Your first five air fryer cooks

There are a thousand air fryer recipe sites and this is not going to be another one. What new owners actually need is not more recipes — it is a short, ordered sequence that teaches them how their specific machine behaves, because that knowledge is what makes every subsequent recipe work.

So here are five cooks in a deliberate order. Do them in sequence over your first week or two. Each is chosen because it is hard to ruin and because it isolates one variable.

1. Frozen chips — learn loading

Start here because the food is forgiving and already coated, so oil is not a variable yet. Around 400°F for 15–20 minutes, shaking twice. The lesson is quantity: cook a half-full basket the first time and a packed one the second, and taste the difference. That single comparison teaches the most important rule in air frying — single layer, gaps between pieces — more convincingly than any guide can, including ours.

2. Chicken wings — learn temperature and doneness

Wings are cheap, hard to overcook badly, and reward high heat. Around 380–400°F for 20–25 minutes, turning halfway. The lesson is cooking to temperature rather than time: poultry needs to reach 165°F internally, and this is the cook where an instant-read thermometer earns its money. It is also where you find out how hot your machine really runs compared with the dial.

3. Roast vegetables — learn oil

Broccoli, peppers, carrots, potatoes — cut to a similar size, tossed in a teaspoon or two of oil, around 380°F for 15–20 minutes. Do half the batch with oil and half without. The lesson is how much oil actually matters: the dry half will be leathery and pale, the oiled half properly browned. This is the cook that cures people of the idea that air fryers need no oil at all.

4. Reheated pizza — learn preheating

A leftover slice at around 350°F for three to five minutes. Do it once from cold and once after preheating the machine empty for three minutes. The lesson is when preheating matters: on a short cook the difference is dramatic — crisp base versus soft — while on a twenty-minute cook you would barely notice. This is also the cook that converts most sceptics, because a reheated slice in an air fryer is genuinely better than one from a microwave, which is the point of our air fryer vs microwave comparison.

5. Salmon — learn delicate food

A fillet at around 380°F for 8–12 minutes depending on thickness, on a perforated liner or a cut piece of parchment placed under the fish. The lesson is handling: how to stop food sticking, how to lift it without breaking it, and how quickly thin food goes from right to overdone. Cook to 145°F internal and rest it briefly.

Five day-one mistakes worth skipping

Filling the basket because it looks empty. A correctly loaded basket looks under-filled. Trust the gaps.

Using aerosol cooking spray. Many contain additives that bake onto nonstick coatings and ruin them. Use a pump mister or toss food in oil in a bowl — more in the cleaning guide.

Putting parchment in an empty basket while preheating. The fan lifts it into the element. Paper goes in under food, never on its own.

Pushing the machine back against the wall. Air fryers vent hot air and need clearance behind them; check the manual and give it room, as our how-to-use guide explains.

Trying wet batter in week one. It will not work, it is not your fault, and the reasons are in what not to cook.

Where to go after five

Once these are second nature you have the whole category open to you, and you will mostly stop looking up times — you will estimate, check early and adjust. Our cooking-times chart is there for the foods you have not tried yet, and the beginner roundup covers the machines that make all of this easiest if you have not bought one yet.