Air fryer recipes that do not taste like cardboard

An air fryer is neither miracle nor scam: it is a small oven with an aggressive fan. Dry chicken with no fat comes out dry. Give it space, a thread of oil and do not pack it like a bus, and it beats the big oven on a weeknight.

Skin-on thighs at 190 °C for 22–28 min, flip. Breaded breast: oil the crumb, 180 °C, do not stack. Salmon 180 °C for 8–12 min by thickness. Frozen shop breading works; wet fridge breading sheds.

Cubed potatoes: 15 min soak, dry, oil, 200 °C 18–25 min, shake. Broccoli and courgette are fast (10–14 min) and burn if you wander off. Cherry tomatoes explode: pierce or skip. Roasted chickpeas in 15 min beat a bag of crisps.

Foil that blocks all airflow, loose cheese dripping into the well, wet batter without a tin, and anything that can fly into the element. A cup of oil does not “deep fry”; it dirties the machine. Wattages differ — read your manual.

Baked apple, banana and cocoa, small-tin cookies. You will not get bakery puff pastry. You will get a 12-minute craving without lighting the big oven in August.

This page links to dinners for two, 15-minute recipes and meal prep: the air fryer is the weekday gadget. FlexChar updates it when a new search sticks (bacon, halloumi, crisp tofu).