How To Convert Recipes From The Conventional Oven To The Air Fryer
When converting a recipe from the conventional oven to the air fryer, follow these steps:
What Can You Cook In An Air Fryer Oven
You can cook a wide variety of foods in an air fryer oven. Air fryers are often used to cook meats like pork chops and chicken breasts, and they can also be used to cook frozen packaged foods such as french fries and chicken nuggets.
These countertop appliances often have a number of other functions in addition to air frying, making it possible to bake cake and bread, make toast, cook pizzas, roast vegetables, cook roasts and whole chickens, and dehydrate fruits, vegetables, and meats.
Many people use air fryer ovens as an alternative to a regular oven. Depending on the size and capabilities of your air fryer oven, you may be able to cook anything you would in a regular oven.
Why You Should Trust Me
As a senior staff writer at Wirecutter, Ive researched, tested, and reviewed toasters, toaster ovens, and deep fryers, among other kitchen gear and gadgets, since 2016. Ive spent more than 250 hours over the past four years researching and testing air fryers for this guide. In that time, Im pretty sure Ive eaten more fish sticks and french fries than the Gortons Fisherman and Ronald McDonald combined.
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Exactly How Much Money Can You Save Using An Air Fryer
- Cost of 300 hours of cooking with a gas oven on high heat: $153
- Cost of 300 hours of cooking with an electric oven on high heat: $120
- Cost of 150 hours of cooking with an air fryer: $39
These numbers are a rough estimate, of course. The numbers will vary based on your state’s energy cost, how much cooking you do in the course of a year, what temperature you’re cooking at and the type and size of oven you’re using.
But that’s only half of the equation. Air fryers are even more energy- and cost-efficient than these raw numbers illustrate.
Here’s why
Air Fryer Cooking Times
Posted on June 29, 2021
Learn how to use and get the most out of your air fryer with our handy, printable cooking times chart. Print this chart and keep it on your fridge so you have an easy reference for cooking all of your favourite foods in the air fryer.
This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
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Where Can I Buy A Cooking Times For Air Fryer
There are many places you can purchase cooking times for air fryer, including department stores, kitchenware stores, and online retailers. When choosing where to buy, it is important to consider things like price, quality, and selection. Department stores and kitchenware stores may have a wider selection of items to choose from, but they usually come with a higher price tag. Online retailers typically have a more limited selection but may offer lower prices.
How To Convert Recipes To An Air Fryer
Ask anyone whos had an air fryer for a while and theyll all tell you the same thing you can cook almost anything in one!
Air fryers circulate hot air to give food that deep-fried crispiness, without all the oil. You might think this means theyre best used for things that traditionally need deep-frying, but theres a whole world of air fryer recipes out there waiting for you!
If youve just invested in a new air fryer, you might be wondering where to get started. The beauty of an air fryer is that you can cook all your favourite foods in it you just need to know how to adjust the cooking temperature and time.
Weve put together a helpful conversion chart to make adapting recipes nice and easy. Once you know how to convert recipes for your air fryer, you just might never use your oven again
Not picked up an air fryer yet? Check out our rundown on the best air fryers to buy.
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How To Convert Oven Temperatures For Convection Cooking
When converting cooking time and temperature from a conventional oven recipe for use with an air fryer or convection oven, reduce the suggested temperature by 25 degrees Fahrenheit, and cut the cooking time by 20% to 25%. Just make sure your air fryer or convection oven is fully preheated before putting your food in, and keep an eye on it to ensure nothing is over- or undercooked.
Best Countertop Convection Ovens
Most air fryer ovens are convection-powered toaster ovens, meaning that fans circulate the heat evenly throughout the cooking chamber. This allows the food to cook more quickly and evenly than it does in a traditional oven.
These straightforward, toaster-oven-style air fryers use convection heat to evenly cook and crisp food on all sides.
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Can I Use An Air Fryer Instead Of An Oven
You can use an air fryer rather than an oven on almost all recipes that call for using an oven. An air fryer cooks food by circulating hot air , which causes the food to cook quicker. Using the oven time and temp in an air fryer you would result in overcooked food. You can, however, reduce the time and temperature and use an air fryer instead of an oven.
Our oven to air fryer conversion tool will show you exactly what time and temperature to use with an air fryer.
