The Type Of Food You Should Not Be Making In Your Air Fryer
With the seemingly endless things you can make in your air fryer, it's hard not to get too carried away. After all, the air fryer offers a delicious alternative to frying that's big on flavor and low on fat. According to The Cleveland Clinic, using the air fryer cuts the calories in a recipe by up to 80% compared to traditional frying methods. Of course, an air fryer doesn't really fry at all: It's really a tiny convection oven that blows super hot air around to create the same perfectly crisped edges and custardy insides you'd get from deep-frying.
While they may seem like God's gift to the kitchen, air fryers can't stand in for the deep fryer in every recipe. While you can definitely use the gadget to reheat pre-fried, frozen chicken nuggets or french fries, don't try using it to freshly fry a just-battered corn dog, as the wet mixture will drip off the hot dog and into the frying basket without the help of all that oil (via BBC Good Food).
Beyond that key no-no, there's another (and far less obvious) type of food you should avoid cooking in an air fryer — as the appliance could cause it to "disappear."
Keep your food from blowing away!
One of the main things to watch out for when cooking with your air fryer is to keep your food from blowing away! It may sound ridiculous, but with delicate foods (like leafy greens for kale chips), the powerful fans that blow the hot air around may cause your kale chips to lift off as well, potentially creating a very unfunny fire hazard, per WebMD. This danger can easily be avoided by placing an oven-safe trivet on top of your future veggie chips to weigh them down.
Similarly, if you've ever thought that your air fryer could be a convenient way to dehydrate foods, think again. While it can technically be done, David Jarvis, Executive Chef for NuWave air fryers, told Mashed he doesn't advise it unless you have a heat-safe trivet handy to keep your ingredients from blowing around as they lose moisture and become super lightweight.
Dry spices, too, will go flying if they're not adhered to your chicken with cooking oil. And more surprisingly, WebMD warns that even the top slice of bread on your grilled cheese could come loose if not skewered with a toothpick (or at least a good slathering of mayo). The rule of thumb is this: If you're preparing anything dry and lightweight in your air fryer, make sure you secure it in place with a trivet, toothpicks, or something sticky.