Air fryers are wonderful little appliances that you can fry, bake, roast, and grill foods with, and you don't even need a kitchen. They use convection heat which means hot dry air is pushed around the food, which cooks it quickly and leads to a crispy exterior.

Whether or not you preheat your air fryer depends on the type you have and the recipe you are using, so it’s important to read the manual that comes with your air fryer. Simple models with just a few manual controls usually need to be preheated, while the more complicated versions, with digital controls and presets, often have a preheating cycle that happens automatically.

You should preheat for recipes with shorter cooking times for more even browning and crisping, and when you are cooking food straight from the freezer. The food you are cooking comes into play too since larger foods, such as a whole chicken, don't need a preheated air fryer simply because the cooking time is longer.