Dont Overcrowd The Air Fryer Basket
Another difference between cooking in an air fryer and cooking in a conventional oven is that air fryers require air to be able to circulate freely around the food you are cooking.
For this reason, dont overcrowd the basket. If the food is piled up, the remember to shake the food one or two times during cooking to redistribute the food and allow all surfaces to cook evenly.
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Air Fryer Cheat Sheets
Below is a list of cheat sheets for cooking various foods in the air fryer. The cheat sheets give a visual representation of the minimum and maximum cooking times for each food so that you never end up with burnt asparagus or undercooked chicken. Since every air fryer cooks differently, the cooking time range serves its purpose as an estimation or guide.
I suggest first cooking the food to the minimum cook time and checking it to ensure it is done. If it still needs more time, continue cooking up to the maximum time while checking it intermittently.
I have a great guide that explains how to use an air fryer tips and tricks. Use this guide to learn things like what type of oil to use or how to preheat your air fryer.
Do The Air Fryer Conversion Calculators Work
If you look at Google, you will see that there are a lot of websites claiming to have calculators that can quickly help you convert your oven cook times to air fryer ones. But do they work? Lets take my experience and see how close these calculators get.
A license to grill has an air fryer calculator. When I entered a 20 minute oven cook time into their calculator, I got a 16 minute cook time with a slightly lowered temperature. In my experience, I never have to lower the temperature from an oven cook time and even with that slightly lower temperature, if you followed this cook time you would get over browned or even burned food in my opinion.
Next up we have a whole website dedicated to being an air fryer calculator, so they must know their timings, surely!
Entering in the same timings as above it gave me a temperature of 325F for 16 minutes. Again, these calculators love to ask you to lower the temperature, although this time by slightly less. But if you followed this cook time of 16 minutes, you wouldnt most certainly get borderline burned food out the other side!
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Air Fryer Calculator Tips
**If you are on mobile, to select your temp. Do not try to slide the red dot on the air fryer calculator.
and then click on any white spot and your new estimate time will appear.
This air fryer calculator gives you a starting point of the temp and time you need to use in your air fryer when you are working off a conventional oven recipe.
Cooking Times For Air Fryer Frozen Foods
I feel like frozen food like French fries, tater tots and onion rings were made for the air fryer.
They cook so much faster than in the oven and they are uniformly crispy, unlike cooking on a baking sheet where you generally end up with one very crispy side and one semi-crispy side.
Some frozen foods are starting to come with air fryer directions, but even if they dont almost all of them can be converted easily.
When converting frozen foods to the air fryer you will want to use the oven directions as a guide. Then reduce the temperature by 25-30°F and reduce the time by at least 25%, for some things like thin cut french fries you may even want to start with half the recommended time and increase the time as needed.
Here are a few of our favourite frozen foods in the air fryer. For a more detailed list see the printable chart at the bottom of the page.
| Chicken strips |
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How Do I Convert Cooking Times For An Air Fryer
A reduction in both cook time and temperature is required when using baking instructions with an air fryer. Oven cooking time is reduced by 20% to convert to air fryer cook time. For example, a recipe that calls for 60 minutes in the oven, can be converted to air frying time by reducing the baking time by 12 minutes .
Making Mains Snacks And Heating Up Frozen Foods
The air fryer is one of the best ways to heat up foods like frozen mozzarella sticks, tater tots and corn dogs because it crisps them up more than the oven would. However, dont forget about your air fryer when it comes to foods like air-fryer quesadillas and air-fryer pizza though, either!
If your favorite dish isnt on this list, follow this handy air-fryer conversion guide. And if youre wondering about more frozen foods, dont worry weve covered them in this frozen food air-fryer guide, too.
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Best Instruction How To Use An Oven Air Fryer
Well talk about how to use an oven air fryer in this article. Air frying is a delicious substitute for traditional cooking. An air fryer is generally a tiny, more compact convection oven.
Cooking crispy dishes like fries, hot wings, and breaded veggies is easy using the air fry option on your oven. Air frying allows you to cook frozen or fresh items with less oil than traditional techniques, making it a healthier option than deep frying. The oven comes with an air fryer tray that is particularly built for this function when used if you really need to prepare a new batch of anything tasty.
