7 tips for using the fryer

Like most red-blooded people, I love French fries. I don’t like belly fat and bad cholesterol, so I like to do it more often.

This may change due to the recent arrival of an cooking airA small convection oven that can. Suddenly healthy(ish) french fries it is in my hands.

Not just the fries, either. It turns out that grill pans (which aren’t hot at all) are great for all types of food preparation. Let’s take a look at the different ways to get the most out of this top-of-the-range cooker – starting with which one to get.

Choose the right size

If you haven’t bought a fryer yet, the first decision to make is very important: what size to get. Usually measured in quarters, the smallest is about 2.75; large, about 6.

Because I have a family of four, I wanted something big enough to hold a lot of fries. (Because, let’s face it, we buy these things fried.) Eventually, I landed on the Secura 5.3-quart model, which I got for $110.

The cooking basket measures 9.25×9.25×4 inches — the largest of all of our cutting baskets. After cutting about eight of them, the basket still had plenty of room.

The bottom line: Before you buy, check the dimensions of the fryer itself and make sure you have enough space for it. I’m glad I didn’t go with anything small, but my Secura really adds to the kitchen.

Invest in a French frying cutter

About those fries. The air fryer will do its best work if each piece of potato is the same size – especially difficult if you are cutting by hand. My advice: Buy a cutter.

It’s one of the quickest, easiest tools to add to your kitchen; it took me all of two minutes to go through the aforementioned eight potatoes, and that was because it was my first time and I was slow.

Another thing about the fries…

Most air-fryer stir fry recipes tell you to cook the potatoes first. Many others say you should soak them in water first, anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours.

This is what I did: Cut the potatoes, rub them in a little oil, throw them in the basket and cook them. Don’t peel, don’t soak… I didn’t rub them first.

They. He was. Sweet.

Would it be better after soaking and/or drying? Maybe. Is extra effort necessary? No. Not in my book, anyway. If you’ve tried both methods, let me know what you prefer.

Be consistent with it

If you’re cooking stir-fries or similar (tater tots, chicken nuggets, veggies, etc.), you’ll want to shake the basket at least once during cooking.

This will move everything around and allow hot air to flow over each piece of food – essential for uniform “frying”. Although most recipes call for stirring halfway through the cooking time, I recommend doing it more often, like every 4-6 minutes.

If you have a fryer with trays instead of baskets, use the oven ribs to pull them out and turn your food. It may seem complicated, but it doesn’t take much time and effort and it heats your food evenly and gives it a good taste.

Do not overfill

Remember, your fryer is a little oven. If you cook, say, chicken breasts in a conventional oven, you can’t stack them on top of each other, right? Same here, except for the fries and veggies mentioned above, keep them as light as possible and don’t overcrowd the basket.

Some grills come with an insert that allows you to add a second food item to the top of the basket. Now you can cook, say, four pieces of fish instead of just two. (Speaking of which, I made exactly that last night. It didn’t dry out like it did in the oven. Yum.)

Crowding the fryer causes your food to heat unevenly, and spoils your food. These small ovens cook food quickly, so don’t be afraid to divide your food into different groups for better results.

Change the oven recipe

Want to make old favorites in your fryer? Although Grandma’s Best Chicken was written with the conventional oven in mind, it is easy to adapt to almost any method of using the fryer.

Usually, you only lower the cooking temperature by about 25 degrees Fahrenheit. If the oven temperature reaches 350 (176 degrees Celsius), the fryer is set to 325 (160 degrees Celsius). Similarly, you will need less than 20 percent cooking time, although this may vary depending on the type of food, cooking temperature and so on.

Need help with math? See Air Fryer Calculatorwhich will change the cooking time and temperature to Celsius.

Think outside the box

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Assuming you can find a spare minute when your fryer isn’t cooking French fries, there are plenty of other things you can make in it — some of which may surprise you.

CNET has covered some of them good food for gas already, but if you want real recipes, we have them too. Below I have included some great recipes that you may want to try:

Are you sold on the magic of the fryer but don’t know which one to buy? Here it is 2025’s cleanest gas burnersposted by CNET’s resident expert.