cook fried fries in the air, it will do its best if each piece of potato is uniform. Hand cut can be difficult, so my advice is to Buy a cutter This will help you. It is one of the fastest and easiest to use tools that you can add to your kitchen.

In addition, additional fried accessories, such as pliers, Meat thermometers And Olive oil sprayerscan raise your frying experience in the air.

3. Do not forget to shake and return

To make fries or something similar (tape tots, chicken fingers, Brussels cabbage, etc.), you will want to shake the basket at least once during the cooking process. It will move the food and make sure that nothing sticks to your air fryer.

If you cook something like chicken wings, be sure to return them halfway through the process so that they end up perfectly crisp on all sides.

4. Do not overload or stall

Remember that your air fryer is essentially a small oven. If you cook, let’s say, chicken breasts in an ordinary oven, you don’t stack them on each other, right? No, it’s the same deal here. You will want to spread them as best you can and do not overload the basket. And never, never overlap your chicken wings, your offers or anything.

If you want more space in your air fryer, you can buy metal racks This can give you double the quantity of cooking space.

The overload of the air fryer will cause your food to be heated unevenly, overthrowing the quality of your dishes. If you cook a lot of food, it is better to do it in prizes to ensure quality.

5. Adapt the oven recipes

If you want to make an old favorite in your air fryer, there is an easy way to adapt almost all oven recipes for air frieds.

As a rule, you lower the cooking temperature of about 25 degrees Fahrenheit. If the recipe of the oven called 350 degrees Fahrenheit (176 Celsius), the fryer is set to 325 degrees (160 Celsius). Likewise, you will need a cooking time about 20% less, although it can certainly vary, depending on the type of food, the cooking temperature, etc.

If you need help for mathematics, this air fryer calculator is there to help you. It will convert standard cooking times and temperatures.

6. Do not forget to clean this part of your air fryer

Although the air fryer can sometimes seem magic, there is a task that he cannot manage: clean up. Unfortunately, this step is only on you, but we have gathered our best tips for cleaning the fryer to help you, including information on how to clean one of the most forgotten areas of your air fryer.

7. Go gently on the oil but do not ignore it completely

A large sale argument for air fryers is that cooked foods require less oil than other methods. This is good news, but it doesn’t mean you don’t need oil. I find that certain foods such as chicken, vegetables and fish benefit from a sweet fog of olive oil, but be sure not to soak food in oil, because the superconvection heat has a means of overeating the fat and the oil in the basket.

The best way to spread a light and even a coating is cheap $ 10 oil sprayer as This Or This.

8. Exit beaten track

Yes, chicken fries and wings are some of our favorite air fried staples, but you can also make many other foods.

CNET has an overview of some of the best air frying foods, and if you want specific recipes, we also have them. Below, I gathered seven major recipes that you will certainly want to try:

Are you sold on the magic of fries, but you still don’t know which fryer to buy? Here are the best fryers of 2025, classified by CNET resident expert, to help you decide.