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Air Fryers Cook Much Faster Than Big Ovens
Because of the smaller cooking chamber and superconvection , air fryers generally cook foods much faster than your traditional gas or electric stove. Often in about half the time it takes to make a similar recipe in a full oven.
Below are some examples of cooking times for air fryer versus stove. The cooking website Taste of Home compiled a list of average air fryer cooking times for popular foods. We compared those with standard cooking times pulled from Food Network recipes for oven-baked or oven-roasted versions of those foods.
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Instant Vortex Plus Air Fryer Oven 7
Price: $$
This easy-to-use, easy-to-clean air fryer oven from the makers of the Instant Pot is a great choice for families. You can cook on up to two racks at once or cook a chicken rotisserie-style.
You can also use the rotating rotisserie basket to air fry items like french fries, ensuring that all sides are evenly cooked and crisp.
Unfortunately, this air fryer oven doesnt seem to be as well constructed as the popular Instant Pot, as several reviewers have reported quality-control issues.
Calphalon Performance Air Fry Convection Oven
Price: $$
Calphalon, a trusted cookware brand, offers a highly rated air fryer convection oven that boasts a turbo convection feature for increased air circulation and a faster cooking time.
It also offers 2 levels and can cook a large whole chicken.
While the reviews are overall positive, some customers complain that the bake option doesnt work as well as a traditional oven.
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How We Test To Choose The Best Cooking Times For Air Fryer
You could try using it to chop vegetables or to mix a cake batter. You could also try washing it in the dishwasher or using it to heat up food. There are many different ways to test a kitchen tool. It all depends on what you want to use the tool for.
When testing a cooking times for air fryer, it is important to make sure that it is safe to use. You should also check to see if the tool is easy to clean. Additionally, you should test the tool to see if it is durable and will last long. Finally, you should test the cooking times for air fryer to see if it is comfortable to use.
We will test each cooking times for air fryer for one week and then choose the best one.
Air Fryer Vs Oven You Decide
Almost anything that you cook in your oven can be cooked in your air fryer. Before you make a decision about which you prefer, try cooking some of your favorite recipes in both and compare.
You might be surprised by how easy it is to make the switch. However, if you like how the food turns out in the oven more than your air fryer, at least youll know.
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Air Fryers Don’t Need To Preheat Either
Don’t forget most air fryers also don’t require any preheating time, making them even more efficient. The average full-size oven takes at least 10 minutes to preheat but usually more like 12 to 15 minutes. Preheating requires as much energy as actual cooking. In the chart above, I added a modest 10 minutes to each of the oven cooking times to account for preheating.
If you consider that an air fryer does the work of an oven in half the time , 300 hours of cooking in a standard oven over the course of a year would likely take fewer than 150 hours when done in an air fryer.
Chicken wings made in an air fryer are extremely tasty and cook in half the time.
Read more: The 5 Best Air Fryers for 2022
Shake The Basket Or Turn The Food During Cooking
Even if you have the food in a single layer you will want to turn the food halfway through the cooking time. This will ensure both the top and bottom are cooked and crisp, and prevent the top from over browning.
For things like French fries, onion rings, and chicken wings you will want to remove the basket and give it a shake once or twice during the cooking process to make sure everything gets nice and crisp.
°F Version
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How An Air Fryer Works
Air fryers circulate hot air around your food in a similar way to how a convection oven doesthey’re powered by a small fanexcept in a smaller space. These countertop appliances are friendly for small kitchens, and they preheat fast. The perforated tray or basket where your food goes can easily pull out with no oven mitt required, and even helps circulate the air faster, decreasing the cooking time. Since the air fryer is smaller, you have to make sure your food isn’t too crowded in the basket, so air can flow freely and cook your food properly, evenly and quickly.
Cost Of Oven Versus Air Fryer
| Gas oven | |
|---|---|
| 52 cents | 25 cents |
So how did we get these numbers? The easiest way to figure out how much an air fryer might save you versus a big oven was to calculate the wattage pulled per hour versus how much an electric stove would use. The same goes for a gas oven, although for that you need to figure out the amount of natural gas used for a stove as well as the cost of natural gas in your state.
Don’t worry. We did the hard part.
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